London: set to become a National Park City in 2019.

Last year, I showed photos of wildflower meadows in west London close to where we live, evolving as the seasons changed. Today we hear the announcement that London itself is set be declared the world’s first National Park City in 2019.

What is a park city you may ask? It draws on the principles of National Parks such as the Peak District, the New Forest, or the South Downs in the UK, but in a city setting. It encourages people to explore how to improve life across the city, such as more time spent in nature outdoors and indeed visiting wild flower meadows! Meanwhile, spread the word.

As for those meadows, the “topping up” of last year’s seeding will start in March of 2018, and the area is set to expand substantially; it is pretty bare at the moment. When I get the list of expanded or new meadows, I will post here. Meanwhile I note that last year’s seeding of Cosmos produced a spectacular display which lasted at least three months. I cannot help but note that one of the main attractions at the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) flower show at Chatsworth this year is the creation of a field of 12,000 Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Razzmatazz’, a river of flowers, outside the iconic Chatsworth House. This (IMHO) will be hard pressed to match that of west London last year!

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One Response to “London: set to become a National Park City in 2019.”

  1. Henry Rzepa says:

    I am appending here an email received as part of the launch of the Lonoon City Park.

    1. Announcing #WildflowersForLondoners launching 18th March

    This spring, we are calling for as many Londoners as possible to help make London a successful National Park City by sowing 9 million #WildflowersForLondoners – one flower for every Londoner.

    We want you to help us show Londoners how easy it is to #getgrowing in our own neighbourhoods and how, through small actions, we can transform our urban landscape into a beautiful city of colourful wildflowers.

    Watch this space as on Sunday 18th March we will be sharing how you can get your own big bag of wildflowers seed balls, and at the same time invest in even more wildflowers for London’s future.

    In the meantime take a look around your home, street, workplace. Is there a forlorn corner near your home? An empty concrete planter outside your flat or shop? A boring border in your garden? You could turn that dreary area outside your office into an oasis for wild Londoners, or get together with your friends and neighbours and make your street a river of flowers. Is there a community garden near you that could benefit, or could you get some for your local Friends of Park group? What about those wide expanses of concrete and grassland around your local hospital, could you get permission or work with one of their Friends groups to sow wildflowers along their paths or around their car parks?

    London National Park City have been partnered on this project by Seedball, an award winning North London based social enterprise that produces wildflower seed balls. For every seed ball purchased to be sown this spring, Seedball will very kindly donate one seed ball to our new London National Park City SeedBank. Our aim is to grow a big enough SeedBank that we’ll be able to distribute seed balls to every school across London in Spring 2019 helping them join in the celebrations for the launch of the National Park City, helping all Londoners make our neighbourhoods greener, healthier, wilder and prettier.

    Seed balls are one of the easiest ways to start sowing wild flowers. They are a great if you have never grown anything before, and also a fantastic way to involve a wide range of people in an activity (“seedballing party” anyone?!). Simply scatter them in the area or container you want them to grow. It really couldn’t be simpler.

    Please feel free to forward this email with your communities and friends. We want to reach as many Londoners as possible to get as many wildflowers as possible into the streets of London this year and next!

    We will send out full details on how you can take part as a #NationalParkCityMaker when the #WildflowersForLondoners Crowdfunder launches on Sunday.


    Details at https://chuffed.org/project/grow-the-nationalparkcity

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