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The Southampton Bike Park underwent some major improvements to the tracks over the autumn which is great but has left the sides of the jumps and the areas between as raw dirt. This has always been the case when we have built before in areas and the grass and plants grow back gradually. This time though they did the whole bike park in one go so it is all exposed dirt with some grass seed scattered which is beginning to sprout in places which is good.
I was wondering if we could sow/plant some pretty stuff on the jumps and areas between such as wild flowers etc I don't want to turn it into a wild flower meadow or introduce any terrible invasive species but thought a few flowers would brighten it up and make it more pleasing to the non-cyclists who look at it.
The site is a gently sloping southerly facing hill. The soil is heavy clay with a thin layer of topsoil in places and the rest of the sports centre is just laid to grass. Before the work there were an number of wildflowers that had colonised over the previous decade but I was wondering if we could do something faster than waiting 10 years for unassisted nature. Free, cheap, zero maintenance stuff would be good.
Suggestions, offers of suitable seeds or small plants are welcome.
Love this idea 🙂
must nip down with my lad this weekend 😀
wildflowers would be my suggestion support the local ecosystem, how about approaching the local garden centres, maybe Hilliers, give them the opportunity to do it for you and they can have a big sign up / name in local press as a helpful sort. Plenty of non bike riders will appreciate it, might win over a few of the grumps
Didnt the sports centre just get some levelling up funds? maybe there is enough for a professional to be involved?
SIgns are not allowed apparently but I will be in "max blag" mode whenever I go near a garden centre. Feel free to try too when you get stuff to landscape your garden or share whet you are throwing out 🙂
Funding for anything else in the area is currently stopped. We only got the bike park completed because the oney came from elsewhere and the council would have to repay if it wasn't completed in 2022 I believe.
Yes Alan - you should come down this weeknd. The all weather trails are amazing and you can show your lad your style with no-hand suicides out of the fly-out or just smoke him down the dual track
All that fencing and no signing allowed? Really a missed opportunity with potential sponsorships. Doesn’t the ski slope have banners up been a while since I looked closely
I’ll try blagging for you, only thing coming out of my garden will be rubble and possibly several tonnes of Leylandi!
Must get down there with my boys too, though a lot of it is a bit big for them at 7 and 5 ( and me tbh…)
Wild Flowers worth doing maybe some Daffodils for next spring so you get a burst of yellow as spring rolls in?
But also maybe chuck some herbs in right by some of the lines? Rosemary, Mint, etc that sort of thing, hard wearing so will grow back when tumbled into and smells nice when scuffed with a stray foot or tyre...
How about some hanging baskets (made from old helmets perhaps?) dangling from those trees where they overhang the plot?
it all adds a bit of colour...
Must get along for a look at some point. Used to pedal up through the sports centre every week on the Uni Wednesday afternoon rides on the way to Lordswood. Barely been back since. That corner looks a lot more interesting than it did nearly 30 years ago.
There’s a few projects that might be able to sort you out with free wildflower seeds since it’s a community project..
Check out Grow Wild at Kew and the RHS community gardening groups
Or the Eden Project Communities Teams
Since it’s a local project that engages those urban yoofs these guys should be all over it with free stuff and advice.
Alternatively if you want to buy seed then I’d recommend meadowmania or Mole’s seeds for good quality but relatively cheap bulk packs.
Thaanks Rakas I will check out those links
DT78 - your kids will be fine. Start them near the bottom of the table top line so they get used to rolling over bumps and corners and then work your way up the hill a bit. If they canb make it down from the final tabletop then they can ride anything in the park. The dual track is fine. I have done it all in a wheelchair remember.
We have a big straggly rosemary bush in the from garden I guess I could prune that and try to bring on the cuttings.
Keep the ideas coming.
Ferns/ bracken. nothing more beautiful in the wild plant world 😊
There is quite a lot of that, a few hundred metres away and filled with lovely ticks
I spend quite a few hours every summer cutting it back
What about a few rhododendron to go with the bracken. Add extra mud, cold and slippy roots and we can almost recreate Lordswood!
They did wildflower seeds at Leeds Urban Bike Park, which looked fantastic the first year. But weeds have taken over now, so the flowers don't really grow anymore. Still, the muddy bits now have foliage which looks much tidier than mud.
Would you want to plant trees? Place called the Birch Tree project over near Brighton is currently rehoming loads of thinned out silver birch from Ashdown Forest. Feb is probably as late as you want to leave it for tree planting.
Otherwise wildflowers but maybe look for one that's in a grass mix which might be easier to manage.
Do not plant Roderdendrons they are already a massive problem. Think of them as the squirels of the plant world.
Lots of different bulbs that flower at different times of the year and an array of grasses.
They did wildflower seeds at Leeds Urban Bike Park, which looked fantastic the first year. But weeds have taken over now, so the flowers don’t really grow anymore
Needs more of a plan than just scattering the seeds about. Part of the problem is the ground being too fertile so more aggressive plants (and its already been seeded with grass) out compete the wild flowers - the other is you have to have a plan of cutting - meadows need mowing (and we all know WCA is the forum's answer to Poldark so thats everyones Diet Coke brake sorted). You need to schedule in a cut every year - when you cut determines what sort of meadow you'll have. You need to be cutting and removing material every year.
But an important step is reducing the richness of the soil - so if you're trying to establish meadow flowers theres a step first of planting something else - usually mustard - thats fast growning and hungry to take up a lot of the nutrients in the soil for a year, cut that, then plant your meadow seeds. If you don't do that other stuff will just take over.
Bee bombs from here, though as posited above you'll probably need to bomb each year or every other year.
If you're going for these DM and I'll get you some sent.
How about colour coordinated flowers in areas according to relative "danger" at that point in the course?
How about colour coordinated flowers in areas according to relative “danger” at that point in the course?
and a corresponding collection of medicinal herbs appropriate to the level of risk- feverfew, echinacea, etc
Some well placed opium poppies could mean you’re comfortably numb before you even hit the ground
Rhododendrons was a joke!!!
Before the bike park I have made a land grab toi turn the whole of Lordswood into a big bike park and was working with the Forestry Commission. They kept coinciding the meetings with rhododendron cutting sessions at the woods so I am well aware of the problem. Up there with Japanese knotweed IMHO
Soil is not massively fertile as it is basically raw clay mixed with whatever grass layer was on top of it when the area was dug. We had already harvested the first 2-3 inches of good dirt in turf blocks to make the jumps. What was left was 10 years of gradual soil-ifying and weeds.
Don't want to put trees in as they limit where we can change trail lines and there are loads around the area alread , Lordswood woods are 500m up the road.
Wildflowers from garden centre seed pack seem pretty puny against the invasive weeds but we do strim the place a few times over the summer so can keep it in check. Ideally we would have stuff that is mostly less than 6 inches high and pretty robust.
just back from there with my boys. eldest can do the dual track fine. youngest went over the bars....a lesson about pulling that front brake hopefully learnt.
it definitely needs some nice flower borders or even hedging along the fence.
I quite like rhodendrum, then again I think Leylandi has its place too, so I think I'm the wrong person to advise on plants!
Maybe look at 'Fox and Cubs'(orange hawkweed) - quite robust and flower for quite a long time (from may through into the autumn) and quite good at muscling in amongst other stuff. They seem to do qute well on disturbed ground. They have dandelion-like seeds that will help it self-seed around the site but they also spread via their roots so easy to get quite established and form nice clumps and keep coming back in future years.
Quick google on Hawkweed doesn't make it sound too nice, but I guess that holds true of many other plants too : It is a real “thug” spreading rapidly in the ground and lawns once established. Even its pollen is poisonous to other plants causing their young offspring to die. It produces abundant seeds which infect nearby gardens in urban areas.
Could try approaching Plantlife / Magnificent Meadows as they may be able to make a project of it or know of excess seed stores from collection last year.
Also, I know it's warm down south, but surely not grass growing season yet?
If it's that poor a clay soil, could be worth keeping an eye out for building projects with topsoil to lose.
And Woodland Trust will generally supply hedge planting packs to community groups.
its not mountain biking without nettles and brambles, also holly, hawthorn, blackthorn...
make it more pleasing to the non-cyclists who look at it
That's the first thing I thought when I went to the already mentioned LUBP, what with it being a multi-use site. A bit of clever landscaping, at least grass the in-between bits where weeds take over. Would make it look less like bikers have bowled up and taken over. At Leeds there's massive grassed areas which could easily have a few picnic tables scattered about, so in the summer families and none bikers (local Special Brew & herbal enthusiasts) could chill out, sun bathe and watch from the side lines well out of harms way, without the need for any fencing!
Your site is a lot more penned in/sectioned off already. Oh and sorry for the lack of helpful suggestions. Be interesting to see what the STW green fingered geniuses come up with!
its not mountain biking without nettles and brambles, also holly, hawthorn, blackthorn…
You forgot gorse! That'll focus the brain nicely.
If it's clay I'd be looking for stuff that can break it up and help with the drainage.
A quick Google suggests...
Artichoke, radishes, sunflowers, mustard.
Go for the pumping stay for the salad?