Culture Fusion Meadow and gardens

As the designs for Culture Fusion developed it was obvious the footprint of the building was going to cover almost all the available space. So in order to create a garden space the architects incorporated a first floor garden at the back of the building stretching out over Bradford Beck.

The planting plans for the garden are to create a wildflower meadow and plant a native hedge in the galvanised planters that surround the meadow area.

The planting is underway...
On 16th March 2012 we started the planting.
The planters were filled with a green roof planting medium and with topsoil. The trees planted were a mix of native speices chosen to provide a range of colour, shape and food for the birds and insects (birch, alder, field maple, hawthorn, hazel, rowan and a few dog rose). They will be managed to prevent them getting too big. Some of the planters have been left empty and will be used for vegetables and flowers once the garden space is operational.

The meadow has been seeded into the greenroof seedbed medium, a mixture clay and bark chip, that was provided as part of the building contract.
The area has been divided into 3 planting schemes. A couple of small patches are a mix of low growing wildflowers; the narrow end of the meadow is a mix of grass (70%) and low growing flowers, whilst the wide end is a grass mix with taller growing flowers.

Click here for a Bird Species list and please feel free to include any observation you have made.

A plant species list will be added shortly.

See the gallery for more pictures

Geolocation

53.793015, -1.760093

Conservation Work

Local sites

Woodside and Culture Fusion

Today task was to attend and further manage the sites at Woodside Community Garden, Reevy Mill Dam, the Community Orchard where the plants required some attention. Also as well as this the grass at Reevy Mill Dam was mown and the group undertook some litterpicking. The Ration Garden project at Culture Fusion and the Orchard, which is part of the commemoration of the start of World War 1. 

Today we were a group of 9

 

Click Here to view the rest of the day pictures

Click Here to view the BEES Flickr page

BEES Tool Store

Culture Fusion, 125 Thornton Road, Bradford, BD1 2EP

It was the first task of the year, so as is usual we spent the day at the tool store. We took the edged tools to the workshop and made sure that they were sharp. Other tools were cleaned and oiled. The tool inventory list was checked and the tool store was tidied. The PPE was tidied and we managed to repair some of the broken tools. Now all is ready for the conservation work that we have planned over the coming months. 

Today we worked with 7 volunteers.

Click here to see other photos of the day.

Friday 16th March 2012: Culture Fusion Building, 125 Thornton Road, BD1

Wow!

What an achievement. Not only did we shift about 11 tons of drainage substrate and top soil, we also completed the tasks of planting the hedge and seeding the wildflower meadow on the first floor and planting on the fifth floor garden.

We have attempted to do this several times in the past 6 months; first the structure wasn't ready, then it was too windy, then we realised there was a turf guard over the entire meadow that would make it hard to weed and control the inevitable docks and dandelions, then the area was being used for a training day... In the end we decided to put the seed in the fridge to mimic the winter conditions needed to stimulate germination for some species and try again later.

And now it is done. The trees are a mix of native species; birch, alder, hawthorn, field maple, hazel, rowan and a few dog rose.

The wildflower meadow is a mix of 70% fine grasses and 30% wildflowers. One zone has low growing species whilst the other has taller growing species, and there are a couple of patches with just wildflowers.

The area will be a no-go zone (except for watering...the rain on Saturday was very welcome!) for the next few months but we have created a Meadow gallery and page on the website and we will keep you up to date with progress.

Once again, massive congratulations to all 26 people who contributed today.

Friday 27th September 2013 Culture Fusion and Appley Café, 125 Thornton Road, Bradford, BD1

  

As there were two projects today, we started the day with a meeting to inform people of the projects and decide which one they wanted to be involved with.  The people who wanted to join the café got straight on with preparing apples for the fruit press by washing and chopping them.  Other people got to work on the Culture Fusion meadow area. This had to be cut and raked off and we used a combination of our hand tools and mower. Cutting and raking will benefit the wild flowers sown and will help to make a good display next year. It is now encouraging after its poor start that there is nearly a complete coverage of green plants. At the same time the raised beds were weeded, the trees that will make up the hedge are looking in ok and will hopefully continue to grow next year.

The pop up café was set up in the YMCA shop and was soon of really nice offerings like apple bread and butter pudding and apple and lemon tart. This was popular with passing shoppers. Then the juicer got going and his drew a good deal of attention. Passing shoppers were encouraged to taste the fresh juice and find out about the seasonal offerings. It was great to be in such a prominent position in the town to promote and share the harvest.

Today we worked with 16 volunteers.

Click here to see other photos of the day.