The group worked with Hull City Council to gain permission for the initiative and to ensure that mowing regimes accommodate these new strips.

They then engaged local primary schools, sports teams, park-run attendees, and local residents of all ages to help take action for nature on their doorsteps - a good job too, as many hands were required to make light work of planting 5,000 daffodil bulbs!

The idea is that these bulbs will make the park more appealing to visitors whilst also providing early season pollen and nectar for queen bumblebees emerging from hibernation - but the group didn’t want to stop there!

Having been a key partner in Hull’s inaugural entry into the International City Nature Challenge competition in spring 2023, the Friends of Alderman Kneeshaw Park had become more aware of the incredible diversity of wildlife that uses the park as a source of food.

With invertebrates such as dragonflies, butterflies, spiders, and grasshoppers being spotted in abundance during the weekend of the competition, they were determined to ensure that these new strips serve as useful habitat and food source for as many creatures as possible throughout the spring and summer each year.

Engaging volunteers from the local community, they prepared the ground and sowed yellow rattle and meadow mix seed, which will see long grasses and native perennial wildflowers flourishing for months after the spring bulbs die back.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is working with the group to teach meadow-management techniques, so that members can successfully maintain these pollinator strips in perpetuity, as well as helping them do it all over again!

The group are already planning to plant another 5,000 bulbs and create hundreds more metres of meadow strips in other areas of the park in 2024!