Formal Flower Bed

Monmouthshire have decided they can't afford bedding plants, so they've been sowing various wild flower mixes instead. From the point of view of biodiversity and the benefit of pollinating insects, this is a brilliant idea. People were concerned in a setting such as a formal Victorian garden, whether is would work, but here, at the moment, it is clearly outstanding. But the flowers will go to seed (nobody is going to go round deadheading them all to encourage a new flush of flowers), and then the beds will look tatty.

What does this tell us? That formal Victorian planting schemes didn't give a stuff about pollinating insects. Who did, at that time? That ecologically sound planting means altering expectations. So fewer gaudy colours, no replacement with other flowering plants when one lot are over, more consciousness of the seasons. Probably few passing though will notice the incongruity, but there will probably be complaints when the flowering's over.