THE first major attempt to create sustainable yet colourful municipal flowerbeds in Bexley has been pronounced a great success.

Global warming and the need to preserve water, peat and energy has led to a rethink by many councils of their tradition of planting flowerbeds in parks and other public places.

Bexley Council is among those who have grassed over a number of flowerbeds, but Rod Lean, one of Bexley's parks development officers, has been trying something different in Danson Park, Welling.

He has redesigned the Old English Garden in the park, starting from scratch and choosing all the species of plants to be used.

Up until this year, the garden has been planted in the traditional way, using annuals grown in the nurseries at Hall Place, Bourne Road, Bexley.

The plants, such as petunias, begonias and geraniums, are grown in peat-based compost and require a lot of watering and mulching once they are planted out.

The planting also needs to be changed from summer to winter flowers, so the beds are replanted at least twice a year.

Mr Lean chose to fill the beds with perennial species which provide flowering all year round, saving on replanting, watering and using peat-based composts.

Mark Taylor, Bexley's parks, conservation and community officer, said Mr Lean had introduced "structural" plants, such as grasses and ferns to give the planting extra interest.

He also replaced the traditional square and rectangular beds with more curved lines.

Mr Taylor said: "As a result, the garden has been quite spectacular this year, even now there are still lots of flowers.

"It has been alive with bees, ladybirds and other insects."

Although the garden is still developing and maturing, Mr Taylor says its success could become the blueprint for other public flowerbeds across the borough.

He added: "We would also encourage other people to follow the same principles in their own gardens, to make them more sustainable and save resources such as water and peat."