It’s the time of year when the city’s parks are given a new lease of life.

Kings Parade and Machattie Park are in the process of having summer plantings being carried out by Bathurst Regional Council staff.

The Haymarket Reserve will get its makeover in about two weeks’ time.

It’s a labour of love for the members of the parks team, headed by Robert Wootton.

With a generous amount of mushroom compost dumped on the garden beds earlier in the week, residents can look forward to something a bit different this summer.

“Last year we tried massed bedding geraniums in the Haymarket and it turned out to be quite spectacular, so we’ve decided to give them a try In Kings Parade where we’ve only ever used them as border plantings,” he said.

“We won’t have the usual tiered effect, but it’s something different we thought was worth trying. They will also be used in Machattie Park, but not on the large scale as in the Parade.”

Mr Wootton said Kings Parade would also be planted with tall blue salvia, gomphrena, blue and white short salvia and petunias.

He said Machattie Park plantings would included red salvia, impatiens, dahlias, geraniums , rudbeckia, petunia, pentas, gazania, gaillardia and, on trial for the first time, hibiscus.

“As we always say, it’s all about perfect preparation. We’ve dumped plenty of mushroom compost for organic matter and because the soil ph tests came up a little bit low, will be topping up with an addition of lime and the usual Organic Life pellets,” Mr Wootton said.

“We won’t be starting planting until about next Wednesday, but all the seedlings have been propagated by council, which leads to massive savings.

“I think there’s about 15,000 seedlings needed to cover Kings Parade, Machattie Park and the Haymarket.”