Wild at heart
More than mere unmowed lawns, meadows – rich, diverse and alive with wildlife – are the next wave in sustainable gardening.
There are sound economic reasons for converting lawns to meadows. As well as less mowing, feeding and so forth, they also allow better stormwater management.
if you’ve visited some of the public parks in the UK, Europe or the US recently, you will have most likely seen some pretty impressive wildflower meadows. In Britain, one meadow that caused a huge spike in public interest in the idea of growing wildflowers is the 250-hectare Olympic Park in Stratford where around three-quarters of a hectare is planted in naturalistic drifts of cornflowers, poppies, coreopsis, marigolds as well as other annuals and perennials. While many of the flower species were selected for their visual impact (gold was the theme of the 2012 Olympics), biodiversity and sustainability were also key, with most of the flowers rich in nectar to attract pollinators.
Professors Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough of the department of landscape at the University of Sheffield designed the gardens. They wanted to inspire councils and gardeners to abandon their lawns and summer bedding in favour of mini-meadows. After the gardens opened, sales of wildflower mixes went through the roof in Britain.
While interest in wildflower meadows here in New Zealand has not been quite so significant (yet), there are several well-known gardeners and horticulturists who have been experimenting with the concept for several years. Bev McConnell has created a perennial meadow garden in the informal orchard area at Ayrlies, her well-known Whitford garden, while experimental, predominantly perennial meadows have also been established at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.
ABG manager Jack Hobbs hopes to convert further of the lawn areas in the gardens to meadows, which are less costly both for the environment and the budget. “We’re interested in experimenting with sustainable wildflower meadows using predominantly grasses and perennial plants that require minimum intervention and optimal output,” he explains. “Meadows are great for biodiversity as they attract insects, birds and micro-organisms. We’re already seeing a lot more birds coming for insects and seeds. But the meadows have to look good also. People won’t be interested otherwise.”
As the emphasis is on minimal intervention, the meadows at the ABG are not being planted. Instead, the gardeners are allowing flowering plants and grasses that have seeded in the soil via birds and wind to come through and form natural colonies so they become dominant. Many of them are common roadside plants such as yarrow ( Achillea millefolium), Yorkshire fog ( Holcus
lanatus), oxeye daisy ( Leucanthemum vulgare) and hedge woundwort ( Stachys sylvatica).
Jack Hobbs says there are sound economic reasons for converting lawns to meadows. As well as less mowing and feeding, they allow better stormwater management. “The meadows are used to filter and cleanse stormwater. So there are a lot of environmental and social positives.”
He was inspired to trial meadow gardens after seeing how successful they have been in Europe and the US. “They’re moving towards more natural public areas there. When I go to Europe these days, it seems like nothing is a weed, everything is acceptable. We are in a different situation here as weeds grow more vigorously. The challenge for us is to develop sustainable meadows where desirable plants dominate, and rampageous plants don’t take over. We have a lot of rampageous plants here.”
Another successful meadow garden model that is close to home is Waikumete cemetery in west Auckland. Jack describes the cemetery as one of greatest wildflower meadows in the Southern Hemisphere. “There’s an incredible diversity of plants that have naturalised – ixias, sparaxis, all sorts of geophytes (bulbous plants) from South Africa – a whole palette of wonderful colourful plants,” he enthuses. “It’s beautiful, absolutely glorious.”
The meadows in the cemetery are mown once or twice a year with little other intervention. “From the ratepayers’ perspective, that’s very good as mowing grass is expensive and there’s the environmental cost of fossil fuels. Plus it’s beautiful and there are enormous ecological benefits.”
At the ABG, Jack acknowledges there are grassed areas that must remain in turf. “But where we don’t have to, why not turn those into a sustainable meadow. It’s a real opportunity. We’re not at a place yet where we can prove our hypothesis is working but it is looking hopeful.”
So what would those areas be? A report by Landcare Research scientist Robyn Simcock from 2014 suggests the method would suit areas difficult to access, or inefficient to mow, like in between trees, as well as areas with low food traffic. “Areas that are often too wet to mow are also often ideal. These wet areas are places where stormwater benefits are enhanced.”
But how does the public react to the longer grass? “Initially when we first started the meadow trials, we had quite a few complaints,” Jack says. “But then we mowed a strip through them as a path and the complaints stopped. That’s an interesting psychology. People don’t expect things to be absolutely perfect, just for you to show there is some care being taken.”
People now sit in the meadows. There’s something natural and lovely about it, Jack adds. “One of my favourite stories is about a little girl who walked up to one of our staff and asked if there were fairies in the meadow.”
Does soil fertility matter?
It’s a key factor in growing perennial wildflowers as most prefer soils with low nutrient levels, which is why they so often thrive in waste ground. Most lawn and pasture areas in this country have been fed regularly for years, so the build up of nutrients is quite high.
To combat this the ABG, working with scientists from the University of Auckland, have been applying a mixture of untreated sawdust and sugar to the soil in its trial meadow gardens. “We have had to turn our thinking around as horticulturists,” says Jack Hobbs. “Our hypothesis is if we can reduce the fertility of soil, we can increase the chances of desirable plants dominating in the meadows, not the aggressive grasses. Both the sugar and sawdust are high in carbon and low in nitrogen.”
ABG curator Bec Stanley, who is working directly on the trial with scientists, says that the two materials encourage the soil fungi to take up more of the fertility in the ground, effectively starving the aggressive grasses. “A lot of meadow herbs do well with low fertility whereas grasses are gross feeders. It’s the opposite of everything you might have ever learnt about creating the perfect lawn.”
So this type of meadow garden would not work for home gardeners with fertile volcanic soil or lawns of mat-forming grasses. “If it’s kikuyu, don’t even bother,” says Bec.
Is a mowing regime necessary?
The ABG trial meadow gardens comprise two areas, each approximately 100 square metres in area, with the focus in one on fertility; in the other, different mowing regimes. “A lot of meadows are site specific, but we are hoping to find some key things to help people with,” Bec explains. “That’s why we are mowing parts of the meadow at various times. For one area, we might follow a traditional regime, when the calendar says it should be mown. In another, the mowing might be based on ecology, when the plants have flowered and seeded for instance. This can help people learn to look at the plants themselves when deciding to mow, being more responsive to the site.
“The aim is to recreate the meadows as natural ecosystems. We’re hoping they’ll give us different species mixtures. We’re looking for those that are prettier. More flowers is our goal; people like flowers. We have plenty of flowering herbs in Auckland; nature will tell us which ones grow best. And they’re better for bugs and species diversity. Last year, we even had fantails feeding in the meadows. They feel safer as the longer grass gives them good cover.”
Beneficial insects and birdlife are also on the increase in the meadow garden at Ayrlies, says head gardener Ben Conway. “We’ve allowed the grass to grow longer in our informal orchard area so that oxeye daisy, wild carrot, hemlock and other perennial wildflowers can come through. And we’ve underplanted daffodils into the grass.”
The meadow management regime here is different – to reduce its fertility, the meadow is mown as often as possible and the cuttings removed. “In England there’s a parasitic grass called yellow rattle ( Rhinanthus minor) that helps reduce fertility,” Ben says. “But in hot, humid Auckland, we mow the meadow regularly to keep the grasses down and reduce their vigour. Our first mow of the year is in late January after most wildflowers have bloomed and set seed. Then we cut as much as possible until the daffs emerge.”
Can I grow a wildflower meadow?
There’s no one model, but to keep intervention to a minimum, it’s essential to choose the meadow that will be most successful on your particular site.
Perennial wildflower meadows like those at the ABG and Ayrlies suit larger properties. They are usually orchards or reasonably open grassed areas that have been left unmown for most of the year to allow annual and perennial wildflowers to naturalise in the grass.
While the aim is for the meadows to look naturalistic and beautiful, the emphasis is also on sustainability with minimal intervention – so there’s little mowing, planting, deadheading or spraying. Soil generally needs to be low in fertility so that nutrient-hungry grasses don’t overwhelm the wildflowers. Skimming off the grass and around 5cm of topsoil will help lower the nutrient level. Use a rotary hoe to turn subsoil over, then sow seed direct.
Traditional annual wildflower meadows are normally sown with exotics (there are many seed mixes available containing well-known flowering plants such as calendula, cornflowers, poppies, nigella and phacelia). These meadows may self-seed and regenerate for a year or two but to do well in New Zealand’s climate over long periods, they generally need constant management, such as weeding. But annual plants need richer soil than perennials so they can still be a good option if you want to convert an existing flowerbed.
But the smaller the area the easier it is to achieve a meadow “effect”, using a combination of the above annuals with the addition of bulbs, ornamental grasses or other perennials that you know will naturalise happily in your conditions. Consider even edibles that self-seed easily such as parsley and coriander, says Jack.