Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
The magic of the meadow
Let even a tiny patch of lawn run riot with grass and flowers, and you’ll be sheltering an abundance of life,
We have lost 98 per cent of UK meadow sites since 1945 and with them the incredible diversity of meadow plants such as buttercups, oxeye daisies, knapweed and yellow rattle, which support a rich insect ecosystem that in turn supports birds and mammals.
The difference between pasture and meadow is that pasture is for grazing whereas a meadow is intended for hay. The grass is ungrazed – or uncut – until after midsummer, when the hay is cut and gathered. It can be grazed in autumn and winter, going into spring short, but must not be cut again in spring or the first half of summer.
A gardener has to replicate that cycle to maximise on wildflowers and the wildlife in their meadow.
GORGEOUS GRASS
As well as being beautiful, a wildflower meadow in your garden will enrich the quality and quantity of wildlife. You can grow a meadow almost anywhere and of almost any size. One of the myths of wildflower meadows is that they will only thrive on poor, shallow soil. This is not true, but it is based on the fact that grasses grow best in rich, deep, well-drained topsoil and where grasses grow best they tend to out-muscle most neighbouring plants, such as wildflowers.
However, if you get a seed mix correct – very precise mixes are available – then you can have the right combination of grasses and flowers for almost any conceivable garden situation. In general, successful meadows are around 80 per cent grasses and 20 per cent flowers.
It would make a world of difference to all biodiversity if we mowed grass less. There are thought to be ten times more species and 50 times more individual creatures in long grass than grass mown once a week. And you will find grasses are very attractive in themselves.
A meadow – even one of only a few square metres – can last a very long time. Annual meadows that depend on replacement plants each year are not meadows at all and have a much less interesting ecosystem. What is really beneficial are meadows comprised solely of our native plants that can potentially last, changing subtly from year to year and even from one metre to the next, for hundreds of years.
The easiest way to start is to manage a section of lawn as hay meadow, cutting it between June and October, removing all cut material to the compost heap. It can then be cut by the lawnmower once a week through to the end of the growing season, then go into winter short. This will not transform your lawn into a flower-filled meadow overnight – it might take a few years – but it will change it for the better, and fast.
Flowers can be introduced through plugs – small plants grown in individual pods or sold by the tray – or by scattering seed. The best time to do this is straight after long grass has been cut. Work the ground really aggressively with a spring-tined rake so there is plenty of bare soil and then scatter the seeds all over this. Tread them firmly so that good contact is made between the seeds and ground. Don’t worry if the flowers change every year, a meadow is a con- stant process of adaptation and will look much better some years than others.
It is essential to collect up all the grass cuttings from a meadow as I mentioned, otherwise they will enrich the soil too much and form a rotting mat. And don’t despair if your trimmed meadow looks like a muddy mess – it’s good for germinating seeds and will always recover.