Western Morning News (Saturday)
Wild side of life
Charlie Elder celebrates the small wildflower meadow he has successfully cultivated in his garden
It has taken a while, but patience has been rewarded as my mini-meadow has burst into bloom. Earlier this year I set aside a small patch at the end of the garden, digging it over and raking it clear of grass and brambles before sowing a variety of wildflower seed mixes.
I have had disappointing results in the past with attempts at growing wildflowers, throwing money away with every packet of seeds I scattered optimistically along tussocky borders.
The few flowers which began to stretch skyward were rapidly swamped by rank vegetation.
Reducing soil fertility prevents vigorous grasses from out-competing wildflowers, however that can take time. So this year I simply created an area of bare soil and treated the wildflowers as if they were prize veg – sowing them in rows and weeding the tilled earth between to ensure grass, hogweed and brambles didn’t get a foothold.
The result has been a satisfying blaze of colour – mainly cheerful daisies, but also cornflower and clover among a number of species.
Alongside this I also let the lawn grow wild in a couple of patches this year – the lazy gardener’s approach to meadow making.
Inspired by the conservation campaign ‘No Mow May,’ run by the charity Plantlife, I have let the two uncut rectangular areas do their thing through until this month.
The fact that I previously took away grass clippings and avoided feeding the lawn enabled clover and cat’s-ear to flourish before the grass finally caught up, and it made for quite a neat and colourful feature.
My summertime wildflower areas have provided as much visual interest as the more formal flowerbeds, and proven attractive to a range of insects, including ringlet butterflies, red-tailed bumblebees and a host of hoverflies.
While the seeds of bird’s-foot-trefoil – a food plant for 130 species alone – failed to grow sufficiently to produce their yellow flowers, and the lilac pincushion heads of devil’s-bit scabious never materialised, there was certainly
enough floral interest to keep the patches buzzing on warm days.
Plant ‘plugs’ can always be added to the mix in future, giving delicate species a headstart in the battle for soil space and sunlight.
In all, my mini-meadows amount to just a few square metres, but there is something immensely satisfying about making a direct contribution to helping wildlife, even at a small scale.
It is estimated that 97% of wildflower-rich grasslands have been destroyed since the 1930s. And according to Plantlife, a three acre meadow can be home to nine million flowers, producing enough nectar per day to support half a million bees.
Every little counts and even a small strip of wildflowers in a garden can make a noticeable difference to the biodiversity on one’s doorstep. With an estimated 15-20 million gardens in Britain, our backyard plots have the potential to help turn around the fortunes of declining pollinators.
Plantlife says that mowing once a month, at a blade height of 1-2 inches, and collecting up the clippings, helps wildflowers grow and stimulates blooms. “The highest production of flowers and nectar sugar is on lawns cut once every four weeks, such as with Plantlife’s No Mow May,” it says. “This gives small plants like daisies, selfheal, white clover and bird’s-foottrefoil a chance to flower in profusion, which can boost nectar production tenfold. The occasional cutting actually stimulates more flowers to appear, while the short plants duck under the mower blades and carry on growing.”
Not only do wildflowers offer an all-you-can-eat buffet for insects gathering nectar and pollen, but meadow plants themselves support caterpillars. In turn invertebrates, in all stages of their lifecycles, provide food for birds, as well as bats and other mammals.
For expert advice on creating a meadow of any size I recommend visiting the website of the community organisation Moor Meadows, which since its founding in 2015 has grown to include more than 800 meadow-makers, managing more than 1,000 acres of wildflower meadows to benefit wild plants and wildlife on Dartmoor and beyond. It says that although lost from much of the countryside due to changes in agriculture during the 20th century, traditional wildflower-rich grassland can be maintained, restored or created in all manner of places, including back gardens.
Visit www.moormeadows.org. uk/ and www.moremeadows.org. uk.
Further meadow growing advice can also be found on the RHS website at https://www.rhs.org. uk/advice/profile?pid=436.
The process of creating a meadow can start in the autumn. So whether your plot is the size of a picnic rug or a paddock, now is the time to start thinking about going wild and nurturing your own patch for nature.