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Dangerous Idiot
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[Misc] Wildflower Meadow advice.
- Thread starter Green Cross Code Man
- Start date
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #22
The grant material seems quite broad and maybe I have described it wrongly. There were illustrative pictures of children in a meadow full of native flowers for instance. I'll look again when I have time at work.
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #23
Great idea.
- Jul 10, 2003
- 28,223
Have you used plugs at all, and do you have any recommendations ? I've been looking at https://meadowmania.co.uk/collections/wild-flower-meadow-wild-flower-plants for a boost this year, but they're not cheap.About 20 or 25 years ago the Natural History Museum built an incredibly detailed, free online database, based on exactly that. You only had to enter the first part of your postcode, I printed out their "Native flora recorded from postal district BN1" list, I still have it. Then they removed the resource.
These days professional gardeners appear less precious about that in garden settings, on the basis that flowers from elsewhere such as the Balkans can also be great for fauna. Thing evolve with climate change.
But meeting the aspect you mention in broad terms, seed suppliers have options for differing environments.
Complete Seed Mixtures - Emorsgate Seeds
Complete Seed Mixtures Created and Wild Harvested Mixtures comprising Wild Flowers and Grasses Search Complete MixturesSearch Keyword Categories All categories Complete Mixtures Brush Harvested Meadow Mixtures Cornfield Annuals General Purpose Meadow Mixtures Meadow Mixtures for...wildseed.co.uk
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #25
The soil is not chalk as it is artificially raised above Eastbourne's old municipal dump. I have dug a foot or two down in the past but don't know how deep it is. The idea is indeed to get kids involved, but I am sure you know, schools are lacking a lot of the manpower they had even a year or two ago, therefore it may be a question of whether this is achievable. I am currently involved in a £10,000 grant from the govt/RHS which has been incredibly difficult due to the various stipulations about where and what the money can be spent on. We have over 300 plants arriving from March and seating coming in to turn a grey area green and loads of big planters for various herbs and flowers. This will be a headache to administer practically as once again, manpower is low and I am already relying on favours from volunteers. I really hope I can make a meadow, really there is nothing more beautiful in my opinion, but...... another difficulty is stopping the people who come in from the council from mowing stuff down that they shouldn't. Last year, I planted 30 trees from the Woodland Trust, with a local pupil who has so many difficulties socially it's untrue, and the morons mowed them all down in spite of emails and phone calls. It is maddening as they just turn up and get going and it's impossible to stop them if one is teaching or with students.
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #26
It is confusing to me that it seems @Jack Straw and @Weststander seem to have slightly different advice. One is for shaving off the turf and another for mowing or scything until I presume the grass stock is weakened considerably. Would these amount to the same thing?
Jack Straw
I look nothing like him!
If the current grass in the proposed area is struggling due to lack of soil depth, you could just over-sow or plant plugs straight in. If the current grass grows like stink, I would remove it and some soil as per my previous post.
If you don't impoverish the soil, the grass will win.
I’m used to thin soil, we’re effectively on the Downs. Braybon the builders laying some turf onto subsoil/builders rubble 80 years ago leaves me little work to do. I only have to dig down 4” and it’s untouched chalk bedrock. It works …. @WATFORD zero has seen one of my mini meadows.
@Jack Straw is the professional. In places north of the South Downs or on the alluvial plain west of Hove he would’ve worked with deep loam or clay. Hence the bigger job to get a poor soil for a native meadow.
As he advised, you need to see what you’re starting with.
BTW, cornfield annual meadows (the year one ‘nursery crop’ to get things going, typically poppies, cornflowers, corncockle, thrive on a richer soil too. It’s the classic perennials/biennials meadows of grasses, yellow-rattle, vipers bugloss, knapweed, Lady’s bedstraw that requires poor soil to overcome dominant grasses.
I did belatedly in our back garden with Primula vulgaris and Primula veris as I love their colour in early spring.
On that verge, I did try a few Achillea terracotta as I love them, but I think they were smothered by the meadow.
I found you need to clear around plugs well and give the odd drink early doors if we’re in one of those long droughts (can start very early in the year).
On the verge meadow, I had to insert a load of small wooden stakes to stop the BHCC sit on mower bloke destroying it all. He starts on 1 February or 1 March! I painted them to help him, not damage his mower.
I used Yellow Rattle plugs and grew them on in a cold frame before I planted them out, the result was a nice head start of plants which have since self seeded successfully and developed into a nice colony of healthy plants. I've also used daisy plugs to get a similar head start. Primroses spread nicely (and flower early and easily) taken from spurious seedlings in my front garden, I've also grown them from seed in very cold seed trays with glass on top, shaded by newspaper.
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #32
I used bamboo canes which were 6 feet high and I painted them with stripes for easier visibility. Still, they were all mowed down. These workers just simply raze everything in a similar way to 'gardeners' who get paid for work, haven't a clue about the plants they're dealing with and then ruin them with a hedge cutter
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
Fortunately i don’t have any apostrophes around my business name
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #34
Indeed. That quote was not intended as a slight on you or any other decent gardener. I used to do some part time gardening when I lived in Liverpool and often saw the devastation left by someone who had little to no knowledge of the plants they were hacking about. We suffer that too in school, and it causes me sadness when I see a shrub attacked viciously just when it's about to flower simply for the sake of convenience. It would almost be better for the shrub or tree not to be there, it works hard all year for this moment and then....Fortunately i don’t have any apostrophes around my profession
I know wealthy folk with extensive grounds, their various contract gardeners (all about speed) destroy meadows and specimen perennials in the borders ... deeming everything a weed. Being a plantsman with wide knowledge (@Jack Straw or @jevs) is a rare thing.
In the schools case, buy those chunky round stakes and with a roughneck https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-17lb-post-hole-digger/62496 prepare narrow deep holes, drive the stakes in. At centres narrow enough to block the mower. Otherwise nature will get to feast on the meadow.
- Jul 10, 2003
- 28,223
Just reminded me of a job for this week
I used 4 pieces of 2x2, about a foot long and painted white. He mowed around them
I managed to catch him on the next mow and he then left it all year.I'll put out a dozen this year and report back
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
No ‘slight’ taken.…and i know EXACTLY what you mean
Green Cross Code Man
Wunt be druv
- Thread starter
- #38
They use a tractor for mowing. We couldn't afford a fence and one thing that may prohibit this idea is that we may need to buy a smaller mower for our site.
We have planted two small trees successfully in the last couple of years. A wonderful variegated Tulip Tree in memory of the Queen, and an Irish Oak which was donated by a leaving family. They had very large stakes considering the tree size and they are flourishing as even the groundsmen are not stupid enough to try to go through large posts!
'At centres narrow enough to block the mower. Otherwise nature will get to feast on the meadow'
I am not sure exactly what you mean by these statements.
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
I have a project this coming April (I think) for ye yellow rattle plugs….all part of a ‘wild area’ of grass that is on a 45 degree bank…where I’ve planted various other bits n bobs (technical term) …generally well received, but I still get the odd moan from a leaseholder
If the council mower has a width of 45cm, insert the centre of each stake 45cm apart.