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What is a
wildflower meadow? Before looking at creating
a wildflower meadow in your garden, it is important to
understand just what is meant by the term ‘meadow’.
A meadow in the countryside can be many different things
and each wild meadow is unique in its composition of
plants and animals. But most importantly a meadow is
about 80% native fine-leaved grasses. These grasses
are of the utmost importance. It is these that
create the all important shelter for small invertebrates
including the caterpillars of many moths and
butterflies plus they are also the food plants of all the
group of 'brown' butterflies including ringlet and
meadow brown, and many other invertebrates too. Without the grasses you have no meadow
community.
Most people who are interested in
creating an area of grass and flowers in their garden,
or want to convert an area of lawn to an approximation
of that wild habitat, will have in their minds an image
of the traditional hay meadow, brimming over with many
species of wildflower including cranesbill, knapweed,
oxeye daisy and lady’s bedstraw. Dainty grass heads
weave their way through the wildflowers, and butterflies,
bumblebees and other insects dance over the grasses and
flowers in the sunshine, and grasshoppers chirp from the
depths. The good news is that this rural idyll is
achievable, up to a point. Strictly speaking though we
are referring to creating a ‘meadow effect’. The traditional
hay meadow just described would have taken hundreds of years
of time-honoured management to create, including winter
grazing by animals plus cutting and baling the hay, in order
to achieve a colourful and unique tapestry of wildflowers,
grasses and their attendant wildlife. In a garden
though, you can recreate an approximation of this habitat, and
some of the spectacular wildlife that depends upon these
plants will undoubtedly visit your garden if you do. So
a meadow is any area of wild grasses and flowers, whether that
be the summer hay meadow of your imagination, or a spring
meadow with lady’s smock and cowslips. However it is important
to understand that a meadow is composed largely of grasses –
as much three-quarters - and that these grasses are
crucial to the habitat as a whole and the wildlife that uses
it. Making and maintaining a meadow in your garden
requires time, knowledge and dedication. However once you have
decided that creating a meadow is what you want to do, you and your
local wildlife will never look back.
The larger the space you have the more
impressive your meadow will be, as well as attracting and
sheltering a greater variety of wildlife. But even the
smallest corner can be a valuable meadow habitat, as long as
it is in full sun. More shady spaces can be sown with
native grasses and wildflowers but in general they will not
attract the widest range of creatures. If provision of a
habitat for butterflies is your main interest, a sunny spot is
pretty essential. If possible, choose a spot where the
soil is not too fertile. If rich soil is present, your
meadow plans may have to be delayed while the situation is
remedied. Growing a nutrient hungry crop such as
potatoes for a couple of seasons can work well, or removing a
foot or so of the top soil and replacing it with poorer
subsoil (perhaps from the hole where a new pond is planned)
will also benefit your fledgling meadow. Over time, the
fertility of the soil will drop naturally and the meadow, with
correct management, will settle into a balance between grasses
and wildflowers. Although it is
possible to create a wildflower meadow in existing grass, the
best recreations of this habitat come about from sowing a
'meadow mix' from a reputable supplier. Wildflower
meadows can be sown in Autumn or Spring and once the spot is
identified, it must be thoroughly cleared of all existing
vegetation. If there is turf, this must be removed and
the underlying soil turned over and raked to a tilth.
If the meadow site is a weed patch, all perennial problems
such as couch grass, nettles or ground elder must be dug out
completely, or covered with black polythene to exclude light
until the weedy species have died off. This
can be a headache but must be done thoroughly. Choose a
turf area if you can, as your new meadow will begin its life
with far fewer problems. After preparation and removal
of all perennial weeds (annuals do not matter as much, as they
will die out once the grass has established) it is time to
measure your area in order to calculate the quantity of seed
you require. 4 grams per square meter is the usual
sowing rate, although even a little less will work well
enough. If you are unsure of your
soil type, choose a general purpose seed mixture which will contain
wildflowers that will thrive on any type of soil. Most wildflower seed
producers have a good range of meadow mixes for different kinds of soil – if
you know you have clay, a mixture for this soil will exclude species that
require a well-drained situation. Native grasses too have their
preferences so take advantage of the growers’ expertise and let them do the
selection for you. Make sure that ‘native’ wildflowers and grasses are
specified. Sowing Now
choose a suitable day and sow your mix. Avoid very windy conditions – it’s
a bit alarming to see all your precious seed blowing away as you scatter!
You may wish to mix your seed with silver sand as this bulks it up making it
easier to see and sow evenly. Walk up and down scattering as you go until
the whole area has been covered. Don’t worry too much if the seed lies more
thickly in some areas than others. Once it has germinated and the grasses
and wildflowers begin to spread the gaps will soon fill up. When all your
seed has gone, walk over the area methodically and push it into the soil
with your feet. It is not necessary to rake or cover the seed – indeed this
can delay or even prevent germination of some of the species that require
light to get them going. Pressing the soil in (you can use a garden roller
in a larger area - see above), is enough to ensure that the seed makes good contact with
the soil. Now water gently if the weather has been dry or no rain is
forecast. Protect your seed from birds in what ever is your usual way. I
find that old shiny CDs hung around the area work well enough at keeping the
finches at bay. All that remains now is to
sit back and wait. Many things will appear quickly, including whatever
weedy species exist in the seed-bank in your soil. Don’t worry too much
about these, but if there are masses of annual weeds, you can cut them back
if you wish with a mower on a high cut with the grass box in place. At this
stage you will not damage your new meadow. The grasses should germinate
quite quickly along with a few of the wildflowers. Ox-eye daisy – a happy coloniser – will usually
appear first in some profusion. It soon settles down to a more subdued
existence and more wildflower species will appear and spread over time.
It is worth remembering that if your mix contains the very
useful Yellow Rattle, this semi-parasitic plant will not
germinate until after the grasses are established, as it feeds
from their roots. Yellow rattle can be added later,
preferably in the autumn as it also needs a period of cold
weather (vernalisation) to germinate well. It has the
effect of suppressing the grass growth which is especially
useful in soil that is overly fertile.
Maintenance A meadow and its
attendant wildlife weave themselves into a balanced ecosystem as long as the
area is well maintained. This means cutting and raking off all the hay
every year in late summer. For larger areas a motorised scythe or Allen
scythe is useful for this, or a hand held scythe for the energetic.
Ordinary mowers, especially the hover types, or strimmers are not very
suitable for this operation, as they chop up the grasses too finely to
enable effective removal of the clippings. This annual cutting and raking
is essential and must be carried out every year to keep your meadow flowery
and diverse, so do consider this before you embark on a meadow area.
The raking in particular must be done thoroughly. The seeds will fall
from the flowers and grasses during this operation, and small areas of bare
soil will open up to enable germination. Meadows are dynamic, not
static habitats and some of the flower species need this activity in order
to maintain their populations. Meadows not cut and raked in this way
often lose their flowers and thus their diversity and value to wildlife.
The wildlife in your
garden meadow Hay meadows in our countryside are very
special in many ways, but in particular they have a great variety of
wildlife associated with them. Because of the shelter meadows provide to
small creatures, it is likely that even a tiny meadow area in a garden could
be a place where lots of wildlife will find a home. Our native wildflowers
and grasses in any situation will always have a whole host of small
invertebrates feeding upon them. This mass of creatures attracts specific
insect-eating birds such as robins, wrens and tits all year round, but at
breeding time virtually all birds will be searching for these insects for
their fledglings. Lots of smaller mammals including shrews, field mice,
voles and hedgehogs will also feed on these invertebrates. The smaller
mammals in their turn may encourage larger mammals such as foxes and weasels
to the garden, or even predatory birds, especially kestrels, as these feed
largely on voles and mice. Reptiles and amphibians can also find food and
shelter in a meadow. The seeds of the grasses and wildflowers will attract
the seed eating bird species especially the finches - goldfinches, linnets,
greenfinches, chaffinches and bullfinches. Over time a whole web of
interdependent life will be created around your meadow habitat and a food
chain will evolve whereby each creature is dependant upon a plant or another
creature, for food. Plus all will appreciate the undisturbed nature of the
habitat.
It is well known that
meadows are especially good for butterflies. In particular there are
several that lay their eggs on native grasses although they are fairly
specific about the types of grass they need. Meadow brown, ringlet,
gatekeeper, marbled white and the lovely little skipper butterflies are a
few of the species that use some of our native grasses as their larval food
plants – that is, the plants that their caterpillars feed on. This means
that long grass in a meadow may encourage these butterflies, not just to
visit your garden, but to breed there too. So creating a wildflower meadow
is an important way to help these insects.
A garden meadow’s strength lies in two
things - its range and mix of species of plants and animals, and the fact
that it is undisturbed for long periods which means that wildlife has a
chance to get established. The long grasses and wildflowers come to
provide homes for too many creatures to mention, all existing in a habitat
that over time, nature has designed to take account of their needs and life
cycle.
Lastly, avoid at all costs the ubiquitous
'Wildflower Meadow Mixtures' that you might see advertised online or
sometimes you will see them in Garden Centres. Many of these contain
no native wildflowers at all, no perennial plants and no grass. These
are not meadow mixtures - they are simply mixtures of
non-native annuals without grass. They may be useful for a handful of
pollinators but will not create a lasting habitat. Mixes of native poppy,
cornflower and corn marigold seeds are also available. These will also
not create a 'meadow' but will make a valuable contribution to the
wildlife in your garden. Their sowing and maintenance is very
different to that of a wildflower meadow. You can find out more about this
quite complex subject in the book mentioned below.
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