Wild flower meadow project update (August again!)

In May I mentioned that we had been so keen to get started that we had purchased a lot of bulbs for planting in the meadow. As the legal side of the purchase took longer than expected we had to plant the bulbs elsewhere.

Before we seed the meadow with wild flowers these bulbs needed planting. But how best to do this given hundreds of small plant pots and hundreds of Narcissus bulbs. However, these simple tools came to our rescue.

The bulb planting augers are fantastic.

Holes can be created at a fantastic speed ready to drop the compost in.

This one is a drift of the Fritillaria Meleagris (Snakeshead) seen in the May blog.

The augers come in three sizes:
Snowdrops, anemones & crocus (small) – Ø1.25” x L18″ (Ø3cm x 45cm)
Daffodils, tulips & iris (medium) – Ø1.75” x L30″ (Ø4.5cm x 76cm)
Alliums & bedding plugs (large) – Ø2.75” x L24″ (Ø7cm x 61cm)
and can be brought from Crocus

We had seen these Narcissus Pheasant Eye in the RHS Rosemoor Garden and wanted to create a similar effect. Using the medium auger making the holes for the bulbs was easy.

After about 10 hours around 1000 Narcissus Pheasant Eye had been planted. That’s the good news – the bad news is that there are another 1000 on order!

You might think we have stopped doing our main garden. Not a bit of it but the meadow is our current significant project.

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A quick look around the main lawn at the borders reveals some very full late summer borders. The roses have recovered for the third time after summer storms had totally stripped them of flowers.

Wild flower meadow project update (August)

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Things have certainly moved on since this project started. We now have a fence (except for the field gate which should arrive this week). The lime tree in the picture has had its canopy raised so I can walk under it. This should create a dappled shade enabling wild flowers to grow under the tree. In the recent exceptionally hot spell (34c) it also provided one of the coolest parts of our garden!

The major and exhausting job has been cutting the existing grass and scarification to expose the soil prior to seeding.

The grass was first cut as short as possible. Even then there remained a lot of thatch as these fields have been a sheep meadow for several hundred years. Then my little scarifier has done the work to cut into the thatch and pull it up.

The thatch then needs to be raked up.

Without the right machine this is very much a manual job and quite exhausting it is too!

The thatch is beginning to loosen up so that when we seed the seed can make contact with the soil and hopefully germinate.

Interestingly although we have only brought about 26m into the field we do seem much closer to the pond. This pond was the fish pond for the rectory next door. It is therefore at least 300 years old and could have been a medieval fish pond. The level is maintained by a small weir on the stream which runs along the edge of the field.

So far I have scarified the whole field in one direction. Now I need to do the same in the other direction!

Right from the start we decided to get some mature trees. A visit to Majestic Trees and we now have three trees on order. A Liquidambar styraciflua

A Fagus sylvatica ‘Tricolour’ and

a Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’. These trees will be planted in October when we should expect more rain. As you can see from the pictures they are on extensive watering systems.

Lastly we now have brought the meadow seed. We were fortunate to have a long established wild flower seed supplier near us called Naturescape. Discussions with them certainly helped us choose the seed. We have gone for three different seed mixes:

The ditch which forms the ha-ha at the edge of the garden is always going to be damp and we have gone for Wetland Meadow Mixture:

Latin Name	English Name	Mix Composition
Achillea millefolium	Yarrow	2.50%
Centaurea nigra	Common Knapweed	9%
Filipendula ulmaria	Meadowsweet	8%
Lathyrus pratensis	Meadow Vetchling	3%
Leucanthemum vulgare	Oxeye Daisy	7%
Lotus corniculatus	Birdsfoot Trefoil	4%
Lotus pedunculatus	Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil	4%
Lychnis flos-cuculi	Ragged Robin	2%
Ononis repens	Common Restharrow	2%
Plantago lanceolata	Ribwort Plantain	4%
Primula veris	Cowslip	3%
Prunella vulgaris	Self Heal	8%
Ranunculus acris	Meadow Buttercup	9%
Rhinanthus minor	Yellow Rattle	10%
Rumex acetosa	Common Sorrel	8%
Sanguisorba officinalis	Great Burnet	2%
Serratula tinctoria	Sawwort	1%
Stachys officinalis	Betony	2.50%
Succisa pratensis	Devilsbit Scabious	3.50%
Tragopogon pratensis	Goatsbeard	2%
Trifolium pratense	Wild Red Clover	3%
Vicia cracca	Tufted Vetch	3%

The areas under the Lime tree and the Horse Chestnut tree will always be dry and we have been advised that a Hedgerow Meadow Mixture would work well there:

Latin Name	English Name	Mix Composition
Achillea millefolium	Yarrow	3%
Agrimonia eupatoria	Common Agrimony	4%
Alliaria petiolata	Garlic Mustard	7%
Centaurea nigra	Common Knapweed	6%
Digitalis purpurea	Wild Foxglove	3%
Filipendula ulmaria	Meadowsweet	4%
Galium mollugo	Hedge Bedstraw	4%
Geranium pyrenaicum	Hedgerow Cranesbill	1%
Geum urbanum	Wood Avens	5%
Hypericum perforatum	Common St. John’s Wort	2%
Knautia arvensis	Field Scabious	4%
Lathyrus pratensis	Meadow Vetchling	3%
Leontodon autumnalis	Autumn Hawkbit	2%
Leucanthemum vulgare	Oxeye Daisy	5%
Malva moschata	Musk Mallow	5%
Malva sylvestris	Common Mallow	4%
Prunella vulgaris	Self Heal	5%
Silene alba	White Campion	5%
Silene dioica	Red Campion	7%
Silene vulgaris	Bladder Campion	2%
Stachys sylvatica	Hedge Woundwort	6%
Torilis japonica	Upright Hedge Parsley	4%
Verbascum nigrum	Dark Mullein	3%
Vicia cracca	Tufted Vetch	5%
Vicia sylvatica	Wood Vetch	1%

And for the bulk of the field a Summer Flowering Butterfly & Bee Meadow Mixture:

Latin Name	English Name	Mix Composition
Achillea millefolium	Yarrow	3%
Anthyllis vulneraria	Kidney Vetch	3%
Campanula glomerata	Clustered Bellflower	1%
Campanula trachelium	Nettle Leaved Bellflower	1%
Centaurea nigra	Common Knapweed	8%
Centaurea scabiosa	Greater Knapweed	5%
Daucus carota	Wild Carrot	4%
Echium vulgare	Viper’s Bugloss	4%
Galium verum	Lady’s Bedstraw	8%
Geranium pratense	Meadow Cranesbill	2%
Hypericum perforatum	Common St. John’s Wort	3%
Knautia arvensis	Field Scabious	5%
Lathyrus pratensis	Meadow Vetchling	3%
Linaria vulgaris	Common Toadflax	1%
Lotus corniculatus	Birdsfoot Trefoil	7%
Lythrum salicaria	Purple Loosestrife	2%
Origanum vulgare	Wild Marjoram	2%
Prunella vulgaris	Self Heal	10%
Rhinanthus minor	Yellow Rattle	7%
Scabiosa columbaria	Small Scabious	4%
Stachys officinalis	Betony	4%
Stachys sylvatica	Hedge Woundwort	3%
Succisa pratensis	Devilsbit Scabious	2%
Trifolium pratense	Wild Red Clover	3%
Verbascum nigrum	Dark Mullein	2%
Vicia cracca	Tufted Vetch	3%

In addition we added some seed of Cowslips, Oxeye Daisy, Greater Hawbit, Salard Burnet and Pignut. We will probably seed the area around the end of August.

One unexpected benefit of the meadow is it gives us another view into our garden.