Gardening
with
Wildlife in Mind
Flowery meadows
On farmland, meadows were once commonly cut for hay at the end of the summer
and then grazed by stock. Most of these flower-rich grasslands have now gone
- 95% were "improved" (ploughed, re-seeded and fertilised) or converted
to arable crops in the 50 years after World War II. There may be 200,000 ha
of garden lawns, almost all of which are currently carefully tended to eradicate
any wildflower that makes an uninvited appearance. Few people may want to turn
their entire lawns into wildflower meadows but these are hugely valuable wildlife
habitats, even on a small-scale. Creating them is not easy since lawn soils
are generally very rich and weedy, unwanted vegetation can easily take over
once regular cutting stops. However, few garden habitats are more rewarding
in wildlife terms than a well-made meadow.
Valuable for:
Hay meadow wild flowers,
insects such as bees, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets
etc,
garden birds, which feed on the insects and seeds,
amphibians - that use meadows as cover.
Useful tips:
- Starting from scratch in a new property, consider sowing wildflower seed
harvested from a wild meadow.
- Alternatively, sow a mix of fine-leaved grasses (fescues and bents like
common bent at a rate of 2g per m2) with wildflower seed - incorporating species
such as red clover, common bird's-foot-trefoil, common knapweed, cowslip,
ox-eye daisy, meadow buttercup, and self-heal).
- Other wild flowers can be added to the lawn as bulbs - such as snake's-head
fritillaries - or as plug plants.
- If your lawn already consists of fine grasses use these as the basis of a
meadow and add in pot grown wild flowers or bulbs.
- Do not try to improve the fertility of the soil - wild flowers do best in
poor soils.
- A new lawn will need mowing regularly for the first year of its life.
- In the summer before you want to start growing your meadow, add some seed
of yellow-rattle - burying the seed in worm casts, or in a shallow scrape.
This plant is a parasite that feeds off the roots of grasses, thereby reducing
their vigour and encouraging more wild flowers. It is also a good food source
for bees.
- Yellow rattle is an annual and you must allow this plant to produce a little
seed each year; but don't let it seed too long or it may kill patches of lawn.
- Do not use other annual wildflower species such as the common poppy - as
they may not survive in a lawn.
- Mow the lawn short in late winter, just before bulbs such as fritillaries
start to grow and then leave it uncut until July. Allow plants to set seed.
- A tidier effect can be obtained by allowing the most distant part of the
lawn to grow tall in the spring (place your bulbs and cowslips here) and progressively
allow a little more of the lawn to grow each week. This produces a graduated
effect from short to tall meadow.
- When you cut the hay, leave it to dry to attract birds such as house sparrows
linnets and goldfinches, which may feed on the seed as it dries out.
- Remove the hay and mow the lawn regularly for the rest of the year. It will
look brown at first but will recover rapidly.
- Allowing different parts of the lawn to grow and flower at different times
- some early in the spring, others later in the summer, will provide a constant
nectar source for insects, and encourage a greater variety of flowers that
flower at different times of the year.
- If you cannot grow a meadow, consider allowing your lawn to flower for a
few weeks in high summer if it contains plants such as clover. This provides
a much-needed source of food for some insects such as bumblebees.
- If you have frogs in the garden, cut your meadow carefully to avoid killing
them.
Selected specialist publications:
Lewis, P. (2003) Making Wildflower Meadows. Frances Lincoln Ltd
Steel, J (2002) Meadows and Cornfields Osmia Publications. Available
from www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk
Verner, Y. (1998) Creating a Flower Meadow. Green Books Ltd
See other garden wildlife habitats
Hedges
Ponds and marshes
Walls and fences
