Garden meadow with oxeye daisies and Southern Marsh Orchids
Although it has been a while since my last musings, this is simply because we are very busy at this time of year. Our efforts are concentrated on repotting the orchids for this year and, sadly, sorting out the ones that suffered the winter weather and are no longer growing.
This time of year is when setting up a meadow should be at the top of everyone's agenda. The charity Plantlife is calling for every farm to have at least one wildflower meadow which is used for livestock grazing. Now, their plans may be out of reach of most householders, but not growing a garden meadow. The picture above is one such meadow. Plantlife suggest that every garden should have an uncut section which can contain wildflowers, but take care. Just leaving a plot of grass to itself is not going to automatically generate a meadow. Take advice and get stuck in to growing a meadow, you will be surprised what will turn up. Don't be afraid to introduce species that you think suits the ground, if they don't, then they will not persist. If they do they will flower and attract allsorts of invertebrates.
Even though it is still rather too close to improved pasture in places than we would like, our own meadow is developing well. We are increasing the plant biodiversity almost weekly. This is by seed and in the case of orchids, planting them. As for the animal life, we wait to see what takes up residence with considerable interest.
This year National Meadows Day is Saturday 1st July and we will be out in our own meadow just, well, enjoying it.
This time of year is when setting up a meadow should be at the top of everyone's agenda. The charity Plantlife is calling for every farm to have at least one wildflower meadow which is used for livestock grazing. Now, their plans may be out of reach of most householders, but not growing a garden meadow. The picture above is one such meadow. Plantlife suggest that every garden should have an uncut section which can contain wildflowers, but take care. Just leaving a plot of grass to itself is not going to automatically generate a meadow. Take advice and get stuck in to growing a meadow, you will be surprised what will turn up. Don't be afraid to introduce species that you think suits the ground, if they don't, then they will not persist. If they do they will flower and attract allsorts of invertebrates.
Even though it is still rather too close to improved pasture in places than we would like, our own meadow is developing well. We are increasing the plant biodiversity almost weekly. This is by seed and in the case of orchids, planting them. As for the animal life, we wait to see what takes up residence with considerable interest.
This year National Meadows Day is Saturday 1st July and we will be out in our own meadow just, well, enjoying it.
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