Time for the chop
Once the flowers in a wildflower meadow start to go past their best, it is time to make hay. My newish meadow, started 3 years ago has a shady corner where the grass is thin and a number wildflowers have established . This part can be left for a while to allow all the plants to set seed, then be strimmed back and the cuttings left lying for a few days so that any seeds drop into the soil.
However most of the meadow area, which gets more sun, is thick grass with hardly any wildflowers, and this needs more drastic action. Under the guidance of Ella, the plan was to thin the grass as much as possible to allow the few plants there are to establish better, and then to sow new seed.
The wisdom of making hay while the sun shines was very apparent as Ella and I started strimming off the long grass. This summer’s rain and wind has flattened it and it was still damp, making the job much harder than it would have been with dry grass. But with no guarantee of drier weather we pressed on, raking and removing the cut grass, making sure none went into the compost heap as it was full of grass seed.
Once the bulk of the strimmings had been removed there was still lots of long rough grass to remove so, with the mower set at HIGH, Ella mowed the patch. Then with the mower set at LOW she went over it again to scalp the grass as far down to bare earth as possible.
Finally we scuffed the soil with our boots to expose more bare soil. Then it was time to sow fresh seed. This is vetch seed, but the idea is to get a variety of wildflower seed suitable for the conditions of the patch. Jane Stevens’ blog post about the Southons Field meadow has suggestions. If, as is the case in my meadow, grass is growing strongly to the exclusion of other plants, it is important to include Yellow Rattle. This plant is parasitic on the roots of grass, so weakens the growth of the grass giving wildflowers the chance to thrive. Yellow Rattle seed needs to be fresh. Mine is on order and I expect it in September, so I will have to be patient. In the meantime I must keep the grass closely mowed until growth stops in the autumn. Come the spring I can just let everything grow and hope to see an explosion of wildflowers, including poppies, cornflower, scabious, meadowsweet and vetch.