How to have more flowers in your meadow

I was chatting with a lovely lady this morning, a keen gardener with a lot of common sense.  She installed some Meadowmat last autumn in some poor-ish soil that tends to be dry.  The wild flower mat established well and has looked incredibly healthy, but after its first season, there is more grass in it than she’d like and fewer flowers.

pink campion appeared in my Meadowmat for the 1st time this year

The Meadowmat in my own garden has just finished its second season of flowering and I have to be honest, it’s not the same as last year.  I have less grass, more flowers and indeed, more species visible than there were in that first summer.

The theory is that after a year of careful management, there are now fewer plant nutrients in the soil beneath my Meadowmat and so the grasses are less vigorous giving the flowering plants a better chance of survival.  I also think that Yellow Rattle has played a big part in the process, so I’ll be sowing some more of that this autumn.

yellow rattle - the meadow makers' superhero

I’ve been told that it takes seven years to establish a species rich meadow from seed.  Some of our native species are slow to germinate and won’t appear for two or three years; some need cold winters to help wake the seeds up, some need warm summers, some of the plants need to grow on for a while before they bloom.  As Meadowmat is grown from seed on our farm in Norfolk, I can only suppose that I’m not going to see all of the flowering species in the first season and that it’s just going to get better and better.

So, for all of you first-year meadow growers out there, take comfort.  Provided you follow a sensible management regime (hay cut in the summer then mowing through the autumn and winter removing ALL of the clippings every time) you can expect your wild flower patch to get better and better as the years go by.  Mine has.

Meadowmat vs wild flower seeds 1 year on

Goodness! A whole year has passed since I installed 6m2 of Meadowmat at the bottom of my garden and sowed £10 worth of wildflower seeds at the other end of my plot. At the time, and for most of last summer, I rather favoured Meadowmat wild flower matting for biodiversity, for speed of establishment and for its weed suppressant properties.  So, after 12 months of growing, changing and observing which of the two plots is performing the best?

yellow rattle and red campion blooming in Meadowmat late May 2012

Biodiversity:  Meadowmat wins hands down.  The seeded plot is probably the most colourful at the moment, but that's because it is predominantly red and white campions and they are flowering their hearts out at the moment.  There is some yarrow in there, a stray dandelion (not from the seed packet..it's an imposter that escaped one of my many weeding sessions), there are a couple of plantains and a scarlet pimpernel.  On the other hand, the Meadowmat boasts red campion, ribwort plantain, sorrell, common vetch and yellow rattle in flower at the moment, with clover and oxeye daisy in bud and wild carrot, yarrow, grasses et al looking verdant and healthy and getting ready to flower later in the year.

wild flower patch grown from seed

Speed of Establishment:  1 year on, there isn't much difference in the percentage plant coverage although Meadowmat is probably thicker in the bottom and it's definitely secreting more minibeasts....spiders, flies, ladybirds etc. I think also, because they haven't been cut back or mown, the plants in the seeded area are bigger than the ones in Meadowmat.

Weed suppressing: so far I've not had to pull any weeds out of my Meadowmat patch but oh dear, last year I spent ages and ages on my knees removing thistles, groundsel, bindweed and all sorts of undesirables from the seeded area.

Overall;  Do you know, I think it was worth spending the extra money on Meadowmat compared to seeds..but that's just me.  With 2 grandchildren to entertain, 3 dogs to walk, a house to clean, a husband to cook, clean, shop and iron for - oh, and a job, I'm happy to dip into my pocket to save myself a bit of time (within limits of course), AND my Meadowmat generated 2 binbags worth of hay for Lily and Luna the guinea pigs plus a few bags of fresh greens for the tortoises. On the other hand, I do find weeding quite theraputic and the extra £50 could have bought enough petrol to keep the lawnmower and rotovator running for a year...

Is a wildflower meadow like a lawn with weeds in?

I was honoured to be asked to chat to Ken Crowther about Meadowmat on BBC Radio Essex this afternoon.  Well, honoured and very VERY nervous. Happily the team there are used to neurotic people like myself and I was soon put at ease.  So much so that my allotted 20 minute spot passed very quickly indeed.

Meadowmat, a great way to create wildlife habitat

Ken's first question was "Is meadowmat just turf with weeds in it?" and in all fairness, I'm sure plenty of people, including my beloved husband, would say tha it is.  After all, if some of the plants in my meadowmat were to spring up in my lawn, I'd probably do my best to eradicate them.  But, a weed is simply a wild flower in the wrong place, and in the right place, they're beautiful both visually and ecologically.

200 years ago, if there was such a thing as Meadowmat, it would probably have been regarded as a poor-man's medicine cabinet....I'm kicking myself for not saying that earlier.  Wild flowers have been used to produce herbal remedies for centuries with their recipes being handed down from generation to generation.  Funny how modern technology has all but killed off traditional skills...but that's a whole other argument.

wild flowers and bees are inter-dependant

Wild flowers evolved alongside pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies and as a result, they're interdependant.  Flowers need bees, bees need flowers. Simple as.  And as Ken and I discussed, vast quantities of ancient wild flower meadows have been lost since the second world war; modern farmers need to concentrate on food production, road verges are not always managed for the full benefit of wild flowers and so gardeners are the people who are best placed to help re-create and care for wild flower meadows --- no matter what size----to help support UK wildlife.

So is Meadowmat like garden turf with weeds in?  I think not. Meadowmat is a wild flower meadow on a roll and it makes the important task of rebuilding our population of wild flowers and pollinating insects into an absolute joy. Garden turf is a joy too...for what is a garden if it doesn't have a lawn?

Preparing the ground for wild flowers

A common question for the Meadowmat team is "how do I prepare the soil for wild flower matting?"

There are books and websites out there offering all sorts of conflicting advice, especially on making sure that the topsoil has a low nutrient content. One lady suggests digging the topsoil up and taking it away, somebody else advises growing a greedy vegetable crop before trying to establish wild flowers. 

So what is the right way to get ready to start a wild flower meadow?

Well, the whole idea of Meadowmat is that it's low maintenance.  I installed some Meadowmat this time last year on to a piece of garden that had been used to grow vegetables (runner beans actually) the summer before. In its first summer, there were a few flowers, but the most successful plant species was by far grass.

grass is important in a wildflower meadow
but don't let it overpower the flowers

Grass is the rough diamond in a wild flower meadow.  It's essential for providing food and shelter for many creatures, but it needs to be kept in check otherwise it will bully all the flowering plants out of existance.  In other words, it's a good thing provided it's kept under control. 

How do you stop grass getting too rampant? A combination of three ways; restricting food supply, cutting it back if it gets too strong; and growing yellow rattle in the meadow.

In my own meadow-ette (it's very tiny), I did have a few yellow rattle plants last year, so I harvested the seeds and sowed them back into the sward in the autumn.  This year I have lots of young yellow rattle plants and much less grass than last year.  I also made a point of keeping the sward quite closely mown from the time I took a hay cut (late July) all through the summer, autumn and winter; only letting it grow again from the end of march onwards.  That probably meant I sacrificed a few flowers last summer, but it also means I'll have a much better floral display this year.

So how to prepare the soil then?  Unless it's really high in nutrients, you can take a reasonably relaxed approach.  Take away all existing vegetation - roots and all - so that it can't rot down to make more plant food and consider taking away a layer of topsoil if you can.  Avoid fertiliser at all costs and once your meadow is growing strongly, use careful management, and a lot of patience, to keep the grasses from getting too vigorous.  Make the most of yellow rattle, which is a parasite of grass and helps to suppress it's growth.  Gather seed in the summer, keep it cool and dry and in autumn, mow the sward as short as 5cm, so that you can press the yellow rattle seed onto the soil ready for it to grow again next year.

Oh- and watch our installation video to see how to get a good tilth to install your Meadowmat on to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzBPpCa6v2g

Number 14 in Angela's top 20 wild flowers: red campion

red campion grown from seed

At last! The small area of wild flowers that I started from seed this time last year has produced its first bloom.  The most beautiful red campion I've ever seen. Red campion of course, also features in the seed mix for Meadowmat and there is definitely a campion-esque plant running up to flower in my Meadowmat patch...but it may turn out to be white or bladder campion.

The latin name for red campion is Silene dioica.  Apparantly it's named after Silenus, the merry drunken woodland god from greek mythology.  He's a merry fatman with a horse's tail who when captured by mortals can reveal important secrets.  The second part of the plant name is dioica, which means "two houses" and refers to the fact that each red campion plant has flowers of only one sex - in other words, you need at least two plants to make seed.  Good job I've got plenty then!

According to my Readers Digest book of wild flowers, this little beauty will flower right through to October....perfect then for supplying pollen and nectar to the bees and butterflies that I hope will visit my garden IF the sun ever comes out.

red campion hanging its head in the rain

red campion growing wild in woodland somewhere in North Norfolk

Wild Flower Meadow in May

Wild Flower Meadow in May

cowslips in the wild

May is the month when the countryside really starts to prepare itself for summer. In the traditionally managed meadow not far from my home, cowslips are braving the rain and merrily blooming in the hope that the sun will come out for long enough for bees to pollinate them. The grass is thriving in this weather and is beginning to grow strongly and it won't be long before the cow parsley explodes into fluffy white flowers beneath the trees.

In my garden, Dandelions are putting on a defiant show in the lawn and because it's been too wet to get the hoe out, there are red and white dead-nettles flowering beneath the fruit bushes...not that I mind, they're great bee food.

My own little wild flower patches are thriving too.  The Meadowmat patch is now 1 year old and looks very different to when it was first installed.  There are undoubtedly more flowering plants and more species than last year, the grass is less rampant..probably thanks to the yellow rattle in the seed mix and I am estimating that the campion will be in flower in about a week's time...the buds are swelling nicely but I'm not sure if this is a white campion, a red campion or a bladder campion.  All 3 are in the seedmix so I'm playing a waiting game.

campion and plantain almost flowering

There'll be no more mowing in my meadow until at least the end of July.

The area I sowed from seed is less biodiverse but the plants are bigger...probably because it hasn't been mown over the winter.  It looks as though I can expect flowers from yarrow, plantain, campion, scarlet pimpernel and some self-sown dandelions.

I have to confess that I haven't taken a look at the seeds I sneaked onto my farmer-husband's uncultivated land.  All being well I'll be able to check on them over the weekend.  I also have some heartease seeds to sow - I'll probably waft them about when he's not looking.  Interesting development on the farmer front.......he's growing peas this year and remarked that there couldn't possibly be enough bees to pollinate every pea flower on his field......all the more reason to encourage bees with wild flowers says I....with the situation as it is your crops might not be yielding their your full potential.  That pricked his ears up.  Pollinators don't interest him, by profits do!

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 17 is Clover

Red clover, one of the first wild flowers to bloom in spring,
this picture was taken in April 2011

Red clover is perhaps one of our most recognisable wild flowers here in the UK.  It's distinctive trefoil leaf  has been borrowed by Girl Guides all over the world to symbolise their three part promise, and the hope of finding that elusive four-leaved clover has had many a child grovelling about on their knees.  It's also a blessed curse in my lawn; blessed because it stays green in the summer and doesn't need as much mowing as grass; cursed because it is forever thwarting my attempts at producing a velvety sward.

Clover flowers are rich in nectar and nourish bees from late spring through to early autumn, they're especially important to bumble bees awakening from hibernation and looking for a hearty breakfast because clover pollen is high in protein.  That's one of the main reasons that red clover (Trifolium pratense) is included in the seed mix for Meadowmat

Bumblebees are in decline, mainly because they're aren't enough of their favourite flowers available to feed them...remember, bumblebees don't make honey, their lavae feed on pollen. Bumblebees really like pollens from the legume family of plants, that's clovers, vetches, peas and beans because they're rich in essential nutrients. 

Why should we mind that bumblebees are in decline? well, if you're into growing your own veg, or if you're a farmer, you'll know that bumblebess are the ones that help to pollinate almost all of the fruit, peas and beans that we eat, and many of the veggies too.  A world without bumblebees would be a world without  baked beans or apple pie.......or scrumpy! It doesn't bear thinking about!

So if you want to help bees and other pollinating insects.......grow some clover!

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 18 is Meadow Buttercup



insects just adore the cheery yellow buttercup flowers

 This flower has got to be one of the brightest, cheeriest wild flowers there are.  I have enduring memories of friends from primary school holding buttercups under each others' chins to "see if you like butter".  I never did understand how the trick worked, but it was certainly a strong playground tradition, nearly as strong as "kiss chase" and hopscotch.


buttercups in a traditionally managed meadow in Norfolk

 I was so glad to see Meadow Buttercup included in the seed mix for Meadowmat wild flower matting, so far they've not appeared in my own little patch, but there's still time, it was only installed 9 months ago and some species need a hard frost before the seeds will germinate.  No shortage of frost in my garden tonight, so maybe I'll be lucky this year.

Flowering from early spring onwards, this is one of the wild flowers that is abundant in the traditionally managed meadow on one of my regular dog walks.  I didn't realise until reading Sarah Raven's book "Wild Flowers" that the flowers and stems of Ranunculus acris (Meadow Buttercup) are unpalatable to grazing animals---not poisonous, for they quite like buttercups in hay---but with a bitter taste that I suppose ensures the flowers stay around long enough to set seed.  Ingenious.

Next post will be Maxine Tricker's ideas for using wild flowers in garden design .... keep checking the blog, I've read the article and it's too good to miss