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Hi all,
I attended an excellent ‘Create your Own Meadows’ talk last week in Welshpool organised by Plantlife. As well as the basic information needed, we were treated to pictures and information surrounding the topic and I came away with inspiration and a determination to carry on working at the small patch we started the year before last. We are in the early process of removing grassy vegetation and matted grass and have already noticed an increase in wildflowers in the two years since starting. I have a much better understanding of the time involved in creating a meadow and the important processes needed to achieve a diverse patch.
There’s lots of information about different habitats on the Plantlife website and they have created a Meadows Hub which carries a great deal of information, clearly displayed. I wonder if members of our Habitats group have had similar experiences and could suggest other good web information or sites to investigate?Sue
Thanks Sue for starting this meadows forum.
I too was at the same talk.
I need to buy a Stihl electric strimmer to cut back the grass now on my yellow rattle sown patches. Has anyone any recommendations where to buy one? I don’t mind used or new but need to buy asap as the excellent Plantlife course woman said to cut now and not wait until March which is what I was advised to do by the person giving me the seed from his meadow.Many thanks in advance.
Hi Kate,
I assume you are wanting to use electric/battery power as part of your zero-carbon commitment? In my experience, it really depends how tough the job is as to whether or not a cordless strimmer will do the job. My cordless tools are Makita (only because I already had some batteries from cordless drills etc.) and, although they are great for the lighter jobs, they are not quite up to the tough stuff. Our cordless strimmer is quite capable of doing just that, strimming grass, but struggles with tussocky stuff. There are heavier models described as cordless bush cutters but, by the time you add batteries, they come in at well over £400.
It may be worth phoning any tool-hire companies in your area to see if they can offer anything but not many are offering cordless garden tools yet. Or try and borrow something in the short term to prevent you having to make a rushed purchase decision.
If we were closer I’d offer for you to try our ‘strimmer’ but getting over to Llanidloes would create a larger carbon footprint than hiring a petrol bushcutter for an afternoon 🙂
Hi Sue,
I only have personal experience from my overgrown lawns, but have been astounded at how quickly they have turned from that to nice meadows. Essentially, I have just been managing them as such, with one small application of seed hand harvested from a very nice local meadow. This year, one has to be at least 50% Yellow Rattle, with lots of Common Vetch and some knapweed. The other is more variable, with still some rank grasses in places, but increasing amounts of Yellow Rattle and other nice wildflowers.
I am lucky that we are next to grassland with anthills, so the ants have already started moving in too. This has been quite interesting as I was always told that only very old meadows had anthills in them, but the size of some of the ones in my lawn is already quite amazing and this is the sixth season of managing it this way.
As well as my two ‘meadows’, I have an area of grass where we cut some of it, but mow round the nice flowers through the growing season, leaving stunning patches of buttercups, clover, stitchwort, etc. All adds to the diversity. 🙂
Tammy
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