I was asked to make a meadow that wouldn’t require regular mowing/maintenance, so my client could enjoy his weekends away rather than spend most of his time mowing.
Soil was required to repair the building works at the back of the house, so it was the perfect moment to remove all the fertile turf and create a pond.
Fortunately we found two local expert digger drivers who had all the equipment and experience required to use the very heavy clay-filled bentomat liner.
Bentomat has to be covered with soil and becomes waterproof as soon as it gets wet, so fortunately it didn’t rain whilst we were putting it in place.
Time for a well deserved break.
We used the turf we had stripped before the diggers started, to create access paths around the pond. Unfortunately it had started to rain by this point, so it was a very messy job, but the turf took well despite being slapped down onto mud.
The digger drivers sculpted the contours like artists and created this level viewing and hammock area with the excess soil. Unfortunately during the levelling process, the soil became very compacted and unworkable in the wet weather.
I shovelled some fresh soil onto the compacted banks around the pond, to give the flower seeds more of a chance, even though there was a risk it might have contained the weed seeds and fertility that we had been trying to remove.
A few weeks after the diggers had finished it dried up enough to rotovate the compacted hillside, but this in turn brought up rocks and clods of soil that we had to rake and remove before sowing the rest of the wildflower seeds. Unfortunately it started to rain again before we could finish sowing, but eventually it was all done and all the hard work preparing the seedbed was worth it.
Time spent in the hammock is especially sweet, surrounded by flowers and insects.
The House Martins are too fast for me to capture on camera, but they are a pleasure to watch swirling and skimming over the new pond. They dip in to drink and they used the mud around the edges to build their nests – it’s as though they think the pond was made for them, which it was.
We would of course also like to encourage newts, frogs and other visitors to the pond, but they might take a bit longer than the House Martins to discover the new habitat we have created for them.
We added a few non invasive bulrushes to speed up the process of greening the edges of the pond. Next year the perennial marginal plants we sowed at the same time as the meadow will be mature enough to flower, so the pond will look more established.
There will also be more perennial flowers and grasses in the meadow, so we might rotavate a section of the hillside to recreate the colourful display of annuals that have been such a success in just four months since sowing this first year.
It may seem cruel to cut pathways through the flowers, but I had sowed a path of flowery lawn seed from the start, with the intention of having access through the meadow. It is wonderful to be able to look at the flowers and insects more closely and be surrounded by them on a bench or rug. It is also interesting to note how some species have done better in different areas because of the variations in soil that the diggers spread around.
Margaret Bluman
Aug 5, 2014 -
This is stunning! What an achievement in such a short space of time. I’m sure you’ve made the local bee population very happy.
admin
Aug 5, 2014 -
Thanks Margaret! Hopefully there will be even more bees and butterflies enjoying all the nectar next year!
Adrian Rose
Aug 5, 2014 -
Fantastic! Any chance you could tell us what part of the country this is (just out of curiosity) and which seed supplier(s) you use?
Julia
Aug 5, 2014 -
It’s in Herefordshire, near Longtown and the black mountains.
I used Emorsgate’s “Special General Purpose wild flowers” (EM3F), “Wild flowers for pond edges” (EP!F), “Flowering lawn mixture”(EL1) for around the house and meadow paths.
Plus Pictorial Meadow “Pastel mix”.
Sarah Walsh
Aug 5, 2014 -
It looks really stunning, what a beautiful job you have done. I know there are stressful times in the middle of a job, I’m sure that compaction made you sweat a bit.! So great to do something on a big scale, just shows what you can do with simple earth and seeds. And a big mat. 🙂
Julia
Aug 9, 2014 -
Thanks Sarah! There were times, when I was struggling to rake a seedbed from wet and sticky soil, that I never thought it would be such a success in such a short time, so it’s even more exciting and a big relief. Looking forward to being involved in managing the meadow’s development and watching it evolve.
Jo
Aug 6, 2014 -
Quite miraculous and beautiful. English meadows are sublime when they look like this.
Julia
Aug 9, 2014 -
Thanks Jo!
Jeremy
Aug 6, 2014 -
We have seen the meadow and are seriously impressed. Do you expect such a diversity of wildflowers to appear each and every year or will the hogweed and docks gradually move back in?
Julia
Aug 9, 2014 -
Hi Jeremy
We removed most of the topsoil with its weed seedbank and have sprayed the few docks that have appeared, but it will require constant management, because there are docks and hogweed around the edges in places. One section has a lot of creeping buttercup, because it’s almost at the original level – where only the turf was removed- so we might spray it off this autumn and re-seed. We will also sow the parasite “yellow rattle” this autumn to weaken the grasses that will inevitably appear. The perennial wildflowers have come up well, so next year there probably won’t be much space for the colourful annuals, who would prefer us to rotovate every year.
Roy Lubķe
Aug 10, 2014 -
Well done Julia.
You are restoring a beautiful natural system.
It is reminiscent of places in Namaqualand. The farmers often plough parts of their farms to get the pioneering annuals to return year after year. The tourists are then charged to come and see the wild flowers.
The farmers in this part of the Northern Cape are very poor as after the flower season there is little income from sheep. Here the best sites are where the later successional stages are present as well.
Perhaps you need to follow with some shrubs or is system so changed that there is no succession at all?
Julia
Aug 11, 2014 -
Hi Roy
We are trying to create a traditional hay meadow, but it will be ornamental rather than productive with more flowers than grass. We will have to cut and manage it as though it was being harvested and grazed, otherwise it will turn to rough grass, scrub and then woodland.
A few sheep to graze it after the flowers have seeded would be great, but we would need to protect the trees and garden plants with electric fences during their visits.
There was a shrubby pale pink legume used in the Olympic park perennial meadow mixes, whose name escapes me, but it tolerates being cut once a year, so we could add that if it doesn’t come on its own.
The perennial wildflowers that we sowed at the same time as the annuals will only flower next year. The display might not be as spectacular as the annuals are this year, but they won’t require ploughing or rotavating every year. Meadow grasses rather than coarse grasses will hopefully appear but be slowed down by the parasitic yellow rattle.
I was hoping to come and see the Namaqualand flowers for the first time this September, but apparently they are early this year?
Adrian Rose
Jul 12, 2015 -
Hi Julia. Hope the Herefordshire project is continuing ok! I thought you might like to see some images of the Pictorial Meadow seed mix from the Organic Gardening Catalogue I’ve been using (on a much much smaller scale!)…in case you haven’t come across it before, it turns out to be, I think, a really pretty and useful seed mix for easy cottage garden colour splashes.
http://www.dtegardencare.com/blog/pictorial-meadow
Frank Eddy
Aug 21, 2016 -
Totally gorgeous work Julia. Keep it up.