A while ago I wrote a blog called “Mound and Vision”, which marked the start of a brand-new project in the garden – turning mounds of old subsoil, sand and gravel into a mini-wildflower meadow.
As I said in the beginning of that article, this kind of project, like many things in life, requires patience. Lifestyle blogs often cover the entirety of a project all in one post, and I sometimes find that quite overwhelming. It doesn’t give you a true idea of timescale, and it takes away the element of surprise. What it does give you is a stick to measure your own project against, which can be demotivating. I also just think showing a project over multiple posts over an extended period of time is more… real.
I’ve been shocked with how quickly the mini-meadow I prepared has established itself, considering I sowed the seeds in Spring! It’s generally considered better to sow wildflower seeds in Autumn. The mounds have needed some maintenance – Greater Willowherb, Sow Thistle, Creeping Thistle and Nipplewort (chuckle) are all lovely, but they grow in abundance in the area so I’ve had to keep on top of these to ensure that the seeds I sowed had half a chance.
A similar view to a shot in my previous blog Mound and Vision
In just a few short months, the mounds are full of life. I’ve seen all kinds of creatures use it, and lot of different types of those creatures too: butterflies, moths, bees, flies, hoverflies, wasps, dragonflies, birds, beetles, spiders and even the odd frog. They’re using the wildflower meadow for for food, materials and/or shelter.
From a flowering point of view, the Ox-eye Daisy has been particularly successful, but not far behind has been the Ribwort Plantain, Black Medick, Purple Toadflax and various Trefoils. There are also four Viper’s Bugloss plants (one of the best plants for pollinators), and a couple of Cornflowers too, as well as some Clovers on their way. I planted out some Meadow Sage and Anise Hyssop which I grew separately in pots. Finally, there are various different types of grasses emerging and all kinds of different foliage that I don’t recognise yet.
So, in a nutshell, it’s actually flourished far more than I thought. You can check my previous post for more on how I actually went about preparing the mounds and sowing, but I’m honestly learning as I go!
Anise Hyssop in the foreground, and Ox-eye Daisies and Cornflower in the background
The Next Steps…
I will be keeping on top of the Thistles and other more aggressive plants over the next couple of months, and will leave everything else to establish, flower, and go to seed.
After the seed heads are ripe (they usually turn brown) I’ll wait a further few weeks to give birds and other creatures access to them, before cutting back some of the longer vegetation. Finally, in Autumn, I’ve decided to do another sowing of wildflower seed. This will hopefully give the more aggressive ‘weeds’ more competition come Springtime.
The Importance of Wildflowers…
Like so many other beneficial elements of our ecosystem, wildflowers are in serious decline. In fact, we’ve lost 97% of our meadows since the 1930’s. This is an unnerving fact, almost entirely the result of human activity.
Red Campion, Clover and Vetch grown on the edge of agricultural land in Lincolnshire
Wildflowers are sometimes still grown on a large scale on agricultural land, but only occasionally is this primarily for the benefit of the ecosystem. Instead, often nitrogen fixing leguminous plants such as Clover and Vetch are grown, which make ideal ‘forage crops’ i.e. food for cattle. It’s astonishing how much land, energy and resources we use just to keep up with the colossal human demand for animal products. In most cases nowadays, the only large scale meadows left are those in protected nature reserves (such as The Wildlife Trusts) or planted by volunteers in local communities.
On a more individual level, the wildflower meadow aesthetic tends not to be favoured by many traditional gardeners - who opt for neatly kept lawns and weed-free beds (indeed, many wildflowers are considered weeds!)
Wildflowers challenge the ‘'neat and tidy’ aesthetic in quite a few ways: firstly, many varieties self-seed freely which means they can spread easily and compete with neatly cultivated garden favourites. Secondly, to help maximise the wildlife benefit of wildflowers (and most flowers), it’s important to keep the flower on the plant, even after it’s stopped looking ‘attractive’, so that it can produce seeds. This is, after all, why plants produce flowers in the first place. However, many gardeners opt to “deadhead” flowers to encourage additional blooms, which sometimes can be of benefit to pollinators, but our desire to see more flowers prevents the plant from doing what it wants to do, and potentially deprives other creatures of food going into the Autumn and Winter. Finally, some gardeners simply do not like how seed heads look, so once a plant has finished flowering, the plant may simply be removed or swiftly chopped back to its base.
This loss of wildflower and wildflower meadow needs talking about. The wildlife benefit of an organically managed meadow (even if just a small bed in the garden) is irrefutable. Most wildflowers that are native to the UK (and that includes native grasses too), facilitate an extraordinary amount of biodiversity, for the majority of the year.
Field Scabious, a beautiful wildflower and incredibly attractive to pollinators
The nectar and pollen-rich flowers (which wildflowers usually produce in abundance) are hugely attractive to loads of pollinating insects: bees, hoverflies, flies, wasps, midges, butterflies and moths. The seed heads provide food for birds and small mammals, and the leaves provide food for grubs such as caterpillars. The grasses and stems are an ideal habitat for spiders, grasshoppers and crickets (and depending on where you are, amphibians too) – and ground-nesting birds and small animals such as field mice may also decide to make their home among the long vegetation.
Sustaining this profusion of life helps to make a positive impact on the health and vigour of the local ecosystem – something we are all part of.. Pollinators are hugely important for crop production (and therefore the human race), but also themselves provide food for other insects, birds and bats. The birds that the meadows attract eat the seeds, which helps disperse them. Birds also eat small insects that could be considered pests. Amphibians while hidden in the vegetation eat flies as well as other species that, if not controlled, can become destructive, such as slugs and snails. In other words, having a wildflower meadow in the garden can be an excellent natural pest controller.
On top of all of this, the established root system of a wildflower meadow can help improve soil structure. Topsoil is the rich, fertile top layer of soil that is responsible for sustaining an immeasurable amount of life, both on a microscopic and macroscopic level. We are losing billions of tonnes of topsoil every year as a result of erosion, deforestation and other human-centric land activity. 95% of the world’s food is grown in topsoil. We need to look after it.
Finally, wildflower meadows are also incredibly beautiful and after a few years will pretty much look after themselves with no real need for maintenance, and so are both effort and cost-effective, saving yearly trips to the garden centre for overpriced plants.
It’s so hard not to move onto other tangents when we’re talking about life like this. That said, my mantra is that the changes I want to see in the world have to start with me taking action, in whatever capacity I’m able – and that’s really why this blog exists. For those that do have a spare bed, border, patch of land or even a couple of pots, I’d really recommend sowing some wildflower seed. I can’t think of many greater feelings than extending a hand to the creatures around us and creating a home, food and shelter for them, and really, it’s the least we can do.