Garden Wildflower Meadow
Plant Introductions
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A tiny seedling cowslip can’t survive under a thick jungle of grass leaves in a nutrient-enriched lawn. I grew seeds in pots and planted them out in the autumn when they had developed enough roots to compete with the grasses. Both photos were taken 22 May 06. |
I purchased wildflower seeds
and some plant plugs in 2005. These I grew in pots. I also had a few plants from
my previous garden including oxeye daisies, a single cowslip, wild carrot and
meadow cranesbill and a few common birds-foot trefoil. I ran out of room for
pots so I planted 15 cowslip plantlets directly into the meadow where the grass
was relatively short. With a little bit of gardening to prevent them being
swamped by surrounding vegetation they survived well and all flowered the next
spring. The majority of plants were introduced to the meadow in October 2005.
My method was to cut vertical slots into the ground with a spade then slide the
plants into the slots before treading the turf back down. This was quick and
easy to do. I did put a few plants out earlier, mainly due to a lack of space
for pots in our small back garden. The cowslip, birds-foot trefoils and wild
carrot flowered that year.
I spread seeds of yellow
rattle onto the ground surface immediately after the July cut. July is the
month that the species sheds its seeds in the wild so it seemed the right thing
to do. The very close cut had left the ground quite bare in places, which may
have helped the delicate seedlings establish themselves the following spring
after a period of winter frosts had broken their dormancy. Yellow rattle can be
difficult to introduce into an established and dense grass sward as the young
seedlings are easily out-shaded by tall vegetation. I was very keen to have
yellow rattle in the sward, as it is a hemi-parasite that gleans part of its
nutrients from the plants around if the seedlings can survive for the first few
weeks after germination. It could contribute to reducing the dominance of the
grasses in my meadow allowing more wild flowers to thrive. It is also looks
pretty and is an excellent source of nectar for bumblebees.
In two instances, I was less
than ruthless in my management strategy. The single cowslip in 2005 had not yet
shed its seed when it was time for the July cut so I mowed round it. I
eventually harvested the seeds in late August, which I sowed straight into
pots. The seeds germinated the following spring and I grew them on to be
planted out in the meadow in autumn 2006. I also mowed round the wild carrot
and an oxeye daisy and a birds-foot trefoil. I sowed the seeds from these
directly into the meadow as I was running out of space for pots.
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Cowslip seedlings growing in pot 28 May 2006. Seeds for these were collected from my single flowering plant in 2005 which were sown in October 2005.
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The same pot on 16 August 2006. These are big enough to plant out but the meadow would be too dry in August. October or November are better months for planting out. |
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Almost all the cowslips from plugs purchased in May 2005 flowered in my meadow in 2006. Photo taken 22 April 2006. |
