It is cool to care for nature

Wild Flower Meadow

Many years ago I saw a rather faded, 100yrs old photograph in an old book on farming: a hay meadow; crammed full of oxeye daisies, poppies and many other wild flowers. Two people walking, hand in hand, through this *very idyllic, and now almost extinct, meadow. That is the sort of meadow that I am striving for.

Here in Devon, with its rich soil, it is still possible to create a meadow full of flowers, and teeming with insects, butterflies and other wildlife.
The key to it all is impoverishing the soil, so the flowers can compete with the more dominant grasses.

Several years of once yearly grazing has transformed the field into a meadow. Flowers have arrived on their own accord as soon as the right conditions were in place. The meadow is at its best in summer; knapweed and yarrow flowers looking like a sea of purple, interspersed with white. Butterflies attracted to the meadow, in July and August, are really a sight to be seen.

In the many books on the subject, (see links page), one reads that to introduce native plug plants into the meadow is a quick option. I have done that....hundreds....but very few have taken. Most were dug up and eaten by rabbits. On a small scale plot it might be a feasible option though.

You could attract more insects to your formal garden, stocked with exotics, by just inter-planting with native flowers and herbs. The difference in the amount of insects and therefore birds and other wildlife visiting your garden is quite staggering. Remember, insects are very patriotic and they like their food to be native! Waging war on slugs and snails is a thing of the past.