I thought you might be interested to see how the uncut strip of grass in my garden is getting on.
It’s a meadow! It must be a meadow because a Meadow Brown was flying over it.
It’s not quite in the Seaton Meadows class yet, but there were some attractive damselflies in it yesterday – blue males and brown females (were they Blue Damselfy or Azure Damselfly?).
I am taking part in Plantlife’s ‘Say No to Mow!’ campaign and it means that I can cut the grass in record time! There’s a very big Teezle and a very large thistle (of some sort – don’t ask me) growing in my meadow. I sometimes go and have a look at my meadow and it is very noticeable that it is teeming with insect life. I’ve no idea what most of the flies and beetles are – and I’m only mildly curious to know – but there are a lot of them.
A side impact seem to be that wandering cats are less likely to jump off the fence into my meadow than if it were cut grass – they may fear there are tigers in there somewhere – I’ll let you know if I spot one.
This is, surely, a time of year to think about plants and Plantlife are very busy right now. Here’s their campaign on stopping unnecessary verge-cutting on our roadsides, their Coronation Meadows campaign and a link to their work with other wildlife NGOs on meadows.
And I’m reading the book Meadowland which I will review here on Sunday. I may be sitting in the garden and reading it right now instead of watching England play Costa Rica.
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There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of flowers right now. But if you’re really interested in this, it would be interesting to see how it looks this time next year.
I’ve been saying no to the mow for the last three years. Lots of speedwell and cowslip in the spring but not much in the way of flowers during the summer. Quite a few different species of grass though and I saw a pair of damsel flies perched on the stems the other day. Plenty of other bugs too, although I’ve no idea what they are.
It all looks absolutely beautiful at this time of year, gets a bit scruffy looking before it’s time to cut it, but that shouldn’t be a reason not to give it a go.
Sian – thank you.
grass has flowers too
I feel I should send in a pic of my own patch of meadow (which I’m very pleased with) and make a few recommendations. Get a bucket load of yellow-rattle seed after you’ve cut it (this year soon as its an early season) as well as a few really good nectar plants such as common knapweed for starters and try some of the vetches. I keep trying new native plants each year on my chalky soils; some work some fail but always worth experimenting. Meadows cranesbill has been fantastic this year. Oh and I thoroughly recommend George Peterken’s ‘Meadows’ it is imo the best publication by a long way on the subject.