A Year in the Life of a Wildflower Meadow: What to expect in the first year
It’s high summer in the garden with scented roses and other traditional garden flowers in full bloom. But anyone anxiously assessing a fledgling wildflower meadow might well be disappointed. For instead of displaying even a clutch of wildflowers, meadows in their first year after seeding may not show much at all except for a mixture of grasses and lots of the rather ordinary looking yellow rattle plant. But even if meadows in their first year of seeding don’t reflect the species introduced by seed straight away any wildflower meadow enthusiast will tell you that sometimes the more disappointing a wildflower meadow looks in its first year, the better and often the more yellow rattle it displays, the more triumphant the meadow is likely to become.
Often referred to as ‘the meadow maker’ or ‘nature’s lawnmower’, yellow rattle is by far the most important plant to inaugurate into your wildflower meadow if you want it to be a success. It keeps grasses in check by disrupting their roots and weakening their competitive advantage, allowing delicate flowers including orchids to flourish and suppressing the growth of grasses and legumes by as much as 60% in the process.
But grasses are still vital. Look for species such as sweet vernal grass, Yorkshire fog, red fescue and meadow barley as having a good diversity of grasses in a meadow is an important aspect of its health and they are also a vital part of the eco-system providing larval food plants for butterflies and moths.
Carol Lodge, specialist ecological advisor at charity, Plantlife which advises on many aspects of planting and growing wildflower meadows observes:
‘Although the first year of a wildflower meadow can be very different from one field to another, if you have introduced Yellow Rattle, it really does do an enormous amount in the way of preparing your meadow for wildflowers. This is because the plant parasitises the roots of the grasses and legumes such as White Clover, weakening them and opening the community up to make important space for wildflower seedlings.’
Taking a hay-cut by mid-July is also beneficial in establishing a wildflower meadow and in maintaining its success for several important reasons.
‘In the seeding year, take off a July cut and keep the growth cut down or grazed short until winter halts further growth. You can create some bare ground in areas not affected by dock or thistle, just before introducing Yellow Rattle seed in September/October (you can rake it deeply or use a scarifier or harrow) which will give the plant a head-start. Hopefully it will then increase and spread in the early years and may even appear to dominate for up to 10 years, but this will change. As it’s an annual beware that cutting it too soon might wipe it out. Other species which may thrive in the following years will depend upon your soil type and fertility and native perennials can take a couple of years to establish. For example, Ox-eye Daisies in years 2-4 then in years 3-6 clovers and vetches may flourish. It can take many years for some introduced species to appear, but this is the normal part of a meadow creation story. It isn’t instant and it’s not a uniform process, there will be some very good years and then some species will decline but others will increase.’ says Carol.
Ten years ago, Ian Wilkinson, managing director of Cotswold Seeds and head of FarmEd, a regenerative farming project in Oxfordshire started growing wildflowers on the edges and verges of some of his land including flower margins where crops are being grown under the Countryside Stewardship scheme.
‘The meadow area might look quite weed-ridden for at least the first season but put as much diversity as you can into the wildflower seed mix that you plant and then hang on and don’t plough the land up but make sure you keep the sward short and over time it really will transform itself into a wildflower meadow.’ insists Ian.
There are many other beneficial wildflowers which might appear alongside yellow rattle in the first few years if you are lucky including ox-eye daisies and field scabious. As these begin to establish and if you implement an annual meadow management regime of either cutting down or grazing your meadow after flowering you could well have a successful wildflower meadow in the years to come. Meanwhile you will be helping to slow down the rate at which the UK has lost its wildflowers. For it is estimated that at least one plant species in 16 counties across the country is being lost every 1-2 years with once well-known plants such as burnt orchid and the small white orchid now classified as lost species leaving our countryside less colourful, rich, diverse as a result.
Both Plantlife at plantlife.org.uk and the Cotswold National Landscape at Cotswold-nl.org.uk can advise on how to manage your wildflower meadow.
