I've been dreaming of planting a wildflower area for the summer, but I'm beginning to think that it'll be one project too many at the moment. I've created a wildflower area before and it looked fantastic one year, full of field poppies and corncockles and cornflowers. But the following year (the wet 2012), it was a real disappointment. I realised, then, just how much hard work is needed to create and maintain even a mini-wildflower meadow.
So with all the other gardening projects I have on my list this year, a wildflower patch will have to wait. I keep changing my mind about where it will be anyway. I've now planted trees where this was before - and I've recently decided that another possible patch of ground will be given over to spring bulbs instead. So the truth is, it all needs a lot more thought (and more dreaming!)
But even though I'm not ready to create a mini wildflower meadow this year, I still want plenty of wildflowers on the smallholding. Most of these will be the flowers that'll be growing naturally in the 'wild' areas i.e. the untidy bits. I love discovering something different about the wildflowers here; I'm always thrilled to see a new type of wildflower appearing or to see that existing wildflowers have started to colonise a new patch. Last year I found some bird's foot trefoil growing along a path for the first time. I knew the butterflies would be interested in this - and they were - visiting it again and again.
I really want to encourage more butterflies here this year. I already have three buddleia davidii bushes that were covered with Peacock butterflies last year, and the Red Admirals love the ivy when it flowers in early autumn. Now I'm thinking of lady's smock for the Orange Tips (this will also go in my future mini wildflower meadow), drifts of scabious and some michaelmas daisies. I'm even going to leave small patches of nettles and thistles in the deepest corners of the smallholding, because butterflies love these so much (although I'll be making sure they stay there!)
As well as butterflies, I'll also be planting for moths and will be using Countryside Tales' great post on plants for moths as a guide here. .
Along our country lane there are lots of primroses in flower at the moment, and over the years I've been encouraging these to spread on our verge. This year - finally - I have a whole bank of primroses. They look beautiful, but there's a story here. Last year the primroses flowered late, and early one morning I was horrified to see the council's machines cutting the verges and hacking down the primroses. No one can prove who owns the verges in our lane and it's assumed the property and landowners do. But this didn't stop the council from cutting down the wildflowers on my verge and on all the other verges, too...
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| Before... |
Our small country lane doesn't go anywhere and the grass on the verges never grows high enough to cause visibility problems for drivers, but try telling that to our council (as I have). Try telling them, too, about the importance of wildflowers for pollinators! I thought I was making progress last year in conversations with them, but when I contacted them again this year I was told the verges have to be cut - whether there are wildflowers growing there or not - and if anyone wants to encourage the spread of native primroses then they need something called a planting licence...
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| ...and after |
Grrr...I can feel a battle against red tape coming on. I'm considering contacting Plantlife, a charity that protects wildflowers, to see what advice they have for me. Plantlife's 'Flowers on the Edge' campaign urges councils to cut verges less and after the wildflowers have finished - so my situation is just right for this. Let's hope the council start to listen...
Anyway, I'll finish with a photo of my own, homegrown destroyer of flowers - as Pip is nesting in one of my flower beds again this year. I dread to think what she's crushed, but she's happy, so I'll just leave her there and hope the flowers will revive when she's finished!
An interesting post. We encourage wild flowers that colonise here but have yet to manage a real wildflower meadow. Your earlier area looks lovely and full of variety.
ReplyDeleteAs for the council cutting your primrose lane verge - I despair... I do hope you have better luck in keeping them away from it this year!
Pip is a very beautiful.
Hello Dartford Warbler...I hadn't realised how difficult it is to create a wildflower meadow (or wildflower area, in my case) until I tried to do it. I hoped many of the flowers would self-seed every year, but only a few did.
DeleteI'm going to do my best to protect my primroses (and the others in the lane, too!)
I love wildflower areas, but I also know it is a hell of a job to keep it up. It looks very easy but it is not. Sometimes the council does such annoying things like cutting verges where people just are trying to make it beautiful, also in our country. I like Pip nesting in your flower beds!
ReplyDeleteI should have guessed that wildflower areas quickly get taken over by the sort of weeds that I don't want to see at all! When I first planted the wildflower area here, it didn't do anything in the first year, looked wonderful in the second and then was a real disappointment in the third.
DeleteFortunately, Pip is the only one of my geese to nest in the flower beds - I think I would have to give up if all of them did!
How fun to have a few different varieties of butterflies visit your home. I have only seen swallowtail butterflies here and they are lovely. It sounds like plantlife would know just what to do with the council. I'd call them asap. Your goose is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see those Swallowtail butterflies of yours, Stacy. I'm lucky I have a few types of butterfly visiting here, and last year was a good year for them so I had plenty of sightings.
DeleteOh, thank you for the picture of Pip. Made my (otherwise fairly depressing) day! I hope your crushed flowers survive. What is the butterfly/moth with the red spots? It's gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear your day was depressing, Jessica. Sometimes Pip will give up a nest site fairly quickly and will wander off to find another place instead, so hopefully she'll do that here!
DeleteI think the moth is a Narrow Bordered Five Spot Burnet moth, but I'll be happy to be corrected by moth experts if it's another kind of Burnet moth instead!
Dear Wendy - it is unbelievable that the council would go to the expense and bother of destroying the wild flowers growing on your roadside verge. Surely they should be spending their money on repairing the holes in the road first - it seems that their priorities are not the ones we would choose.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried growing Verbascum, the Mullein moth absolutely adores it, they always find it. They strip the plant bare but it always regenerates. The bees like it too.
I completely agree about the council, Rosemary. I don't understand their priorities either, especially as pot holes can be a real danger to motorists and our small lane of verges isn't at all. It seems to me that they just make a sweeping decision about cutting all the verges, employ a contractor to do it, and then tick the job of the list.
DeleteI hadn't thought about Verbascum, but thank you for that. I will definitely add it to my list of plants.
I hope that you have some luck with the council. Keep trying, and try the parish as well as county/district council! xx
ReplyDeleteI will keep trying, Amy! The county council are responsible here, although the planting licence has to be acquired from the district council. It would be interesting to get the opinion of our parish council, though.
DeleteInteresting to hear what flowers you are planting for particular species of butterfly. I'm hoping to grow some things for bees and butterflies this year too. Councils really are very intransigent, it's so frustrating. No-one is looking at the bigger picture. Contacting Plantlife sounds like a good idea, and maybe you can get your local media involved. I'm wishing you luck.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to plant more for the butterflies I see setting here - but also try to encourage some new butterflies in. A couple of types don't seem to settle long here, they always look as though they are passing through - so I want to change all that.
DeleteI think I will contact Plantlife anyway, even if I make some progress on my verge here, I would like to think there could be changes everywhere else in the county as well. And I think you're right about the local media, I think this could be a story for them.
I think our council is only trying to save money, but the verges are only cut late on when all the wild flowers are over, thank goodness. They look very pretty during spring and summer, only road junctions are cut for safety. I have a nice patch of lady's smock for the Orange Tips and violets for the Silver Washed Fritillaries and nettles for many more!
ReplyDeleteI've heard that Devon is following a policy of cutting verges later and that this will help wildflowers - so it can be done by local authorities. Lady's smock is top of my list for butterfly plants this year - and I would plant anything to tempt in Silver Washed Fritillaries here!
DeleteSome lovely images of flowers Wendy.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen any butterflies yet this year, although some Bloggers are already reporting some.
Thanks Roy. Until last weekend I'd only seen two Small Tortoiseshells, but on Sunday, in the lovely warm weather, I saw a couple of Brimstones and a couple of Peacocks. Hopefully it will keep warm and dry from now on and many more will start to come out.
DeleteFacscinating post, Wendy with, as always, wonderful photos to illustrate. I do hope you can get through that red tape and encourage your local council to think about those verges in a different way. I agree with Amy about getting the other councils in your area involved, also do you have a local Wildlife group who would help too?:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rosie. I hadn't thought about who else to get involved, I was hoping to achieve some results by myself! But I think you're right, I could certainly get in touch with local wildlife groups for their advice and support. I can't be the only person protesting locally, there must be other people who have complained as well.
DeleteYour photos are absolutely gorgeous. It's so frustrating that your council would spend time and money on cutting your land when you don't want the verges cut, there's no need for them to be cut and it'
ReplyDeleteSorry, my iPad was playing up and wouldn't let me finish off my previous comment. Which council is it?
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily. The responsibility falls to Essex County Council, Highways Dept, although they contract the work out. I suppose the county council cover such a large area that they don't want to be concerned with individual cases, but I would hope that the principle of not cutting down wildflowers until they have finished should apply across the county.
DeleteThanks Wendy. I have done an annoyed tweet at them: "It's a shame that @Essex_CC is intent on spending taxpayers money on cutting down primroses & other wildflowers: http://blueborage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/wildflowers-and-wild-areas.html" - they probably won't reply, but might if enough of us annoy them!
DeleteThat's great, Emily. Thanks so much for this. Hopefully with more protests against the verge cutting, they will start to listen.
DeleteI haven't the space for a wildlife meadow I have a strip maybe but that's about it. Even then I would prefer to dedicate that to growing flowers for cutting. However the front of my newly planted edible hedge offers plenty of scope for a multitude of wild flowers & bulbs, a thought provoking post.
ReplyDeleteI think that planting wildflowers and bulbs around your new hedge sounds great. I'm just not sure where I'll create my future wildflower patch here - I have to keep it away from the sheep!
DeleteCould you place some big stones in among the verges so that the blades cant go so low? Lovely post, your photos are beautiful and I love Pip. I have my small area of uncut grass instead of trying to keep a wildflower meadow. I hope to get some plug plants to put in to help it look a little less grassy, it was full of insects last summer.
ReplyDeleteI agree that trying to put something on the verge to protect the primroses is something to consider, although when I suggested this to the council they told me I shouldn't put anything on the verge for health and safety reasons. I really am facing a classic red tape situation!
DeleteI love the sound of keeping a small area of uncut grass especially for insects, with a few flowers here and there.
We must obey orders - regardless! It makes my blood boil - it is almost like mindless vandalism. My neighbour had the same problems with her wild flower meadow - which grew mostly unsightly weeds and one or two poppies.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Elaine, it is almost like mindless vandalism. It's this willingness to destroy a natural habitat without thinking about its value. This obsession with health and safety is so depressing.
DeleteWhen my wildflowers finished in the wildflower patch, I hadn't realised how quickly the weeds would take over.
Can I recommend just letting the grass grow, cutting it late July or early August, and putting in some plugs of cornflowers and poppies in spring? Very low maintenance, lovely effect....plenty insects. Not as picture perfect but easy! Good luck with the council - the parish council my have a bit of influence.
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of low maintenance! I've generally grown wildflowers from seed, but preparing the ground for them is hard work. It's why I've decided I just don't have the time for doing it like that again this year.
DeleteI agree that the parish council may have something to say about this. I would hope that they would be supportive.
I love wildflowers and wildflower meadows.. Why do councils feel the need to obliterate wildflowers.. it costs them more to keep cutting the verges then it would to leave them alone while the wildflowers are in bloom.. the saved money could then be used on other urgent matters!
ReplyDeleteLove your photo of Pip the goose :o)
I don't understand the thinking of the council either In some of their documents, they talk about the importance of preserving natural habitats in their area - and then they do something like this! In the latest response I had from them, they didn't seem to place any value on wildflowers at all.
DeletePip looks very settled there - I hope she doesn't go broody!
I used to volunteer and help at the local Wildlife Trust They too created a wildflower meadow and although it was beautiful over a number of years it was dominated by only a few species. Our local council always comes along and cuts down the cow parsley just as it starts to flower which always annoys me. They say it is done for road safety. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteYes, verge cutting does seem to be about road safety. I suspect the councils treat busy road junctions and quiet country lanes the same, but surely the common sense view is that they should be treated differently!
DeleteThat's interesting about the wildflower meadow your Wildlife Trust created. So many of the flowers I planted for my wildflower patch looked lovely for one year and then didn't show at all the following year.
The whole wildflower meadow question is interesting. I tried to make an annual wildflower meadow and put a lot of work in it. It was beautiful in year one but the kind of meadows seen around say the Olympic park need a lot of work to keep looking so flower filled and glorious. I am moving slowly to a more perennial based meadow, less spectacular but closer to what happens here without intervention. Love the primroses. They are one thing which does grow up here without help!
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to follow the creation of your perennial based meadow, Elizabeth. It is an issue finding the time to re-create a wildflower meadow every year. My patch was never a meadow as such, but it still needed that annual work.
DeleteThe primroses love it here too, If only all flowers were so low maintenance!
Oh what utter mindless madness....my teeth are gnashing reading about your gormless council. And a planting license???? I think I've heard it all. How awful to see those adorable primroses hacked down like that....words fail me!!! Good luck with the battle....maybe we could all sign a petition started by you...it could gather a lot of support on twitter...
ReplyDeleteI love Pip...what a fab pic and how I wish I had a goose....I love the ones at the rescue.
Some beautiful butterfly pics here....I know what you mean about problems with wildflower meadows....I'm having trouble getting flowers to grow in mine...maybe this will be the year, otherwise I'm off the job.xxx
I will see how I get on with the council, Dina. I still have some hope! They'll soon find out that I'm not going to be put off!
DeleteAll the geese are nesting at the moment and sometimes they share nests, too. Often they'll give up on one and create another, and this could be anywhere.
I'm looking forward to seeing your wildflowers!
A really great post with some wonderful photos. We planted our wildlflower meadow about 12/15 years ago and yes it is difficult to maintain. Like you the first year we had loads of poppies and corncockles and then gradually the dominant flowers became red campion, followed by oxeye daisies and then St John's Ragwort. All lovely though in their own way. The biggest problem is couch grass which starts to dominate after a while. Our "meadow" has already been reseeded twice!! The idea of leaving a patch of lawn unmown (Plantlife have a campaign on at the moment) is a great one. I am trying very hard to get my husband to do this - without much success :(
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about the primroses and mowing of verges. I get so angry round here if this happens. I think Plantlife do have a campaign. In fact, I am that impressed with all their campaigns I joined them a few days ago :)
That is so interesting about your own wildflower meadow and which flowers became the most dominant. We had lots of oxeye daisies here, and they were spreading everywhere, but last year they started to become crowded out by other things. I didn't think I'd see that.
DeleteI agree the Plantlife is a great organisation to support. I'm impressed with their campaigns, too. Thanks Caroline.
Great post and photos, I must say our council have stopped cutting all the grass at the park I visit daily, they do cut a path round were people walk. I found most of my wild flowers here as they are allowed to grow, they seem to be cutting the hedges later on the year, when the grass takes over and gets to long. On some of the roundabout they have Planted them up with wild flowers, rather than the common bedding plants, one roundabout is full of Primroses and Cowslips. Sorry to hear they are cutting yours, I do not know if ours are left due to money or planning, I hope it is good planning.
ReplyDeleteThat is great news about your council. It really does seem to be a mixed picture across the country - some local authorities are much more wildflower friendly than others (whether the reasons are financial or a positive planting policy!)
DeleteI much prefer to see native wildflowers planted, too than the traditional, municipal planting. Thanks Amanda
Hi Wendy, gosh, your "old" wild flower meadow looks so beautiful! Much to my surprise I also had read that keeping up a wild flower meadow requires quite a bit of dedication and your are just confirming that. Still they are so lovely! I don't have the land for a wild flower meadow, so I don't have to worry about that, but I am debating with me, if I plant a buddleia in one of the few spaces left open in the garden. Competing plant would be a big shrub rose, usually the rose wins, but this time it could be the buddleia ;-)!
ReplyDeleteHow sad that your council has been cutting down your verges. It looked so beautiful before they did it. Do you know why they are so eager to get to it? To me there seems to be no apparent reason. Hope you win the battle this year :-)!
The photo of Pip is amazing, it almost looks like a painting. Well, all your other photo are really nice, too. Wishing you a good week!
Christina
I understand your dilemma about planting, Christina. I love planting roses, and I love having roses, even though they wouldn't be visited by bees or butterflies. I don't think I could have a garden without some roses in it.
DeleteI think the two reasons the council cut the verges are health and safety i.e. if a driver has an accident and blames poor visibility then the council would be blamed - and then financial. The problem is that the council treat all roads the same and cut everything at the same time instead of mapping their area and leaving the 'safe' verges alone. There is no room for common sense or protecting natural wildlife.
Have a good week, too!
Hi Wendy, thanks for your comment today. I'm behind two posts on your blog but they both look so interesting I intend to find some quality time to devote to them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan
ReplyDeleteFurther to the 'let the lawn grow' approach to a meadow - a sharp distinction between the long grass and the short (ie keep the short bit very short) and a clear shape help the 'meadow' look intentional and not just as though you couldn't get around to cutting it! It's called 'differential mowing'. You can aslo vary the size and shape each year which is fun. Plugs of yellow rattle will help control the coarser grasses as they are parasitic on the roots. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this information, Freda. I really need to decide where I'm going to have my wildflower patch. I'm starting to realise that although I may not create it before next year, I must start planning for it well in advance.
DeletePip is beautiful- I would forgive her nesting in my flower beds too!
ReplyDeleteHow INFURIATING about the council. Definitely get in touch with Plantlife- sounds like a great organisation and hopefully they will bring some more power to your elbow.
Thanks for the mention too. CT x
I tend to forgive my geese anything!
DeleteI'd like to support Plantlife's campaigns and I can alert them my council's poor policy on verge cutting (assuming they don't know already!)
It was a lovely post on moths, CT. I'm learning so much about them from you and the other moth experts.
Keep fighting that red tape Wendy!
ReplyDeleteBy all accounts, creating a wildflower meadow is a lot harder than it looks so I'm impressed you've ever managed it at all.
I will do, Em!
DeleteMy wildflower patch did take two years to look good. I was disappointed with the first year and of course the third. The challenge will be making it good every year - and that's the hard work!
Don't you just hate bureaucracy! Good luck if you take up the fight. We've a grass verge here that we know belongs to the council but they won't maintain it. People park their cars and vans thus leaving huge indents that then turn too muddy puddles. It's a blinking eye sore.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Pip delightful - you can really forgive her anything I'm sure.
The bureaucracy of this is driving me mad, Angie. First of all I had to establish which tier of council was actually responsible for verge cutting - and then I had to find out who in the council I needed to talk to. That's before I even began to make some sort of progress with my complaint!
DeleteThe verges of our single track lane have deep ruts at the edge of them, too. This is caused by tractors and grain lorries from the farm yard at the bottom, plus other cars trying to pass each other. Fortunately it's not that busy, but it must have looked so much better 'pre-car'.
Super photos Wendy :) Such a shame about the verges - Kent Wildlife Trust have a number of Roadside Nature reserves which protect and manage verges. Does your local Wildlife Trust do anything similar? Maybe they could help?
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any initiative like this - but I will investigate. Thanks Lou.
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