What to expect from Meadow Gardens

Wildflower meadows take years to diversify, often, having little visual impact. The ‘Landscaping & Biodiversity Guide for New Developments’ recommends beauty or pictorial meadows instead of wildflower meadows. Beauty or Pictorial Meadows have an instant impact, allowing native species to gradually populate the area and provide foraging for pollinators from the outset.

The creation of a beauty/ pictorial meadow requires the following steps:
• Remove existing grass.
• Cultivate the area.
• Seed with a beauty or pictorial meadow mix in March/early April (depending on soil temperatures).

Yellow Rattle should be sown in year two to deal with any grass that has come into the meadow. It has a parasitic relationship with grass. Dominant grass species can adversely affect the diversification of the meadow. The inclusion of Yellow Rattle can address this.

The meadows are defined with a shallow, narrow trench. This ensures that the maintenance crew can locate the meadow at the start of the season. The beauty meadow is cut in late September/ early October. The cuttings are left where they fall for a week to ensure that the seed falls into the meadow. After a week they can be raked off and removed.