The first major garden task of the new year has been to trim off and remove last year’s growth from the wildflower meadows. The meadows are still in their infancy and a few parts are over-run with plants that I don’t want, like thistle and nettles. Each year, I will work on eradicating these unwanted plants.
The meadows won’t really be at their best until the trees have matured. They grew little last year due to unfavourable growing conditions. I hope they have grown extensive root systems so that this year they can put on a spurt upwards.
The main plants growing in the meadows are buttercups, red clover, ox-eye daisy and bird’s foot trefoil, but I’m hoping that the wildflowers that were sown around the pond in 2010 will now start to spread out into the meadows. I have also planted some wild primroses and a wild strawberry and it remains to be seen if they can establish themselves amongst the various type of grass, which is very thick in some areas, but there are bare patches in others.
I now have the task of gathering up the 30 or so piles of cuttings and transporting them away from the meadows to give young seedlings a chance to flourish.
Under the dead growth, the grasses are already shooting so it won’t be long before the meadows ring with the sound of crickets darting amongst the gently blowing grasses.