Wildflower meadows are beautiful, nature-rich habitats that once featured across much of the UK.
From late spring, meadow flowers such as clovers, ox-eye daisies, self heal, bird’s foot trefoil, hawkweed, knapweeds and many others, attract insects, birds and mammals, producing pops of colour in a haze of long grass. They fade by late summer when traditionally hay meadows were cut to feed livestock over the winter months.
Unfortunately we have lost about 97% of flowering meadows in the last 50 years, largely due to changing farming methods. With this loss, vital food and habitat for wildlife and pollinators has also gone.
However, by changing the way we look after our urban and suburban areas of grassland, we can begin to reverse this loss.
The Nature Group of Horsforth Climate Action have engaged with Leeds City Council to operate a reduced mowing regime of areas within playing fields in Horsforth. Cutting the grass less frequently results in an additional ‘win’ for the Climate Crisis as less fuel is used and it also results in more carbon being stored in the soil. In Drury Field and Cragg Hill Rec. two areas of ground have been managed this way. In autumn 2023, we also held community planting events, where extra wildflowers were planted and sown. The areas that are left un-mown are cut after summer when most of the flowering plants have set seed. All the cuttings are removed to keep fertility down. Wild flowers found in a meadow rely on low nutrient soils to thrive. Coarse grasses like rye- grass, are vigorous plants and soon outcompete the flowering plants. To get established, the flowering plants need the growth of grasses to be suppressed by reducing fertility and/or using Yellow Rattle. Yellow rattle, also called Hay Rattle, is a semi-parasitic annual wild flower and lives on the roots of grasses. It is sown onto areas of bare ground in autumn and needs the winter cold to germinate. The Nature Group have found that cutting turves of grass, inverting them and then sowing on to the underside of the turf, or under the flipped over turf, helps protect the seed from predators like birds, as well as providing the right condition for germination.
Following the cut and removal of the meadow plants and grasses, the whole area can be treated as one, to the same mowing regime until winter.
The management of Drury Field and Cragg Hill Rec is ongoing and we continue to monitor these and other areas in Horsforth.
Why not create a wildflower meadow in your own garden?
The size of ground suitable for wildflower meadow plants does not matter. Any patch can support nature.
If you are aiming to have an area of lawn as meadow, choose a sunny site. Get your wildflower seed from any reputable supplier, and if you are going to use yellow rattle seed, ensure it is fresh. Scratch or scarify an area of lawn until it is about 50% clear of existing grasses. Bare ground is also suitable if it has been dug over, levelled, and cleared of vigorous weeds like dock.
Sow seeds in autumn or early spring on the surface. Tread down. Water if dry. Protect from birds and other wildlife and cats if possible.
Yellow rattle should only be sown in autumn because it needs the cold of winter to germinate. Year on year the plants get more established and by the second or third year if managed with a late summer cut and removal as described above, you will have the beauty of flower-rich meadow patch buzzing with life and supporting nature.