The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

Between the greenhouses and sheds our garden area is quite wild, which means whenever we are sitting at the dining-room table there is something interesting to see outside. Most of the time there's plenty of bird activity around the seed feeders, except when it goes quiet after a swooping visit from...

That's an enjoyable and informative talk. Does anyone know of any entomologists who might be able to spend a few hours looking at our two small wildlife areas in East Devon next summer? Our meadow on the hill is buzzing and chirping with insects on a sunny summer day, but I think an expert would ide...

Thanks for that, Alma. I've now registered for the event: I just had to invent a name for my "business" and state that the area of my non-existent farm is 1.8 ha - 2 untruths before I've even applied for any funding! Maybe someone should publish a list of all the rules, with each one being...

Phew !- I registered for my SFI number then went to the event web page where it states "This workshop is available to any farmer or land manager in Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall, or the Isles of Scilly currently in receipt of BPS payments " (which I'm not). Reading through a small frac...

Hi dougyreed I'm not an expert, but have been experimenting with small patches in my garden over the last 6 years, and my soil is a damp, stony clay. In one patch I started a bit like you with a couple of inches of compost sowed in late autumn with a "perennials + annuals for 1st year interest&...

My bridge camera is very useful for getting pictures in the meadow - it can go from a macro setting good enough to image an insect in a flower, to a 35x optical zoom to get a decent picture of a tiny bird way up in a tree, all without the need to change the lens. But I'm rarely pleased with my pictu...

Yes, there's some Betony in that little wildflower patch and quite a lot in another patch just below. Also Yarrow, and Knapweed showing its flower heads. Actually in flower now are Campion (nearly finished), Yellow Rattle (vigorous this year), Buttercup, Oxeye Daisy, Cat's Ear, Ribwort Plantain and ...

After last year's unexpected orchid became two this year and were eaten by a deer, we found six more orchids in three different small wildflower patches in the garden:- 040Orchid_LDeck2024-05-29.jpg 040Orchid_UDeck2024-05-29.jpg 050Orchid_JPatch2024-05-30.jpg The first two look vulnerable and are no...

A few days ago I pulled the sheet of pond-liner off our old grass dump to check whether it was ready to use as com[post, only to find I'd startled the longest grass snake I've ever seen, that took several seconds to slide down its hole into the centre of the dump. We've seen smaller ones occasionall...

Thanks Jane - we were very proud of our orchids and have got our comeuppance now. This afternoon I sat in a sheltered spot and started reading this week's New Scientist magazine to forget about my disappointment, only to see an article entitled "Orchids feed their young through underground fung...