Hi Brent,
For general advice, I suggest you have a look at the associated Moor Meadows website on the page - How to create a meadow in your garden
https://moormeadows.org.uk/information/ ... ur-garden/
and How to create a new meadow
https://moormeadows.org.uk/information/ ... ew-meadow/
and there is a video on How to turn a small garden into a wildlife haven:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17
May I offer a few thoughts for your particular garden : -
1. that is an immaculate grassed area - are you willing to have it look bumpy and messy with flower stalks and leaf litter over winter? You might perhaps like to try encouraging wild flowers on just the bottom, to start with and see how it goes, perhaps working upwards a little each year.
Have a look around the hedge banks in your local area and see what grows well there.
2. To avoid disturbing the soil, you could try
a) only mowing say every 2 months and see what comes up. You probably have low growing plants such as self heal, dandelions, creeping buttercup, speedwell, bugle, white clover, hawkweeds, and plantain already growing in the grass. Don't worry about the moss; undisturbed moss is great for invertebrates and will look gorgeously green most of the year. All are good for wildlife and all will be naturally well suited to your slope.
b) larger perennial wild flowers may well arrive, such as yarrow and knapweed. These are really tough, with large root systems which will hold soil well even through winter. I would suggest that you encourage the evergreens or semi evergreens like these, so that you don't lose soil in winter when other leaves have died down. Ferns will come but may not be so good for holding soil in the winter as the soil under their fronds may become shaded and bare.
c) Or you could take divisions - just pull off a short stem with some roots at the base from a clump - from plants in other areas such as hedgerows, road sides, friends' fields. If you do it right now, while the soil is still wet, you can see what is evergreen/semi evergreen, and, importantly, they have a good chance of "taking", and you shouldn't need to water them through the year, as you would if you do anything later on. Watering on a disturbed soil could be hazardous for you and for the soil surface. You could insert the divisions into the slope by just making a tiny slit in the soil, plonking in the division, and pressing the soil firmly back and giving it a first and last watering in. You could even literally pin small sections to the bank, with metal pins such as those used for anchoring black plastic membrane mulch, and extract the pins later on. I would suggest pulling sections off a clump of self heal, which the bees love, I am spreading it all around my wet lawn, but you would have to look locally to see if it could cope with a dry slope.
d) you could scrape tiny patches in the mossy areas and press just a very very few perennial wild flower seeds into each patch. Seeds need bare earth to begin with, to be able to compete with the grass.
e) you could buy plug plants or buy seed, and grow it on into plug plants, and insert these into your slope.
f) if you look at the Goren Farm/Emorsgate/Naturescape/wildlife trust websites - they have suggestions for dry/shady sites. The wildlife trusts website has short descriptions of many native plants eg
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife ... s/selfheal
g) you could encourage plants already growing in your woodland onto your slope by taking stem cuttings and just pressing them into the damp soil, or digging up parts from existing clumps -this works for ivy which is good ground cover, sweet woodruff, deadnettles, pink campion, soapwort, primroses. Toadflax and stichwort usually grow well on steep banks.
h) you could give the bottom area over to evergreen/semi evergreen tussocky grasses. Brilliant for wildlife and no mowing, but a mess for 6 months of the year. Or
https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/stinking-iris evergreen with lovely seeds and I've never smelled anything.
i) All the above are for native plants, alternatively you could plant cultivated plants such as evergreen cotoneaster, low growing sedum, and periwinkle which cling and spread well and the flowers are great for bees, and the cotoneaster berries for birds, but shrubby plants would prohibit any future mowing. You may wish to plan towards stopping mowing and so much labour on this area. If you were to insert plants grown in a pot, as opposed to tiny plugs, you could ask a fellow Moors Meadow member for some well rotted meadow cuttings compost, and press a 4" layer (or whatever your slope would tolerate) around a mix of ivy plants (one can buy cultivated varieties of the native ivy in different shapes and colours) and periwinkle - the compost could seal moisture in, (you'd need to give any woody shrubby plants a gap around their stems for air) the compost may or may not provide some interesting seeds, it may be scattered by the birds, but for a while it could prevent unwanted weeds (eg nettles/brambles/docks which seem able to grow anywhere.) I would insert some lines of footholds into the slope for ease of access.
j) log piles and brash piles in the wood (great for getting rid of garden clippings), maybe log piles at the bottom of the slope (not as visually messy as brash) and a hedgehog shelter at the bottom of the slope, or in the wood. Different sized bird nest boxes - for hole nesters, and also the open front kinds, at different heights and on every tree and fence, and under the house eaves - sparrow boxes and swift boxes especially if you have swifts in the area (Swift conservation website has info). Bat boxes on trees and on the house. Lots of ivy and honeysuckle growing up every short post (so the ivy flowers and fruits) and tree.
k) or,.... you could let it all go and have a eventual thicket of bramble and docks - no work and lovely for wildlife (but judging by your immaculate mowing, probably far far too messy!)
And try to reclassify any annoying weed as a useful wild flower, There will probably be at least one insignificant little brown moth that loves it.
Hope this helps.
PS
A living roof would not be dissimilar to your slope. The charity Buglife has:
https://cdn.buglife.org.uk/2019/07/Crea ... idance.pdf Pages 10 and 11 discuss native flowers.
PPS Try Dave Goulson's book Gardening for Bumble Bees: A Practical Guide To Creating A Paradise For Pollinators
