The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

My dream is that by planting wildflowers in the million acres of gardens in the UK we can create vibrant wildlife corridors and enhance our surroundings. Flowers support insects which in turn feed small mammals, amphibians and other creatures higher in the food chain. This guide is a practical way to begin that journey, and is based on our own experience of creating a wildflower garden.

Thank you Malcolm for a fascinating and valuable article. A few years ago I didn't cut our lawn and this was the result. Not that many species perhaps but great for insects.

Hi Jon,
I knew it was good not to mow a lawn, but your results are amazing. I've recorded about 50 species in our front garden, many of them arrived without our intervention.
Malcolm

I started a meadow last year, It is a patch of land that used to be the route to a milking parlour twenty years ago. Until last year the grass was cut regularly and removed. I left it to grow last year and a number of flowers appeared, including one orchid. I bought a scythe and cut in late summer (it is not as easy as it looks) and I scoured patches last autumn and sowed some seeds I collected locally plus some yellow rattle to weaken the grass. I have also planted some plugs of wild flowers. Now I am looking forward to seeing what happens.

The Plantlife website has a whole section on wildflowers in the garden - loads and loads of information.
Enjoy: https://plantlife.love-wildflowers.org. ... er_garden/
(NB Plantlife have revamped their websites and the website specific to garden meadows seems to have gone. Try the meadows hub instead: https://meadows.plantlife.org.uk/ and for wildflower ID try their main site https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk and the downloadable https://meadows.plantlife.org.uk/wp-con ... _guide.pdf)

For anyone who has not yet seen it - the associated Moor Meadows website has the following advice on their How to Create a New Meadow page:
"I want poppies, cornflowers and corncockles
and
Converting a pony paddock into a wild flower meadow"

https://moormeadows.org.uk/information/ ... ew-meadow/