'We' are the National Trust in East Devon and the site that we are carrying out lowland meadow creation is located at Lower Halsdon Farm, an NT tenant farm, on the north side of Exmouth.
After selecting just one field (2.1ha) to concentrate on, our journey to improving meadow species diversity started in Autumn 2018, with a contractor, tractor and spring harrow creating some bare earth a couple of months after a hay crop had been taken. Our method would be to 'oversow' wildflower seeds into the existing grassland. Attempting to get down to 60% bare soil, in the cultivated areas. With kind help from the grey long-eared bat project we sourced some seed from Emorsgate.
This seed mix was then mixed with some sand to add bulk to aid hand spreading (just seemed the right thing to do for hand spreading on a windy exposed site). Rather than trying to seed large areas we concentrated on three strips across the field, hoping that when the plants become established they will self seed further into the field. Seeded strips area = 0.3ha in a field of 2.1ha.
The field was then shut up for summer (no grazing animals).
The first year (summer 2019) was not all that encouraging - I did manage to trackdown some yellowrattle plants as well as an increase in the abundance of meadow buttercup and birds-foot trefoil, but not what I had hoped. The field was then cut for hay, and aftermath grazed with cattle.
Over the winter months no more seed was added to this field.
Summer 2020 showed some much more encouraging signs that our seed mix spread in 2018 had not been a complete waste of time. Knapweed had started to grow with a good spread of plants in the seeded strips; meadow vetchling, ladys bedstraw, much more yellowrattle and most obviously with its white flowers yarrow. The field was again cut for hay in Late Aug.
I hope that this summer we will see even more wild flowers in the grassland. With yellowrattle starting to take a hold of areas of dominant grasses. We shall have to wait and see what comes up!
Lessons learnt from this method;
Get more bare soil! I think the use of a power harrow in the early stages would have been more useful at getting more bare soil for the seeds.
Timings - I think we may have spread the seed slightly too late in the year (late Oct-early Nov might be too late). But the site being basically at sea level with rarely any frosts I didnt think this would be an issue. Also to cut for hay later in Aug/early sept to make sure all the flowers have set seed.
Patience - I'm encouraged by the signs that the field is getting more and more diverse but it is taking time. Creating meadows is not a quick process, certainly not through this method - this is something I am quickly learning!
Not sure if this has helped anyone in whether oversowing is a viable method of meadow creation, but I do invite comment and discussion .
Thanks,
Rob Skinner