A new volunteer team member, with experience of helping to restore wildflower meadows in the Netherlands joined us in spring 2025. He generously donated seeds and consulted with colleagues at RHS Wisley in order to put together a programme of work for us.
The major problem to overcome was that the existing ground was too fertile to produce a viable meadow. The expert advice: take up the grass. Our work began that April when we removed the turf and then raked the soil to remove stones and obstructions. The area was then left for a few weeks before the first batch of wildflower seeds were sown.
The results later that summer were stunning – we had a wonderful array of wildflowers – including poppies, cornflower, mallow, corn cockle, yarrow and corn chamomile. In the autumn a second seeding followed to fill gaps and which included yellow rattle (semi-parasitic to grass) to help keep the grass down