Meadowmat: bringing back our wild flowers

What is the best way to start a wild flower meadow?

2012-03-01T22:05:00.000Z

When I was studying marketing, I was taught that "best" means different things to different people. For example, it might mean "highest quality" or "fastest" or "cheapest" and so when customers phone Q Lawns and ask what would be the best way for them to bring wild flowers into their garden, I can only tell them what I have found out by comparing seeding to using Meadowmat.

Last April, I planted two wild flower areas in my garden. In the first, I used seed bought from the garden centre for a total of about £10.00. For the second I used six square metres of Meadowmat - retail value about £68 including VAT.

Was the Meadowmat worth the extra money?
For me personally, YES. Why? because I'm a busy person and I like reliable results with the minimum of hassle.

Check out these two pictures, taken this afternoon (March 1st).

perennial wild flowers grown from seed almost 1 year ago. No flowers so far, poor species mix and poor germination

Meadowmat installed almost 1 year ago, most of these plants flowered last summer, excellent ground cover

What you can't see from the photographs is the difference in the amount of work that each area has created. Both areas were watered regularly for the first 3 weeks or so, once the Meadowmat had rooted in I stopped irrigating it but as it was a dry spring/summer, the seeds were watered probably twice a week. This year, we are already being threatened with hose-pipe bans. Meadowmat should be fine....most water companies allow you to water newly laid turf....not so, seeds.

Weeds....I HATE weeding with a vengeance and I have to say, that I haven't had to remove a single plant from the Meadowmat patch, it seemed to supress the plants that would normally have popped up by themselves. Not so the seeded area. I'll concede that there weren't any native grasses sown into the seeded patch and that may have made a slight difference to the amount of groundcover that grew, nevertheless, all that lovely water served to germinate just about every weed seed there could ever have been in that patch. Maybe I should have left it to its own devices, just to see what happened, but I didn't. I must have spent a total of over 20 hours on my knees in that small patch, pulling out all manner of things that I recognised as weed (if I wasn't sure, I let it be, just in case it was something I wanted to grow). And what did I get in return for all my TLC in the seed patch? Precisely NO flowers but some lovely Yarrow and Plantain leaves for the tortoises.

white campion in my meadowmat

If I were paying a gardener to nurture the seeded patch, It would have cost me far more than the Meadowmat, and if I were a bee.....I'd have given one area a wide berth and enjoyed the wild carrot, clover, vetch, hay rattle, birds foot trefoil, white campion, yarrow and plantain that bloomed so merrily in the Meadowmat patch before it was cut down, dried and fed to the guinea pigs as hay (which would have cost me about a fiver from the pet shop).

It's for everyone to make up their own mind about whether to use wild flower mat or whether to try seeding. I know which I prefer. This video says it all.

Growing wild flowers from seed and my 16th favourite wild flower, the Cowslip, Primula veris

2012-02-27T20:16:00.000Z

My next blog post is going to be a comparison between establishing wild flowers from seeds and using wild flower matting but for now, here is my 16th favourite wild flower, the cowslip.

I was having a bit of a de-weeding session in my garden at the weekend and came across a little patch of cowslips that I had forgotten I'd planted under the Cornus bush. A couple of years ago, I put in three plants, now there must be at least five times that many. That's the beauty of perennial wild flowers, they just keep growing and multiplying year after year.

cowslips

Rumour has it, that St Peter dropped the keys to Heaven and the first cowslip sprang from where they fell. Rumour also has it that the word "cowslip" came about because the seeds like to germinate in the remains of cow pats - or cowslop. Either way, the sight of a field full of cowslips in the spring never fails to chase the winter blues away.
Cowslips are included in the Meadowmat seed mix. So far I haven't spotted any signs of them germinating but like most wild flowers, they can be slow to show themselves. They definitely need a frost on them before they'll spring into life, so maybe in April 2013, once the plants have matured enough to flower, I'll have some more lovely nodding yellow blooms in my garden. I'm told they make good wine, but I think they give more pleasure in the field than they ever could in a bottle.

A brilliant book about bringing bees into the garden

2012-02-20T10:00:00.009Z

Back in January, I bought myself a copy of Jan Miller-Kelin's book, Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other benficial insects. My first thoughts, were that this would be a valuable resource to learn more about the way that all 34 of the plant species in Meadowmat would interact to help support pollinating insects and indeed other creatures. Here's the link to my blogpost at the time. http://meadowmat.blogspot.com/2012/01/gardening-for-butterflies-bees-and.html

I'm happy to say that the book is amazing and I could certainly recommend it to professional garden designers as well as to interested amateur gardeners like myself.

Here's an extract from the book, see what you think

There are a few rules of thumb in attracting butterflies into the garden:-

Butterflies are attracted foremost by sight, so home in on large clumps of the same flower.
They seem to prefer purples, deep pinks and sometimes yellow and white, and do not go to deep reds at all
They need to feed in warm, sunny places, sheltered from the wind.
The individual flowers hould be single; doubles and other fancy cultivars are often ignored.
The nectar plants need to be well-watered in times of drought so that enough runny nectar is produced.
Provide different laval food plants for different species and,
of course, there can't be any spraying of insecticides!

I never realised that butterflies are influenced by colour schemes. If you'd like to read more, the book is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/.

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 17 is Clover

2012-02-17T19:26:00.001Z

Red clover, one of the first wild flowers to bloom in spring,
this picture was taken in April 2011

Red clover is perhaps one of our most recognisable wild flowers here in the UK. It's distinctive trefoil leaf has been borrowed by Girl Guides all over the world to symbolise their three part promise, and the hope of finding that elusive four-leaved clover has had many a child grovelling about on their knees. It's also a blessed curse in my lawn; blessed because it stays green in the summer and doesn't need as much mowing as grass; cursed because it is forever thwarting my attempts at producing a velvety sward.

Clover flowers are rich in nectar and nourish bees from late spring through to early autumn, they're especially important to bumble bees awakening from hibernation and looking for a hearty breakfast because clover pollen is high in protein. That's one of the main reasons that red clover (Trifolium pratense) is included in the seed mix for Meadowmat

Bumblebees are in decline, mainly because they're aren't enough of their favourite flowers available to feed them...remember, bumblebees don't make honey, their lavae feed on pollen. Bumblebees really like pollens from the legume family of plants, that's clovers, vetches, peas and beans because they're rich in essential nutrients.

Why should we mind that bumblebees are in decline? well, if you're into growing your own veg, or if you're a farmer, you'll know that bumblebess are the ones that help to pollinate almost all of the fruit, peas and beans that we eat, and many of the veggies too. A world without bumblebees would be a world without baked beans or apple pie.......or scrumpy! It doesn't bear thinking about!

So if you want to help bees and other pollinating insects.......grow some clover!

Using Wild Flowers in Garden Design

2012-02-09T09:19:00.001Z

Sarah Raven's excellent TV program on wild flowers and pollinators last night was an inspiration. But how can we bring more wild flowers into the garden and still have it looking good all year round?

Maxine Tricker is a garden designer based in Hertfordshire who has a passion for wild flowers. Read on to discover how she incorporates wild flowers into her designs.

One of Maxine's wild flower areas

It’s not so much... ‘I suppose we could stick some wild-flowers in this spare piece of ground in your garden’, but more... ‘where can we squeeze some wildflowers in to compliment or enhance the overall design’ !

I’ve noticed an increase in requests for a ‘wild area’ in design for about the past year or so... or perhaps it’s my influence as I ‘plant the seed’ early on in discussions ! I do like to squeeze a few wild-flowers in where I can !!

For the past few years I have experimented with wild-flowers, in different forms, in my own garden and have been fortunate to have had clients keen to include wild-flowers in their garden too – a different choice of product depending on the area and their budget.

If cost is not an issue, my preference is wild-flower matting (Meadowmat) enhanced with wild-flower plugs. Meadowmat is a great product – you need to clear the area of perennial weeds, level the soil a bit... then just bung it down ! OK maybe take a little more finesse than that.. but as long as there are no major air-gaps it will root through the membrame and do it’s stuff and cover the ground and that means NO WEEDS !! Excellent !

But... it is mainly grasses (which do look great !) and in the first year or so the ‘flowers’ can be few or far between... so adding a few extra flowers of your choice just gives it that bit of an extra ‘wow’ ... and a personal touch too !

Saying that... I have the tiniest piece of meadowmat (my sample) .. and I was blown away by the wild carrot that appeared. It was so impressive !! Wildflowers and grasses are effected by soil fertility – the grasses love the good stuff.. but the wild-flowers need poor soil. So treat it mean ... and no feeding !!

So how or where could you use wild-flowers in your garden ?

If you have a separate area of your garden as a designated ‘wild’ area that’s great.. you can add a log pile and surround it with berry bearing shrubs ... for a wild-life haven !

Or you can ‘sneak’ some wild-flowers in....

meadowmat just before flowering

I like to use Meadowmat at the bottom of a lawned garden... the smooth lawn ending with the rough grass - looks great ! And easier to cut too... just mow along the edge, no trimming required ! If your lawn goes all the way to the fence or a hedge.. this is a great way of softening the gap and can be a more cost-effective option than shrubs etc. It also looks good around the edge of a lawn.. filling the gap between the grass and the planted border.. so just mow round the edge and no trimming !!

I have also used Meadowmat on a slope where the soil is not stable enough for planting... you need a few pegs to hold it in place (although it’s a heavy product, so won’t move too far !) This will hold back the soil perfectly and it’s interesting to see how the grass grows upright and some of the wild-flowers hang down the bank.. so again gives a different look.

Wild thyme growing naturally in Thetford forest

The wild-flower I use most of all is ‘Wild Thyme’ – this is creeping thyme so not the woody type you generally buy as a herb for cooking. I buy this by the tray of 100 plugs... and always have a few around, just incase !

It’s great as a lawn edging, to fill the gap between grass and gravel, as an in-fill between stepping stones or slabs.... or even as a small ‘Thyme Lawn’ ! I do like creeping thyme J

So what about wild-flower seeds ? I’ve had some good and not-so-good (bordering on a bit scarey) experiences with seeds. I would suggest that you are cautious in your exuberance of scattering seeds – do stick to the recommended quantity you need for a measured area as they tend to germinate very well ! (they’re not called wild-flowers for nothing !!) So don’t double up, or triple-up on the qty even though they are cheap ! And do mix sand with the smaller seeds to help with an even spread.

plug plants and seeds mixed

I had a fairly large area (6m x 10m approx) which I planted with about 200 plugs and then added a mixed annual seed to give it a bit of ‘umph’ in the first year ! Well it certainly did that... as I also used a much larger quantity than recommended (as requested by my clients) ... then I started to panic as the wildflower plugs were slowly swamped by the annuals ! Eek !! It looked fantastic for a while... but it took me hours (or more like days) to remove the monster plants before they self-seeded.. and so much plant waste to dispose of ! I won’t be making that mistake again !

Cost is a major input when choosing which wild-flowers I select.. .. Meadowmat, plants, plugs or seed.. but I also take into account the preparation time and maintenance to keep the area looking good.

Here’s my thoughts on the different options I use :

Meadowmat

Meadowmat – Cost is quite high, but soil preparation and maintenance is fairly low. Needs one or two trims in the autumn depending on the growth rate of the grasses. Has a reasonable selection of wild-flowers, but it’s a bit pot-luck !

Plants – many wild-flowers are available as small plants (1 litre pots or larger) . Great for using in a mixed border where plugs are too small, but cost is high compared to plugs.

Plugs – Wild-flower plugs are great !! Cost effective and a huge choice of wild-flowers... specific to soil type, sun or shade and even rabbit-proof ones ! There is perhaps too much choice and can be quite daunting to choose.... but you can get mixed trays like a ‘Butterfly’ mix or all blue flowers. Lots of choice ! J

Cost is OK – I think very good value, but soil does need to be prepared well, and if planting more than 100 plugs can be quite tedious (although there are special planting tools you can hire !) – and of course you will need to keep on top of weeding. If you let the weeds grow up too big, then weeding can be a big multi-choice question paper ! You know when you have the answer wrong... when you pull up a plug ! Ooops !! ... Yes I have got a few wrong answers !

If you plant the plugs in groups, then this gives you a better chance of working out which is plant and which is weed before you get it wrong. With 30 or 40 plugs it should be easy enough... but when you have 200 or so it can be quite confusing! Plugs in Meadowmat... means no weeding J

Seeds – Of course, these are by far the cheapest to buy and again a huge selection of plants to choose from, and ready mixed packs also available. You need good soil preparation again, as for the plugs, and lots of weeding ! And unless you know what each seedling looks like... then weeding can be a challenge. For a larger area, say over 50m2 – it would be not be practical to weed, so some of the more vigorous plants would be a better choice, as they are likely to outgrow the weeds.

Either collect seeds or allow them to self-seed before trimming back in the autumn, or leave the plants to die down over winter. It depends on the area and what it’s used for.

I hope this gives you a few ideas for your own garden, and perhaps using my experience to help you choose the right product for you.

Visit Maxine's website at http://www.maxyourgarden.co.uk/http://www.maxyourgarden.co.uk/

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 18 is Meadow Buttercup

2012-02-07T20:57:00.000Z

insects just adore the cheery yellow buttercup flowers

This flower has got to be one of the brightest, cheeriest wild flowers there are. I have enduring memories of friends from primary school holding buttercups under each others' chins to "see if you like butter". I never did understand how the trick worked, but it was certainly a strong playground tradition, nearly as strong as "kiss chase" and hopscotch.

buttercups in a traditionally managed meadow in Norfolk

I was so glad to see Meadow Buttercup included in the seed mix for Meadowmat wild flower matting, so far they've not appeared in my own little patch, but there's still time, it was only installed 9 months ago and some species need a hard frost before the seeds will germinate. No shortage of frost in my garden tonight, so maybe I'll be lucky this year.

Flowering from early spring onwards, this is one of the wild flowers that is abundant in the traditionally managed meadow on one of my regular dog walks. I didn't realise until reading Sarah Raven's book "Wild Flowers" that the flowers and stems of Ranunculus acris (Meadow Buttercup) are unpalatable to grazing animals---not poisonous, for they quite like buttercups in hay---but with a bitter taste that I suppose ensures the flowers stay around long enough to set seed. Ingenious.

Next post will be Maxine Tricker's ideas for using wild flowers in garden design .... keep checking the blog, I've read the article and it's too good to miss

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 19 is Meadow Saxifrage

2012-01-24T16:10:00.000Z

I don't know quite why Meadow Saxifrage, or Saxifragia granula is all the way down at number 19, it really deserves to be in the top five of my favourite wild flowers, along with all the other 37 species I like so much.

Saxifragia granulata growing in Enviromat sedum matting

Meadow Saxifrage is on the favourites list because it's just the prettiest, delicate-looking but resiliant little plants to flower early in the year and it always marks the arrival of springtime on the Enviromat field.

The family name Saxifrage means "stone breaking" because these plants are happy on poor, stony ground in exposed places which in turn, makes them really well suited to green roofing.

Flowering from April - June, these beauties are a source of nectar for butterflies and bees coming out of hibernation. They're just exquisite!

Angela's top 20 wild flowers; Number 20 is Ribwort Plantain

2012-01-22T21:28:00.001Z

As a child, I used to love going for walks with my Grandmother, Nanny Brown, who would encourage me to take note of what was growing beside the footpath and in the woods. As I grew up, I became distracted by homework, ponies, Young Farmers, weddings, children, etc and wild flowers were pushed to the back of my mind. But since Q Lawns launched Meadowmat last spring, I've revived my interest in wild flowers and I've enjoyed re-learning their names, finding flowers that didn't grow in the hedgerows around Brickendon and of course remembering how simple life was back then.

It's been soooo difficult putting together a top twenty chart of my favourite wild flowers and there are lots and lots of runners up. But here goes.

Number 20: Ribwort Plantain

plaintain viewed from above - not so plain after all!

This is one plant that I've only really noticed in the past 6 months. It seems pretty unremarkable really. It's not showy, or fragrant or outstanding in any way. In the lawn, it's an undesirable; it doesn't have much nectar but the seedheads remain for most of the winter and are eaten by sparrows and dunnock. BUT there are a number of moth caterpillars that rely on plantains for food.

Why do I like plantains? well, my daughter has two baby tortoises to care for, they're too young to hibernate and they need fresh foliage all through the winter. Rhonda and Hermione are not allowed "Supermarket greens" because apparently they don't have the right balance of nutrients and so I have become hunter gatherer for a couple of reptiles. Ribwort plantain and Yarrow are just about the only wild plants on the "safe for tortoises to eat" list that are easy to find in January, hence, they are both in the top twenty.

Plantains remind me of a certain kind of person, there's one in nearly every organisation. Whatever the occasion they'll be there, but they're rarely noticed and even more rarely appreciated for what they have to offer. Another elderly relative had a favourite saying "squeaky gate gets the oil" meaning those who make the most noise get the most attention, but the quiet, nay seemingly insignificant ones, could well be the most useful

Wild Flower Mat in the Frost

2012-01-17T12:24:00.000Z

Photo's of Meadowmat taken this morning while the frost was still on the leaves. I have to confess, I was still abed when these were taken. All credit goes to Robert Allen our Production Manager who clearly doesn't have as much beauty sleep as I do. Thanks Robert!

Meadowmat wild flower matting in the frost

A frosty sunrise on the meadowmat field

It's wonderful to see wild flowers in winter

2012-01-16T19:45:00.000Z

winter heliotrope taken 13th january 2012

Outside the office at Q Lawns, sits a sample of MeadowMat waiting to be collected by our salesman. It's freezing out there, the vegetation is white with frost, yet bobbing about above the leaves are two blooms, one is ragged robin, the other yarrow. It's so unexpected to see wild flowers in winter, these two are a real joy to behold.

I've not been down to the Meadowmat production field lately, but Robert Allen, our Production Manager tells me it looks amazing with the frost on it. He says I can probably get some amazing photographs if I get up early in the morning when it's still freezing hard. Hmmmmmm, I like the idea of some frosty photos, but getting up early? It's just not me.....

I did manage to snap some lovely wild flowers while I was walking the dogs at the weekend. I had no idea what they were and had never seen them in flower before. Lucky for me, Nick Coslett from Palmstead Nurseries, Paul Addison from Q Lawns and Harriet Holland on Twitter were able to identify the plant for me.

I always assumed from the leaves that they are coltsfoot but in fact they're a cousin of coltsfoot called Winter Heliotrope or Petasites fragrans. Apparantly the plant was introduced to England as an ornamental in 1806, it's actually a nativ of the central mediterranean; is quite invasive, flowers from Nov - Feb, spreads via underground rhizomes and the flowers smell a bit like vanilla. I'm afraid I can't verify the scent....I didn't fancy scrambling over the barbed wire fence just for a sniff!

ragged robin

yarrow

Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects

2012-01-10T12:26:00.000Z

Today, I recieved in the post a copy of the book "Gardening for Butterflies, Bees and other beneficial insects" by Jan Miller-Klein.

I've not had time to study it in detail yet, but a quick flick through has left me itching to put aside a whole afternoon to be spent in a comfy chair with a pot of tea, a log fire and a fruit cake, just reading this book and learning so much more about ways to nurture and support the flying minibeasts that are so important to our eco-system.

Jan's book takes us through the four seasons, telling us which butterflies and bees are likely to be active and which plants they need to supply them with nectar and with food for their caterpillars. I'm not surprised to see that many of the plant species Jan describes are in Meadowmat and how many could be plug-planted into Meadowmat or planted alongside it to make even more valuable habitat. All of the plants in the book are beautifully photographed and described with sensible advice on how best to cultivate them and what to grow alongside them.

This is a great book for anyone who enjoys (or would like to enjoy) gardening for wildlife

Design Trends for 2012

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000Z

Reading through my Gardens Illustrated magazine, I've just spotted a wonderful quote from Rosemary Alexander of the English Gardening School who is predicting garden design trends for 2012

"Wildflower meadows, often difficult to establish, can be supplied in carpet form - just roll out on top of prepared soil. It's expensive but much easier, especially for a small space"

wild flowers - colourful and bee-friendly

Fantastic news, I hope Rosemary is right, it will be wonderful if gardeners all over the UK could plant just a few wild flowers to protect the country's biodiversity and help support pollinating insects.

Me? I'm re-planting one of the borders in my garden with mainly native species. So the Christmas break will be spent researching species and varieties and writing myself a wish list. If the weather is nice, I may even get outside and do some digging.

Wild Flowers in Winter and Seeds v Meadowmat

2011-12-13T10:05:00.000Z

Winter weather has arrived in Norfolk. Although the sun has been quite bright during the daytime, we've had a couple of overnight frosts and there is a distinct nip in the air.

corn marigold blooming in december

That's why I was so surprised to find this corn marigold blooming its little socks off in my seeded wild flower area.

Finally, the wild flower area I've been trying to grow from seed is developing a nice population of perennial plants. I can recognise Yarrow, Sorrell, Scarlet Pimpernel (with buds on!) and there are at least two other species that I'm struggling to identify.

The Meadowmat however, seems to have more species than ever! I've mown it quite short so that any seeds trying to germinate in the sward have as much light as they possibly can have and as a result I'm seeing really strong populations of clover, yarrow, plantain, sorrell and vetch. Again, there are some plants that I'm not familiar with - at least not without their flowers!

I hope that the Yellow Rattle will grow in my Meadowmat again next year, there's still a little more grass than I'd like there to be (although Lilly and Lunar the Guinea Pigs didn't object to the hay crop it produced). I've read that a combination of mowing through the autumn and winter along with having yellow rattle in place will help to supress the grass so that it doesn't overpower the flowering plants. I have two other weapons in my armoury to keep the grass short........Jennifer and Jemima...my two buff orpington hens who love to peck at the fresh green shoots.

Jennifer chicken enjoys Meadowmat

wildflower plants grown from seed

Preparing the ground for wild flowers

2011-11-22T11:44:00.000Z

If you’re thinking of planting a wildflower meadow next year, now is a good time to start planning and preparing.

This is a funny old time of year, the garden doesn’t feel particularly productive, but work done now will pay off next spring/summer when the garden is in full flower and covered with butterflies, bees, hoverflies and myriads of pollinating insects.

My husband is a farmer, his family moved to this farm in 1737, so there are several generations worth of wisdom floating around. One piece of sound advice oft repeated by Uncle Fred was “get all the ploughing finished by Christmas”. Why? Because frosty conditions on newly disturbed soil will help break up clods, it will help kill off pests and diseases and any weeds that dare to germinate after harvest will be stopped in their tracks.

This weekend, have a good look around the garden and decide where your wild flower patch will go. It doesn’t need to be a huge area – just a couple of square metres will do. Remember, if every gardener in the UK were to convert just 10% of their garden into a wild flower meadow, then 10,000 hectares of butterfly habitat would be restored. Awesome!

vegetation removed, the soil is dug over

The ideal spot for a mini-meadow (or a mega meadow) will be reasonably sunny, well drained and ideally with impoverished soil although meadow management can help reduce the soil fertility over time so don’t panic if it’s been well fed in the past. Soil type isn’t important, the flowering plants will adapt to survive in chalk, sand or clay soils.

Number one job at this time of year is to remove all vegetation, especially perennial weeds like dandelions, docks and nettles. To be truly wildlife friendly, dig out every part of the plants, roots and all. If that’s a scary prospect, glyphosate spray is an option but it won’t work as well in cooler weather and the way the spray works will mean that unwanted plants die back and are turned back into soil nutrients – so spraying isn’t ideal. However you decide to rid the area of unwanted plants – make sure you kill the roots too so that the weed can’t regenerate itself next spring. Me? I’m planning to clear the ground for my next wild flower patch with a unique tool – my eldest son and his trusty spade.

wild flowers in november, mowing meadowmat and my big wildlife garden

2011-11-19T20:59:00.001Z

yarrow and ragged robin pictured in mid november

This amazing picture was taken by our Sales Office Manager only last week!

All this colour and diversity in the middle of November. Amazing!

Debs took the picture on the Meadowmat production field. Admittedly, we have sneaked some annual wild flower species (cornflowers and poppies) in here for extra colour but doesn't that ragged robin look stunning?

Lenny, who's long legged good looks only serve to enhance
the beauty of these native wild flowers

Also looking stunning, is Lenny who ought to be a supermodel - even if he does say so himself!

Mow, Mow, Mow your Meadow
Traditional wild flower meadows - including the one featured in this blog - are grazed at this time of year. Grazing keeps the grasses nice and short so that they're not competing with the flowering plants for light. It also scuffs up the ground, creating bare patches where flower seeds can germinate.
My little patch of MeadowMat is too small to support a cow and although I'm tempted to let Jennifer and Jemima (my two buff orpington chickens) have a scratch around on there, I'm worried that they'll scoff any seeds that are trying to germinate. So, the next best thing is my trusty Hayter Harrier. This afternoon, once the sun had dried up all the dew, I ran the mower over my Meadowmat with the blades set as high as possible. All the clippings were despatched to the compost heap. My "meadow" looks much neater now and I'm confident I haven't damaged any of the flowering plants - they all sit quite close to the ground. In fact, now that the grass is shorter, I can see a couple of species I haven't noticed before - hurrah!
My Big Wildlife Garden
Installing Meadowmat in my garden has really inspired me to do more for wildlife. I've signed up to the Big Wildlife Garden Competition being run by the Wildlife Trusts and the RHS. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some hints and make some new friends. Check out Angela's patch at bigwildlifegarden.org.uk

new wild flower pictures taken late october/early november

2011-11-02T21:19:00.000Z

Walking out on the MeadowMat production fields yesterday (1st November) I was flabberghasted to see so much colour so late in the year. Note to self; bribe the Production Manager with cake to find out how he does it and then get him to help me advise folks on the best possible management regime for wild flower meadows.

oxeye daisy

ragged robin - looking windswept

lesser trefoil

yarrow

common toadflax

Native Species from Different Millenia

2011-10-31T15:46:00.000Z

Last week we took MeadowMat, Enviromat and our Q Lawns' turf to the Creating Landscapes show at Capel Manor College near Enfield to inspire landscapers and designers to include more lawns, more green roofs and more wild flowers in their projects.

oxeye daisy and sorrel look fab with
ancient bog oak stepping stones

The most difficult thing about these shows is knowing how to make a stand more exciting, more eyecatching and more informative than the neighbouring stands and so this time, I asked garden designer Maxine Tricker to help with ideas and I am so so glad she said yes.

ragged robin looks amazing against
a background of bog oak

Maxine used Meadowmat and wild flowers alongside our BogOak to create a show-stopping display. Inspirational and the most ironic thing about it, is that BogOak was the original English wild wood. These trees were living in East Anglia at the same time as Stonehenge was being built - fabulous!

Meadowmat at creating landscapes show -
a bit squashed from the journey

Inspired by Autumn wildflowers

2011-10-08T21:06:00.000+01:00

hawthorn berries, colourful bird food

Walking with my dogs this afternoon and picking blackberries, I couldn’t help but admire what Mother Nature has done in her garden. The hedgerows are bursting with berries and although the majority of the native flowers and grasses have long since finished blooming, many of their seed heads are in their prime, some, like the wild carrot are delicate and beautiful, some, like knapweed stand strong and firm….and I can see why our ancestors called it knobweed.

poppy seedhead

Last week, Kevin and I were at Palmstead Nurseries’ “Designing for Maintenance” workshop and I was impressed at how James Alexander Sinclair has used great swathes of perennial plants to create low-maintenance borders that interesting all year round and (allegedly!) easy to look after. It certainly made me think differently about one of the borders in my garden. …the one where I’ve tried to mix shrubs and perennials and ended up with three tired looking bushes, a floppy rose bush, a sedum and an invasion of creeping buttercup.

But it was Alan Titchmarsh on this week’s Love Your Garden program that helped make my mind up about my next outdoor project. He was looking at cottage gardens. Something I’ve always loved but not fully understood until I heard Professor Hitchmough at the Palmstead event.

I struggled to see why, in times gone by when people on low incomes NEEDED to grow their own food, they put so much time and energy into growing flowers alongside the veg, but now I get it….not only are the flowers a brilliant way to lift the spirits when times are hard, they act as a mulch, suppressing weeds AND, if any weeds do sneak in, they disguised because they look like part of the planting. And what else benefits from cottage garden plants? Pollinating insects of course! Whether they knew it or not, those gardeners from times gone by were gardening in an incredibly sustainable way.

So, I have devised a plan for my border. I’m going to take out all the shrubs, apart from the cotoneaster that self-seeded itself in Brickendon churchyard, was found by Grandad Brown and passed on to me when I started my garden 25 years ago.

lady's bedstraw, one of my favourite native
species

I shall re-plant using mainly native species that will self-seed, encourage wildlife into the garden and give me all year round interest. I love my MeadowMat, it fascinates me but it isn’t really “showy” in midsummer and autumn.

My new border will take what I love most about MeadowMat and adapt it for a more “mainstream” application. I’ll use cowslips for early colour, plenty of oxeye daisys, wild carrot and yarrow, lots of lady’s bedstraw, because I adore it, Meadowsweet for height, some sorrell for autumn colour, some later flowering grasses, and some tall species like foxgloves, mullein and rosa rugosa added in, There’ll also be some cornfield annuals - poppies, cornflowers and corn marigolds and I might sneak in some non-native, but wildlife friendly species extra impact.

Once it’s established, so probably after a couple of years worth of weeding, (but no feeding, that’s another plus for wild flowers) I’ll be able to manage the border in such a way that there minimal maintenance but all year round interest. So while I cut MeadowMat in summer to make hay, this border will be cut in early spring and then left to do it’s own thing for the rest of the year…..at least that’s my theory!

While I’m at it, I think I’ll extend the Meadowmat area and experiment with different management techniques to see how the species mix and the wildlife interest is affec

Questions about MeadowMat?

2011-09-30T12:12:00.000+01:00

If you have any questions about MeadowMat wild flower mat, we're always happy to answer them. Please contact us directly by phone 01842 828266 (7am-5pm monday-friday), or by emailing us

Alternatively, you might find the answers to your questions on our web site at http://www.meadowmat.com/

Look forward to hearing from you.............

wild flower seeds vs wild flower mat - 6 months on

2011-09-26T19:32:00.000+01:00

Goodness, doesn't time fly, I can hardly believe it was almost six months ago that I first installed my 6m2 of Meadowmat and sowed some wild flower seeds so that I could compare the two methods of creating a wild flower meadow.

Steven Brown from Beescapes joined my green roofing course a couple of weeks ago. His company specialises in encouraging landowners to establish large scale wild flower meadows to support bees. Steve was telling me how they work on a five year timescale - ie it takes five years from sowing seedsuntil the meadow is really flourishing and I can see how that makes sense.

yellow rattle (aka hay rattle) flowering soon after
my meadowmat was installed

So in my garden, the Meadowmat was installed in April, allowed to grow on until the end of July, producing a few flowers and lots of grass in that time, cut for hay in July and has since been mown really short. Today, there are clearly visible clovers, plantains, oxeye daisies, yarrow, vetch and several seedlings that are too small to identify. Through the growing season I also had a lovely flush of yellow rattle which died back after seeding. Plenty of insects, spiders and birds have visited and even though it wasn't as floral as I imagined it would be, I have every reason to believe that next year the grasses will be weaker and the flowering plants more prolific.

The wild flower seeds, were sown in April, weeded in April, May, June, July and September, have produced no flowers whatsoever (apart from the sunflowers that had seeded themselves from the previous year) and I can see 6 nice strong yarrow plants, 4 plantains and a couple of strangers that I can't identify yet. BUT, I do know that many of our native species need a cold spell before the seeds can germinate, so my hopes are set on next spring bringing forward a nice crop of flowering plants.

To see how easy it is to install MeadowMat, take a look at our video

MeadowMat heads to the shows

2011-09-19T20:45:00.000+01:00

We're all hands on deck in the Q Lawns office as we prepare for two trade shows.

Most of the horticultural events aimed at gardeners take place in the spring and summer, but, as you can imagine, at that time of year, professional landscapers are often too busy to take a day off work to spend time wandering round flower shows.

Tommy Walsh talks to Chris Carr from Q Lawns about
MeadowMat wild flower matting. The living green roof in the
background was created using Enviromat sedum matting

Earlier this year Q Lawns exhibited at the BALI Landscape Show in Stoneleigh where MeadowMat and Enviromat both attracted a lot of attention from journalists, garden designers, landscaper contractors and horticultural students.

In a fortnight's time, on wednesday 28th September, both Enviromat and Meadowmat will be on display at Palmstead Nurseries in Ashford, Kent.

Following on from that, is what is promising to be a very exciting event the "Creating Landscapes" show at Capel Manor College near Enfield, North London, held on 25th and 26th October

Creating Landscapes is run by The Landscape Juice Network, a social networking site for landscape professionals and an excellent place to go for advice on any aspect of garden design, build and maintenance and on running a landscape business.

Check out the seminar program for the show - Angela is going to be talking about green roofing. Green roofing is an excellent way to support our pollinating insects and to make wildlife corridors in urban areas, but if it's wild flowers you're interested in - fear not! MeadowMat will be on the Q Lawns stand along with Angela, Chris, Kevin and Robert who can answer any questions you may have.

The show is free to visit, and if you pre-register online you may even be in with a chance of winning an i-pad 2

Why wild flowers like bare bits

2011-09-14T20:28:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I got very bold indeed. My 6m2 of MeadowMat was cut down for hay at the end of July and the plants were recovering nicely, the grasses more so than the flowering plants.

Now the danger here, is that the grasses get too strong and overwhelm the flowers, and so, to control the grass and give the flowering plants a sporting chance, I used my lawnmower to cut the whole lot short. Really short.

New wild flower plants appearing where once there were bald patches

When the deed was done and the clippings were all raked off and put on the compost heap, my poor little wild bit looked very sorry for itself and I felt even more guilty than I did when I forgot to feed my Grandson's caterpillars and they died. The grass was all brown and stubby, there were bare bits where I could see the soil, the broad leaved plants looked all feeble - it was just awful. .....and then it rained

Do you know what? After the rain, the wild flower plants have come back stronger than ever while the grasses are still looking a bit reticent and even better than that, in the baldy bits, there are lots of tiny seedlings starting to germinate.

I feel better now. Thinking about it, extreme mowing has had the same effect as grazing animals in a traditional meadow would have.......grazing cuts the grass really short and stomping about with hooves creates baldy bits for new plants to germinate in.

Frog in MeadowMat aka Maxine's Toad in the Hole

Maxine Tricker from Max Your Garden in Hertfordshire knows all about bare bits in wild flower meadows and she has the pictures to prove it. They're not bald bits, they're hidey holes for frogs. Love it!

Jon C's wild flower garden and food for tort

2011-09-05T21:19:00.001+01:00

Have a look at these before and after pictures from Jon C

Jon's Garden "Before"

Jon's Garden "After"

Oxeye Daisy in Jon C's MeadowMat

Quite a difference wouldn't you say? This MeadowMat was installed in July. When it was delivered, the plants would have been mown quite short - to prevent them being damaged while rolled up - and there would have been no flowers on it at all. It's obviously been very well installed and very well cared for. This is what Jon has to say..

Yarrow Flower in Jon C's MeadowMat

Amazing product. While myself and my girlfriend were cutting it last night we came across 3 different butterflies, one very large hairy caterpillar and a beautiful moth. The birdies love it as well. The MeadowMat has transformed what was an awful looking area.

Don't think the MeadowMat transformed the area by itself Jon - but you've certainly used it to good effect.

On the subject of butterflies, caterpillars, moths and birdies, I may have discovered another type of critter that will enjoy MeadowMat - tortoises.

My daughter, her boyfriend (the tall, handsome one on the MeadowMat video) and grandson Justin have become the proud custodians of two hatchling tortoises. Now, when I was younger, my friend Jo had a tortoise that used to wander around her garden eating as much lettuce and tomato as we could put in front of it. But according to http://www.tortoiseclub.org/, that was rather naughty of us. A healthy diet for a tortoise living in the UK is a good selection of - wait for it - wild plants.

The Norfolk Tortoise club - and several other websites - have produced lists of edible and toxic plants for torts and I'm pleased to say, that MeadowMat will provide quite a nice diet for a hungry testudo.

Hermione and Rhonda are too tiny to hibernate this winter so it looks as though my daily foraging trips are going to be extended to include all sorts of leaves and herbs. Good job the days of burning witches are over because there are going to be a lot of Feltwell villagers wondering what Mrs Lambert is doing with all those leaves she picks.

Wild Flowers on Film

2011-09-01T11:41:00.000+01:00

Great News! Our MeadowMat video is ready to watch. Please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/QLawns#p/a/u/0/AzBPpCa6v2g and post a comment to let me know what you think of it.

In praise of pollinators

2011-08-27T22:14:00.001+01:00

Blackberry pie. A Lambert family favourite

Late summer and early autumn are full of nostalgia for me. Why? It's blackberry picking season. Way back in the springtime, although I was photographing and blogging about meadow flowers, I was delighted to hear the hedges humming with the sound of bees working the bramble flowers. True to form, all of their industrious pollinating has brought forth delicious crops of blackberries, greengages, cherry plums and sloes and they're all ripe for the picking. Mmmm Mmmm

I've been out for two foraging sessions so far this year and picked myself quite a nice stash of blackberries. Too many for one pie and not enough for jam so I've put some in the freezer and I shall be out gathering some more tomorrow. Add the blackberries to my runner beans and the gooseberries from earlier in the year and my freezer will soon be overflowing. All thanks to butterflies, bees and a plethora of pollinating insects who were busy nectar hunting earlier in the year.

But now that the hedgerow is full of berries instead of flowers, oilseed rape, pea and bean crops are being harvested and traditional species rich meadows have been either cut for hay or grazed - what are the pollinating insects doing for food? Those that hibernate will be needing to stock up with nectar so as to sustain them through the winter, so where are they feeding?

wild carrot, hawkbit and plantains beside the path

Walking in Thetford forest yesterday with Spud, Rosie and Lola I was delighted to see that the Forestry Commission's scheme to manage their paths and rides for wildlife is paying dividends. A colourful corridor of yarrow, toadflax, harebells, field scabious, autumn hawkbit, wild marjoram, knapweed and wild carrot was providing a meal for copious numbers of bees, butterflies and moths. Sadly, none of them would stay still long enough for me to photograph so you'll just have to take my word for it.

But how do the pollinators know their way from the meadow to the forest? Wildlife Corridors that's how....grassy verges, hedgerows and gardens like yours and mine that make a flowery path for these creatures to follow. That's why it's vital that as many people as possible have as many flowers as possible, for as much of the year as possible. And that's why MeadowMat contains the species it does. It's been designed to have a long flowering period so as to give the best possible support to pollinating insects.

Meadowmat is no more expensive than buying herbaceous perennials from the garden centre. It's easy to care for and it's super-easy to install. The MeadowMat video will go online early next week so look out for it on http://www.meadowmat.com/ or follow Q Lawns on facebook to be sure not to miss it.

Flowers, Farmers, Forestry and Films

2011-08-15T21:47:00.000+01:00

Here's some great news! This week we will be filming a "how to install MeadowMat" video for the new MeadowMat website. If you drop me an e-mail I'll let you know when it's been edited and published

Cattle relaxing in a traditionally managed meadow.
Don't like the look of the horns on that one!

It's been a while since I took a wander around the traditionally managed meadow where I took so many pictures of cowslips earlier in the year. The meadow is still there, still beautifully floral but, unfortunately for my camera and I, currently being grazed. This year, the spring was so dry and grazing so hard to come by that the cows were put on to the field earlier than usual. I'm not normally deterred by cattle, but these ones have big horns and baby calves so I'm biding my time until the farmer can come with me to calm the beasts while I take snapshots......these Mammas can be very protective of their babies and as this field is two miles from the nearest road, it would be a big risk to take for the sake of a pretty picture or two.

This isn't a brilliant picture. You can't see just how many different species are actually flowering in the meadow at the moment. Sadly that's in contrast to the farmland around it. I'm married to a farmer and I'm a farmer's Mum so I'm not about to criticise our food producers but now that many of the hedgerow flowers have finished blooming and started to set seed (yum! that means blackberries), there are very few sources of nectar for our bees to be feeding on. If it weren't for the cow meadow (and remember that upwards of 95% of these meadows have disappeared since the second world war) there would be some pretty hungry bees along kettle lane right now.

The Telegraph last weekend had a couple of wonderful articles on supporting garden bees. I'm glad our garden writers are spreading the word. I really do think that the survival of our pollinators can be helped by gardeners and green roofers planting nectar rich flowers that bloom in late summer and autumn .

Foxgloves in Thetford Forest June 2010

In contrast to the land that is used for food production is good old Thetford forest. The breckland soil is very poor indeed, only good for growing pine trees as a crop but my goodness, the wild flowers are truly thriving there and so are the butterflies, bees, spiders, beetles, moths and the like that feed on them. Just shows you what can be done without fertiliser. Another prime example of wild land is the Burren on the west coast of Ireland - limestone pavements with virtually no soil; Exposed to all weathers; and stunningly floral. I think I ought to go here to look for inspiration for wild flowers to put on a green roof.

Wild Flowers on The Burren in County Clare. Seemingly infertile
unmanageable land brings forth the most amazing floral display

Wild Flowers in Early August

2011-08-04T20:29:00.000+01:00

daisy flower amongst plantain
and yarrow leaves

ragged robin and plantains

Just a few snaps I took of the blooming lovely native flowers showing their heads on the MeadowMat production field in the first week of august. This batch of MeadowMat is ready for despatch. Anyone who places an order in the next couple of weeks is going to have a real bargain. It would cost far more than £9.50 per square metre to buy this many plants from the garden centre!

salad burnet

selfheal

red shank - I think!

very flowerful mat

mixed foliage

birds foot trefoil amongst others

common vetch

oxeye daisy

mixed leaves and foliage

meadow cranesbill

Making Hay

2011-07-26T21:59:00.000+01:00

The deed is done. I have chopped down my MeadowMat, flowers et al, and now all of those lovely seedheads are drying in the sun. Well, OK, I confess, I did cut around a couple of blooms, they were just to pretty to massacre and I would like them to finish flowering and set seed for next year.

freshly cut meadow hay drying in the sun

As I set-to with the shears (I only have a few square metres, so no need for labour-saving machines) I felt as though I was positively scalping my MeadowMat. In actual fact, I fear I should have cut it even shorter.

On the MeadowMat production field, our most successful batch yet is the one that Robert has kept really short. The grasses are there, but regular mowing has kept them under control and allowed the flowering plants to really thrive. That batch is ready for despatch NOW so this would be a good time to place an order. You can buy online at www.enviromat.co.uk/buy_online.php

Just one of the ladybirds living in my wild flower meadow

My hay was cut on sunday. I've been turning it every day and giving it a good shake to make sure as many wild flower seeds as possible fall back into the sward. As long as the rain stays away, the hay will be dry enough to bag up by tomorrow. On sunday the fledgling hay was teeming with ladybirds and spiders. Hopefully by now they will have crawled out of the hay into the bottom of the meadow where they won't be gathered in with the harvest.

The plan for the rest of the summer is to let the wild flower meadow recover from it's haircut and then keep trimming it back and removing the cuttings all through the autumn and winter. When I look at my patch, and compare it with the new production, I can see that my grasses are far too vigorous. No doubt it's because the soil in my garden is a bit too nutrient-rich. I need to weaken the grasses in order that the flowering plants can thrive, and to do that I must keep mowing and not allow any extra nutrients to get into the soil. So no grass clippings and definitely no fertiliser.

After just a couple of months of enjoying this small area of wild flower meadow, I'm hooked. So as soon as I can, I shall be ordering some more MeadowMat to increase the area. As for creating a wild flower meadow from seed, I don't think I'll try that one again...

Meadowmat: bringing back our wild flowers: My Wonderful Wildflower Meadow Gets The Chop This ...

2011-07-23T21:35:00.000+01:00

Meadowmat: bringing back our wild flowers: My Wonderful Wildflower Meadow Gets The Chop This ...: " wild carrot The time has come. This weekend I am going give my MeadowMat a haircut. I know it's the right thing to do but still i..."

My Wonderful Wildflower Meadow Gets The Chop This Weekend

2011-07-23T21:31:00.000+01:00

wild carrot

The time has come. This weekend I am going give my MeadowMat a haircut. I know it's the right thing to do but still it feels just a little bit wrong.

Earlier in the week I spotted a fresh flush of flowers, oxeye daisies, wild carrot, birds foot trefoil, red clover and a single, brightly coloured cornflower. Heaven only knows how the cornflower got there - it's not in the seedmix but nevertheless it's stunningly beautiful.

oxeye daisies amongst the grass flowers

Ironic isn't it. I've been waiting for weeks for a floral display and then I go and chop it down. No wonder my husband thinks I'm loopy! But chop it down I must.

birds foot trefoil, such a lovely clear colour

Yesterday I spent a pleasant few hours with members of the East Anglian branch of the Institute of Horticulture. We talked about the whys and wherefores of green roofing before going on to discuss the merits of MeadowMat. As part of the visit, we wandered on to the MeadowMat production field to view the developing crop. It's been a while since I visited the field and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and what I found. Production Manager, Robert Allen, did warn me a fortnight ago that he'd set about the MeadowMat with the mowers and he'd cut it right back and so I was expecting to see a scalped looking crop. Oh my goodness, I couldn't have been more wrong and I wish I'd had a camera with me. This latest batch of MeadowMat looks fantastic! The grasses have a discreet presence and the flower plants are thriving. There's a really wide variety of strong, healthy plants and although there may not be many flowers at the moment, I could see that next spring/summer there will be a cornucopia of colour.

Having seen how a good haircut has revived the MeadowMat in the production field. I'm confident that it will do the world of good in my small patch. So I've invested in a good pair of shears (no mower will tackle grass that long and the strimmer might mash up the cuttings too much) and I'm planning on cutting the whole lot down to 3 or 4 inches tall tomorrow.

Yellow Rattle seeds for sowing this autumn.
Yellow Rattle attracts bees and is a fabulous meadow plant because
it helps to keep grass plants from dominating the sward

Before I get cutting though, I have collected up some seed heads. Some to keep and sow back into the sward once I've cut it - just in case they don't fall out of the hay while it's drying on the surface - and some to post to a lady in St Albans who has got a couple of bare patches in her MeadowMat.

There's plenty of growth in my patch at the moment so I suspect that once it's all been cut and dried, we'll have two delighted family members - Lily and Lunar, my grandson's guinea pigs who will be tasked with eating the hay....and I think they'll make a very good job of it.

One Nan wants to know.....when to mow her meadow

2011-06-23T22:25:00.000+01:00

The last seven days have been busy busy busy. This time last week I was ensconsed in a hotel in Southport preparing to talk to landscape architects and designers about the merits of green roofs and wild flower meadows. Friday was busy meeting folks, photographing Robert and Mark installing a green roof then travelling back to Norfolk in time to spend the weekend with my grandson.

Tommy Walsh talking to Chris Carr in front of the MeadowMat
stand at the BALI Landscape Show

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week the whole team was at the BALI Landscape show where celebrity landscaper Tommy Walsh called in to chat about MeadowMat and so today was the first chance in ages I've had to rummage about in my wild flower garden to see what's happening.

After a week of lovely damp weather, most of the grasses in my MeadowMat patch are in full flower and many of the native perennial plants look as though they'll soon be blooming as well and that raises the question When and how do I cut my meadow? Intensively managed hay meadows - where nutrient values are everything will soon be sliced by vast mechanised blades, the hay will turned over a couple of times to make sure its dry before it's baled and stored for winter feeding. But I don't want to cut my meadow just as the clover, yarrow and meadow pea are flourishing and so I have a dilemma.

yarrow bud pictured late june

red clover flower blooming in meadowmat

In the days of yore, farmers with traditionally managed meadows cut their hay when the yellow rattle plants set seed - hence their other name "hay rattle". It's obvious when the seeds of the yellow rattle are ripe. They literally make a rattling noise when the wind (or a curious person) shakes the plant. I'm told that the traditional date is th 25th of July. For a modern day farmer, this could well clash with the cereal harvest but back in the day, when crops were sown in spring and harvested in autumn, late july or early august probably brought with them the best weather for drying hay in the field.

some of my yellow rattle has already set seed

Some of my yellow rattle has already set seed and I'm hoping that the other floral elements of my mini meadow will have flowered and set seed by the end of July. If they haven't, then I shall go to plan B. Cut most of the area for hay at the end of July and leave the floral areas until late august until I cut them. That way most of the seeds will be able to fall back into the mat.

yellow rattle is setting seed in MeadowMat
while red clover is just beginning to bloom

My second question is what tools should I use to cut the hay? Well - I only have six square metres of MeadowMat to contend with this year (with plans for a much larger area) and so I shall be on my knees with the garden shears. If I had a lovely big area, truly meadow sized, I'd be asking an agricultural contractor to come in and help and for a medium size - a strimmer with a brush cutter on should do the trick. All the books say take it down to about 4cm, so that's what I shall do.

The cuttings will need to be left on top of the MeadowMat for three to four days so that the seeds can drop back down to the ground and when the cuttings are thoroughly dry, they'll make excellent hay for my grandson's guinea pigs.

Here are some of the pictures I took while walking the dogs this afternoon

butterfly feeding on wild flower

resting on a blade of grass

busy bee pollinating a bramble

grass flowers are beautiful too

Bee friendly to wild flowers, they're perfect for reluctant gardeners

2011-06-10T20:14:00.000+01:00

Two important press articles have been published, one has raised my spirits, the other has me worried.
First the good news:

Bee enjoying an oxeye daisy.
One of the plants on the RHS perfect for pollinators plant list.
Also one of the plants in MeadowMat

A fortnight or so ago the RHS published their Perfect for Pollinators plant list to help sensible folks who want to support bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators choose their plants wisely. It's great to see that such an important society is doing its bit to ensure the survival of these important species and I hope that garden centres, garden designers, landscape architects follow suit and do everything they can.
The press release from the RHS tells us that
"Over the last 50 years a decline in many groups of insects has been noticed. These include some of the common butterflies, moths, hoverflies and bees. The reason for this is complex but part of the problem may be the reduction in the abundance of wild flowers in the countryside. Gardens with their variety of flowers are increasingly being seen as an important habitat where insects can find sources of nectar and pollen."

Wild flowers in the hedgerow,
photographed on farmland in Norfolk

Now I'm going to go on the defensive here, maybe I'm over sensitive, but reading between the lines, is the RHS suggesting the decline in insects is attributable to farming practice? I'm a farmer's wife, plus I work for an agricultural organisation and these fellas honestly do their best to balance ecology with meeting consumer demands for more and more food.
I think that maybe this second newsy article also has a bearing on the decline in insect numbers:
According to a research project on behalf of London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London and the Greater London Authority between 1998 and 2008 London lost 3,000 hectares of vegetated land.
The report only covers Greater London, we don't know how much vegetation was lost in the other cities, towns and villages of the UK. That's sad for us, sad for our children and a huge loss for our wildlife.
What can we do? Here are my own top 5 tips

Simple green roof in Stevenage.
A wildlife garden that takes up no
space at all

Install green roofs. 1,000 Ha of London green space disappeared beneath garden buildings in the 10 years covered by the report. A sedum roof on each one would have allowed the best of both worlds - shed and plants. Plus, although there is only one sedum species on the RHS List, all sedums will attract butterflies, bees, hoverflies and moths.
Tolerate a bit of untidyness in the garden. A weedy patch in an unseen corner is no extra work and it's surprising what wildlife will colonise it.
Plant a few wild flowers. Even in a contemporary style garden, a raised bed planted with MeadowMat will support minibeasts and make a great talking point.
Teach children about wildlife. Growing up in the country I knew the names of trees and flowers. A generation later I'm a guide leader in a country village, the girlguides don't have a clue about plants, flowers, seasons, birds, butterflies etc etc etc what worse, is they're not interested.
Encourage schools, hospitals, churches, nursing homes etc to turn part of their grounds into wildlife havens. Not only will they be helping the environment, they'll be saving a fortune on grounds maintenance.

Wild Flower Seeds vs Wild Flower Mat - 6 weeks on

2011-05-31T19:50:00.000+01:00

Seeded wildflower area, six weeks after sowing.

It's been six weeks since I sowed £10 worth of wild flower seeds onto about 2 square metres of prepared ground in my garden. Making the seedbed and randomly sprinkling the seed on to it before lightly raking them in took me about 30 minutes. I have watered the area almost every day and I've had to weed it at least once a week and I've been rewarded with..............not much so far.

You can see from the picture that there are a good few plants here. In actual fact, I suspect around 20% of these are not what I've sown. There are some self sown sunflowers looking very robust, a couple of oriental poppies, also self sown, some bindweed, thistles and something with round leaves and a blue flower that I can't find in my book. The bindweed and thistles are pulled out as soon as I'm sure that's what the seedlings are. It's a tedious job and I wish I'd sown the seeds in some sort of pattern so it'd be easier to identify imposters.

On the positve side, there looks to be a strong population of corn marigolds, several cornflowers and quite a few things that I can't identify yet. So, hopefully, in another six weeks or so I'll be publishing pictures of a more colourful kind, hopefully alongside portraits of some of the bees and butterflies they're going to attract.

My MeadowMat on the other hand has romped away. I have lots and lots of yellow rattles and one of the grasses is flowering profusely but I have to admit, that I did think I'd see a bit more colour by now. There are oxeye daisy's blooming in the hedgerow, as well as vetch and birdsfoot trefoil, but although the leaves are definitely growing strongly, there's no signs of any buds.

Don't get me wrong, every day I toddle off down the garden and see a different species. I can hardly believe how many different shapes and forms of foliage there are in this MeadowMat. I'm also amazed at how quickly the roots have established themselves into my garden soil. When I'm talking to turf buyers about how soon after laying their turf they're safe to get the mower out, I always tell them if they grab a handful of grass, give it a good hard tug and the turf stays where it is, then it's really well established. I think I can safely say that my MeadowMat is firmly rooted to the ground. I suspect, the plants have been too busy growing roots to grow flowers. I must learn to be more patient. This time next year, I shouldn't be surprised if my few square metres of MeadowMat is a floral fantasia buzzing with pollinators.

May 2011: MeadowMat 6 weeks after installation

Yellow Rattle, Clover, and vetch are clearly identifiable in this small area (approx 10cm x 10cm) of MeadowMat

wild carrot leaves in the foreground with vipers bugloss hiding behind

MeadowMat wild flower matting is available online

2011-05-25T21:08:00.000+01:00

Great News! as from 25th May 2011, MeadowMat wild flower matting is available to order online via the secure server at http://www.enviromat.co.uk/buy_online.php

MeadowMat being harvested

a close up of the young wild flower mat

Meadowmat is a mixture of 34 native wild flowers and grasses grown from seed on to a thin, lightweight layer of growing medium and supported by a fine net.

Three working days after placing an order, you could be the proud owner of a fledgling wild flower meadow. Simply unroll MeadowMat on to prepared soil, keep it watered until the roots are settled in and then sit back and watch the wildlife make the most of this wonderful habitat.

You can order online, phone us on 01842 828266 or drop us an e-mail to sales@qlawns.co.uk. Better yet, come and see us at the BALI Landscape Show 21-22 June at the Stoneleigh showground.

Getting ready for the BALI Landscaping Show

2011-05-23T19:47:00.000+01:00

MeadowMat being "grown on" in readyness for the
BALI Landscape Show

Four weeks from now - all being well - our stand at the BALI Landscape exhibition will have been built and the five of us, Kev, Chris, Mark, David Fisher and myself will be taking a well-earned repast in readiness for the show.

If anyone wants ideas on how to Get Britain Buzzing with wildlife, please come and see us on stand E1 at the BALI Landscaping Show on the Stoneleigh showground, 21st and 22nd June.

On the Q Lawns stand will be an amazing building from Cranes Sheds and Summerhouses which will be sporting a rather lovely Enviromat sedum roof. Enviromat sedum matting is not only a fabulous insulator, it's a magnet to pollinating insects such as butterflies and bees and it provides a safe habitat for many minibeasts - even the less attractive ones such as spiders and beetles. The great thing about green roofing is that, if space in the garden is limited, a green roof supports wildlife without infringing on space that could be used for food production.

Also on stand E1 will (of course) be MeadowMat. Last week, Robert and Ben planted up two trays of low nutrient growing medium with MeadowMat in the hope that we'll have some flowers for you at the BALI Landscape show. As you can see from the picture, the grasses are already flowering. I think these samples will be quite impressive by 21st June.

Finally, if you make it to the show, take note of the hornbeam hedge and the clipped box on our stand. Fantastic wildlife habitat and supplied fully grown by ReadyHedge.

Wild flowers - inconspicuous but intriguing

2011-05-20T20:02:00.001+01:00

It wasn't until we started growing MeadowMat alongside Enviromat and Q Lawns turf, that I began to take proper notice of the wildflowers growing all around me. I used to think of flowers as big, bright, colourful blooms that get delivered by a smiley-faced lady whenever my husband feels he should apologise, but now I hold an entirely different view.

These poppies in my garden give a bold
bright splash of colour - they're real showgirls

Don't get me wrong. I love cultivated flowers. My garden is full to bursting with them. I love their strong colourways, their shapes, their vibrant foliage and of course, their amazing scent. I have endless admiration for the plant breeders who every year introduce new varieties, new colour combinations, petal shapes, growth habits........incredible. But lately I've become more observant while I'm out with the dogs and actually, when it comes to creating plants and flowers, Mother Nature is pretty blooming good.

I can't help thinking that cultivated flowers exist mainly to entertain us; life would be dull without them, but, aside from food crops, we would survive without them. On the other hand the existance of wild flowers meets the world's more basic needs. Although they are no longer an essential part of our food chain, wild flowers have been bred by nature to feed bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies and they, in turn, pollinate our food crops, thereby feeding us.
This is the point being raised by Buglife's "Get Britain Buzzing" campaign launched earlier this week and I can only urge everyone to support the campaign in whatever way you can.

Installing a small area of MeadowMat is a great way to start supporting British minibeasts. I have a mere 6 square metres in my garden and I'm surprised at the huge variety of plants that are growing in it. I'm also surprised at how often I wander down the garden, get on my knees and start rummaging in the sward to see which of the plants I can identify and wonder which will be the next to flower. What surprises me the most though is how a small area of wilderness at the bottom of my garden can inspire me to seek out and enjoy the truly wild flowers and plants that I've been ignoring for far too long.

buttercups, clover and daisys growing side by side in a traditionally managed meadow

buttercups and grasses this combination of wild plants will support minibeasts and cattle alike

Wild comfrey. These flowers were hardly visible from a distance but the bees were loving them

ground ivy. so small and subtle I nearly trod on it. before the introduction of hops, the leaves of ground ivy were used to flavour beer

Meadowmat is designed to help tackle the decline in pollinating insects

2011-05-17T22:30:00.000+01:00

MeadowMat - fast food for pollinating insects

A major campaign has been launched today (17th March 2011) to highlight the decline in British pollinating insects and "Get Britain Buzzing"

Meadowmat has been developed, amongst other reasons, to help meet the needs of pollinating insects such as bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies. These creatures are vital to the success of food crops such as peas, beans, oilseed rape and fruit and it is reported that UK crop pollination by insects is valued at £440 million per annum - although I'm not sure how the figure has been arrived at. What is certain though, is that THREE MILLION HECTARES of wildflowers have disappeared since the 1940's. That's an area roughly 10 times the size of Essex.

The Get Britain Buzzing campain aims to urge us the public, farmers, business leaders and politicians to take action to increase the numbers of pollinating insects before we see dire consequences for UK Ecosystems.

Details of the campaign haven't been released yet - I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what they are.

I definitely hope they involve discouraging developers from paving over areas that could grow the plants that these creatures need for their habitat and their food.
I hope that local authorities will recieve enough funding to be able to maintain green spaces.
I'd like to see gardening, food production and ecology introduced into the school curriculum,
More green roofs,
Research into why pollinator numbers have declined
teaching gardeners how to support wildlife in their own space

While I'm waiting to see what ideas have been put forward by the charity Buglife, I shall be sneaking around my husband's farm, armed with packets of wild flower seed to do some wild guerilla gardening. I just hope these seeds fare better that the ones in my garden...but that's another story

Meadowmat at the Malvern Spring Show

2011-05-11T12:31:00.000+01:00

Don't miss MeadowMat at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 12-15th May 2011.
David Fisher will be in the Eco Homes and Gardens area to show MeadowMat to you and answer any questions you may have
http://www.threecounties.co.uk/springgardening/options.php?id=1
He'll also be able to help you with any green roof questions and give you all the information you need about our sister-product, Enviromat sedum matting

My MeadowMat is flowering

2011-05-11T06:43:00.000+01:00

yellow rattle

Amazing! Only three weeks after it was installed into my garden, my MeadowMat has produced two flowers. OK, two flowers isn't exactly a royal wedding breakfast for the bees, but still, two flowers!

This wild flower mat is changing every day. The first two weeks after installation, the main activity seemed to be underground. The vegetation really didn't change much but my goodness, the roots growth was phenomenal, even compared to Q Lawns turf, this stuff really does establish fast. So much so that three weeks after laying, I can tug on the plants and not move the mat at all.

vetch

The vegetated layer didn't really start to change until last week - once the roots were settled I guess. For the first couple of weeks I worried that the coarser grasses in the mixture were going to outcompete the other species. I should have had more confidence in Robert's research and development........sorry Robert.

I can see now, at least five more flower species than I could when the MeadowMat arrived - some have germinated since installation, some I suspect were hiding in the grass. The finer-leaved fescue grasses are far more obvious and are coming on a treat, whilst the coarser grasses haven't really changed much. There are several yellow rattle plants running up towards flowering. A teeny tiny meadow pea is just about in evidence. Lots and lots of seedlings - I'm sure they'll identify themselves in time - that lovely little vetch in the picture, oxeye daisys and some mystery plants. I think that in a month from now,MeadowMat will be extremely interesting.... Just in time for the BALI Landscape Show.

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. ~The Koran

2011-05-07T19:35:00.000+01:00

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. ~The Koran
These photos of red campions flowering in woodland on the Norfolk Coast are a fantastic reminder of what Meadowmat is all about......making sure that our native wild flowers can be enjoyed by generations to come.

Thanks go to Robert Allen, Meadowmat's Production Manager who took these pictures on one of his many foray's to the coast. It's a shame pictures can't reproduce sound. According to Robert, the area was teeming with bees.

red campion flowering in
woodland

red campion flowering in Meadowmat

Red Campion's make up 3% of the Meadowmat seedmix, flower between May and November and grows on roadsides, in woodlands and on rocky slopes. It generally grows to around 80cm tall.
The crushed seeds of red campion have historically been used to treat snake bites.
Several species of moth feed on the foliage and the nectar is enjoyed by bumblebees and butterflies.

The traditionally managed meadow is blooming

2011-05-04T17:20:00.000+01:00

Walking today with the dogs I had several nice surprises. First of all, two roe deer ran out of the hedge in front of me, so close I could have touched them. Then, I found a gooseberry bush I'd not spotted in all the 26 years I've been walking down that lane (pie anyone?) but best of all was the colourful spectacle of the wild flower meadow.

traditional wild flower meadow in early may

This picture doesn't really show the colours and it certainly can't show the contrast between this meadow and the arable field beside it.

It's actually quite a bright yellow (cowslips just going over and buttercups just starting to flower) with patches of white (daisys)

Walking through the wild flower meadow today took me back to the playground at Bayford Primary School where we used to spend every summer break time making daisy chains to adorn ourselves with. Do children make daisy chains anymore?

The centre of the meadow is in full bloom but the grasses aren't growing particularly well. Hardly surprising when you consider how dry the weather has been. In the shady areas though, the grasses are growing quite strongly, some are even running to seed.

some of the grass species are begining to flower,
particularly in damp, shady spots

Not many bees or butterflies in evidence on the meadow today - they're all too busy working amongst the may flowers. Wild flower meadows are great for wildlife but they definitely work best in conjunction with hedges and mature trees and shrubs. I reckon in about a fortnight's time there'll be elderflowers aplenty. They'll go lovely with the gooseberries in a pie and I think I feel a batch of elderflower cordial coming on too....better go and order some bottles and jars.

A tiny speedwell nestles amongst the
buttercups in the traditional wild flower meadow

longer grasses and cow parsley thrive in the shade
while buttercups abound in the open. There's nothing
uniform about a traditional wild flower meadow

Seed vs Meadowmat - 5 days on

2011-04-27T20:37:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a few days now since I sowed my wild flower seeds and installed my Meadowmat so I guess it's time I recorded my thoughts.

5 days after installation and the plants are
beginning to put out new roots

Both areas have been well watered to make sure they get off to a good start.

The Meadowmat is looking good and I'm amazed at how quickly new white roots are starting to shoot out into my soil.

There are also quite a few new shoots appearing in the seeded wild flower bed. This is quite worrying. Now I'm no Alan Titchmarsh, but I've been fiddling about in gardens for long enough to know that wild flower seeds don't germinate in such a short time. These seedlings appeared just a couple of days after I'd sown the wild flowers and they're big enough now to be identifiable. There are a couple of sunflowers - self sown from last year. I can live with them. But horror of horrors, I should have known it. The strongest seedlings to have shown themselves quite clearly belong to my arch nemesis - perennial bindweed. Quite how I'm going to control this beast amongst my lovely wild flowers remains to be seen. Suggestions on a postcard please.......

Meadowmat vs Wild flower seed part 1

2011-04-20T20:49:00.000+01:00

Time to stop talking in theories and try Meadowmat out for myself. But rather than just install a couple of square metres, I thought I'd be a bit scientific and just see if Meadowmat really is easier to use than seed.

I have a couple of areas in my garden that don't get a lot of attention and so I've decided to use them to compare Meadowmat with wild flower seed. I want to see which establishes quicker, which is easiest to care for and which attracts the most wildlife.

The first area is quite small and tucked between two hungry shrubs, very close to the walnut tree where I dangle the bird feeders. I've sprinkled on about £10.00 worth of wild flower seed from the garden centre. It's a mix of perennials and cornfield annuals - but no grasses. The ground is incredibly dry at the moment, we're desperate for rain, and so I've given the seeds a thorough watering to start them off.

Time taken to prepare around 2 square metres of ground, sow seed and water in: about 30 minutes:

Now for the Meadowmat. This is going on to the "allotment" area in the garden. It will have a hedge on two sides, the strawberry patch along one edge and a path on the fourth side. It's a somewhat larger area than the seeded piece - around 10 square metres in all. I'm just going to install 4 square metres of Meadowmat and keep the area around it free from plants so I can have a good view of what's going on.

This afternoon's job was preparing the ground. All the vegetation has been removed, the area has been rotovated and raked. OK, OK so I know the rotovator isn't particularly eco-friendly but with time constraints and a dodgy back there has to be a compromise somewhere along the way. There's normally a three working day lead time for ordering Meadowmat, but I'm hoping that Robert will enter into the spirit of things and harvest some for me to bring home tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, here are the pictures of what's happening so far:

Before: The chosen spot for Meadowmat. Peas n beans in the background, strawberries to the right

After: The ground is cleared and raked into a tilth. Just needs Meadowmat and water

Time taken to prepare 10m2 of ground as I would a seedbed: approx 1.5 hours

wonderful wonderful wild flowers

2011-04-12T19:32:00.000+01:00

Meadowmat is the most recent addition to the Enviromat portfolio and it's been attracting a lot of attention from gardeners, ecologists and landscape professionals.

In my blog, I'm going to be keeping you up to date with what's happening on the Meadowmat production fields, following the progress of our demonstration plot and also publishing photos taken on a nearby, traditionally managed meadow - a rarity in this day and age

For a brief bit of background information - here's a quick description of the Meadowmat and Enviromat landscaping products.

Enviromat is a low maintenance landscape material grown in the UK. It's sedum matting - 7 species of low growing sedum plants growing on a matting system that makes Enviromat ideal for ground cover or for lightweight extensive green roofing systems.

Meadowmat is grown on the same principals as Enviromat. It's easy to install, gives instant plant coverage and it's grown in the UK, but instead of drought tolerant sedum plants Meadowmat is a mixture of 32 species of Briish native wild flowers and grasses.

Check out our species page for a full list of the seedmix used to create Meadowmat or phone Eviromat on 01842 828266 for more information