- Location
- Ashford, Kent
Doesn't appear drought hit yet and sheep love it over winter.
Wild flowers go where they want. If the conditions are different from the wider area it might work over time.Idea I had today but it may already have been done.
Say you have a ten acre all grass field down to grazing.
Could you fence out small squares say 6x6 to create a ‘cell’
Sow these cells with wild flowers to create habitat for bees and birds.
I know this is already done with buffer strips wild bird strips etc but it could prove useful and not much in monetary terms to do.
Thoughts?
Agreed. The difficult would be avoiding excessive soil fertility in that small cell. Unless the cell fertility was low then wild flowers would never dominate it.Wild flowers go where they want. If the conditions are different from the wider area it might work over time.
I think you should be sure of what you want to achieve and then work to it. Stuff tends to happen in an orderly way not randomly.
To achieve a 6x6 cell of wild flowers would require some thinking about how to make it so it would work - flowers don't like fighting so if there is strong N fed grass it might take some time? There are others more expert - this is just questions it seems sensible to ask you.
You are probably the expert of your soil, weather and conditions. Experience may come from elsewhere,
I nearly drove over a hare this week! They usually move when I drive past but this one sat tight and I saw him last second in the rushes and swerved the quad away from him. I could have jumped off and caught him he was that close.3 hares playing together on an aftermath but not close enough to photograph.
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So a picture of some of my unimproved - no input grass
Fledgelings everywhere here atm. Wrens, blackbirds, chaffinches swallows and more, all seem to have hatched first clutch about the same time .
12 acres of unfertilised wildflower area here. Only a few poppies showing big early i guess.... well apart from the buttercups that is
I nearly drove over a hare this week! They usually move when I drive past but this one sat tight and I saw him last second in the rushes and swerved the quad away from him. I could have jumped off and caught him he was that close.
Someone mentioned swallows. @Bald Rick will be glad to know mine have showed up in the last 10 days or so but only one or two pairs which is much less compared to usual. Where the hell they've been till now I don't know.
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All within 5 yards of each other on permanent grassland extensively grazed by sheep and cattle for decades. If anyone could name them for me I’d be delighted.
I like the small leafed clover apparently happy in moss in your second photo, and what looks like pennywort leaves in the third.
These dense, mosaic swards don't come about overnight, so you've a jewel of a field there.