Wildflowers In The Fellow's Garden

A small area of rough ground in the Fellow's Garden has been chosen to be new wildflower meadow, following the unsuccessful attempt to create a wildflower meadow in the orchard last year, see blog entry 17th February 2012 'Wildflower Meadow'.
Joss, reunited with his old Dennis mower and its scarifier cartridge, scarifies the grass to remove all the thatch. Ali, using a Honda rotary mower, then cuts the grass down gradually reducing the height of the cutting deck from high to low until the area is almost bald. Using a spring rake, Ali then scuffs up the soil to a fine tilth, then mixes the wildflower seed with sand and broadcasts it over the bare soil. The wild flowers are: Betony, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Bulbous Buttercup, Californian Poppy, Catsear, Cowslip, Common Knapweed, Cornflower, Fairy Toadflax, Ladys Bedstraw, Oxeye Daisy, Salad Burnet, Self Heal, Shirley Poppy, White Campion and Yellow Rattle. Hopefully the summer of 2014 will see the start of a beautiful meadow in the corner of the Fellow's Garden.