Two New Areas For Wildflowers

Orchard

Areas of wildflowers have been introduced the gardens over the last few years to increase the variety of pollinating insects whose numbers, worldwide, have been steadily declining and to reintoduce wildflower species, many of which have steadily declined over the last 60 years. Last year one such area was developed in the Fellow's garden, see blog entry 26th September 2013 'Wildflowers In The Fellow's Garden', successfully creating a wildflower meadow, see blog entry 14th May 2014 'The First Wildflower 'Fairy Toadflax'.  

Nuffield Lawn

Following its success two more areas have been created today, one in the orchard and the other on the Nuffield Lawn. The ground was prepared by mowing and scarifying the grass to reveal bare earth then this was raked to a fine tilth. The wildflower seed was mixed with silver sand, scattered over the soil, gently raked in and rolled. The seed mix contains the following wildflowers; 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.