Wildflower area

[Dave McCormick]

I have started a wildflower area. I will post a pic soon of the area. Last year my dad was told to cover over an old car parking area with layers of soil and he planted grass seed. Before it was this way, it used to be a site for glasshouses and place to park cars, but the glasshouses were falling apart due to damage and the area looked trashy, hopefully this will provide a display of wildlife/flowers for future.

The seed has sprouted and began to grow grass. I got a lot of wildplant seeds to grow in the area, to attract local butterflies/moths/bees etc... Here is what I have:

devils bit scabious
birds foot trefoil
common rock rose
cuckoo flowers
common knapweed
garlic mustard
corncockle
goldenrod
cornflowers
violets
forget me not

I'll keep you updated on the progress and post pics from time to time on how the area is doing. So by next summer, there should be flowering plants and butterflies here. I have also planted a few nettles/docks for red admirals/peacocks/commas etc... and small coppers that are in area. The ladys bedstraw is for hawkmoths and the scabious is for narrow boarderd bee hawkmoths and garlic mustard is for the orange tips, whites etc...

Close by is an apple orchard and that attracts species of butterfly/moth which include Red Admirals/Small Tortoiseshell/Peacock/comma, meadow brown, gv/large/small whites, garden tiger moths, emerald moths and more, been moth trapping there in past and found quite a various variety of moths there.

[Matsukaze]

Try adding some sorrel for the small coppers to breed on - especially if you can get the leaves to overhang some stones/gravel/old bricks, which will radiate heat and create a warm microclimate which is preferred from egg-laying.

[Dave McCormick]

Thanks for idea, will try that, have a few bricks laying around from when the area was cleared. Here is the area now (before anything is planted):



The blue thing is a water pipe that was there to provide water to a glashouse that ran along the wall on the right of image. There used to be four glasshouses here, but they were torn down and this will be a wildflower area.

[Cotswold Cockney]

Nice one Dave ~ how about a few Teasels? They are usually late flowering in August time and on the mainland, always attract large numbers of Brimstones in my local woodland clearings ~ does rhamni occur in the land of a thousand bogs ?.. Cannot remember on account of grey matter depletion ...

Also, is the Narrow Bordered Bee Hawk you mention around in that area? That is one special moth.

[Dave McCormick]

Hi CC,

Yeah the brimstone does occur, but not where I live there is no buckthorn. Alder buckthorn is rare in Northern Ireland and te brimstones only feed on purging buckthorm. I presume its the subspecies gravesi we have in Northern Ireland.

I found on Narrow Borderd bee hawk moth in June 07 here, but no idea why. They are said to be present only where the scabious grows that they feed on. I have yet to find any scabious plants anywhere here. I thought it was a large bee at first I got a few seconds of video of it, but no photo as it flew off into bushes, not long after I saw it.

Might think about teasel, there are quite a few about half a mile away from here and they attract the finches when they seed. Nice sight to see.

[Matsukaze]

Hi Dave,

It might be worth putting trellises up against one of the walls, and getting hops to run up the trellises. Hopefully the commas will lay their eggs on the hops.

If you get green hairstreak locally and know what the local foodplant is, that might be worth planting - ideally somewhere that catches the sun and is sheltered.

Might be worth trying some meadow vetchling to attract the narrow-bordered five-spot burnet.

[Dave McCormick]

Hi,

I have seen six spot bvurnet in area, but not narrow borderd five spot burnet. The person who lives nearby has hops in her garden, so if commas are around they probably are feeding on it. No green hairstreak here as far as I know. I was thinking of putting a trellace up at the back wall and growing honeysuckle. Species of butterfly that are here:

Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Green Veined White
Small/Large White
Speckled Wood
Orange-Tips
Common Blue
Red Admiral
Comma
Small Tortoiseshell
Peacock
Small Copper
Holly Blue
Clouded Yellows (on good years)
Painted Lady

All are present in area except common blues, they are about a few hundred yards away or more.

[Dave McCormick]

Just wanted to give you all a little update. All seeds are planted and now just to wait. There is germander speedwall coming up around one edge and somehow a rather tall kale plant has came through (seeds must have got into soil at some point last year) should be good for whites anyway. Planted knapweed all over the place, along with corncockle and some wild carrot. Just need to put in some nettles for nymphalids and think that will be everything for the local species to start breeding here when the time comes for the plants to appear.

I also planted a few goldenrod. Says it takes about two years to grow, but will be a great sight to see butterflies and other creatures on that. I am growing sweet violets too. Some parts of the area were still a slight bit wet, but I managed to sort that out. Not sure if I had enough seeds here, but I'll wait and see how the ones I planted come up first.

[NickB]

Nice one Dave - I think we all wish we had a patch to do the same.
I have started a restoration project in the local Cemetery (where many of my pictures are taken) to create a wildflower meadow from an overgrown area that has been left to long grass for the last few years. Not that that was too bad - plenty of Meadow Brown at least - but the thatch had built up and any wildflower seeds that may have been there get swamped very quickly by the grass (saw some Common Blue and Brown Argus in there last year, & thought they deserved some help!). So this year we selected an area to rake and re-seed - of which we managed half! (It is amazing just how much thatch you can get up!).
Went to Meadowmania to get the wildflower seed (they source from UK genetic stock) and picked their Sandy soil mix -
Wild flower species : %
Black medick Medicago Lupilina 2.5
Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus 5.0
Corn Poppy Papaver rhoeas 2.5
Dark Mullein Verbascum nigrum 2.5
Lady's Bedstraw Galium verum 5.0
Meadow Buttercup Ranunculus acris 5.0
Musk Mallow Malva moschata 5.0
Ox-Eye-Daisy Leucanthemum vulg 10.0
Ribwort Plantain Plantago Laneceol. 12.5
Self Heal Prunella Vulgaris 15.0
Sorrel Rumex acetosa 2.5
White campion Silene alba 12.5
Wild Carrot Daucus carota 7.5
Yarrow Achillea Millefolium 2.5
Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus Minor 10.0

Chose this mix to get some Yellow Rattle in to knock-back the grass and also because all the species, bar that and Wild Carrot, are already present and it includes some important food plants for butterflies too. This is just the first year; time will tell if it is going to be successful. And now comes the hard bit - liaising with the Council, who undertake the mowing and maintenance, etc, so as to ensure their gorillas won't strim it to death at the first opportunity!
I have had to be a little circumspect in how I present this project to the powers-that-be (that include an element of the "tidy-brigade") - so I have emphasised how pretty it should look etc etc to get their backing. Amazing that people will respond more to management for wild flowers than butterflies, though in this case they are (unknowingly) supporting both
Keep it up Dave!
N

[Dave McCormick]

Hi Nick, that's a good project. Well, at least this will bring the butterflies there and brighten up the area anyway. I am thinking of getting Sorrel and Ox-Eye-Daisy too. I know it can take up to about 2-3 years before the wild flowers are well in there and flowering and I know you have to trim it at the right time or you could get bad consequences. I have been reading up on creating a wildflower meadow and I know it can take time, but its worth it. Hope your project goes well too

[NickB]

Yeah - it is the sort of thing that you can keep researching and reading about for ever! At least 3 years I reckon before things may get established and balanced and getting the cut and removal of material right will be the thing! Luckily a few local people are up for helping out and in time it may be used as an educational resource - there's enough natural history in there for school kids, students and others to enjoy. Also plenty of advice from local BC members and this forum helps too!
I'll keep you posted on progress; you likewise
Nick

[NickB]

Thought I'd update on how easy it has been to establish wild-flowers in an existing grassland.....
...and the answer is "B****y difficult" - but not impossible....

In Spring 2009 the local Friends group helped to rake-out a 50sq metre area in the cemetery behind me, that had been left alone for several years to re-generate. The grasses had done well.....but very little else was able to compete and get established. A few knapweeds, scabious, docks, buttercups and plantains were around the margins and the rest was a mixture of mainly coarse grass or bindweed (ugh). Following raking and seeding with wildflower mix in 2009, we added a few pots and trays that had been grown-on from seed.

Winter 2009/10 saw little activity, save for a "cut" by the council - they drove a mulching mower over it, completely the wrong thing at the wrong time and left the cuttings to mulch, thereby undoing much of our raking... The late spring did keep the grass suppressed but no more raking was done. I was not expecting to see much difference this year....

BUT...the plants we grew-on in pots and trays and planted out are doing well - White Campion, Ox-eye daisy, Ribs Wort Plantain, Common Poppy all in small numbers. The best thing to see though, is that the seeds of the Yellow Rattle, nothing of which were seen last year, have managed to become established across a lot of the area where they were sown. There is also a significant difference in the strength and vigour of the grasses where this has not grown up, so it seems to be making a difference already.

So, I would say that Yellow Rattle is worth establishing in existing grassland to reduce its vigour and open-up the sward to more herbs and flowering plants which can be introduced later as plugs or from pots, etc.

[Dave McCormick]

Just wanted to update...things went sort of BAD. It started to grow (because I didn't think to check) someone here who cuts grass along some areas, cut it and kept doing it when grass was tall enough. I realised and tried telling them what I was doing, but couldn't get them to stop, now its not much of anything.

[Zonda]

I've tried on several occasions to establish Yellow rattle by scratch raking and sowing in my little patch. Although i get a few, they don't seem to want to really get going. I've got a good species list:
Greater knapweed
Lesser knapweed
Field scabious
Ox-eye daisy
Fleabane
St John's wort
Loads of Tufted vetch this year.
Birds-foot trefoil
Orange hawkweed, a mixed blessing
Dandelions, another mixed blessing
Buddleia in pots, because it refuses to grow in the soil.
Perrenial Cornflower
Marjoram, and Oregano
Ivy
So far this year i'm not getting the butterfly action in the garden that i experienced last year. The Birds foot flowered early, and i may have to cut it to make it re-shoot. Last year i had several Common blues on it, but none so far yet. Maybe this month.