What are we doing in the garden 2025

Wild flower meadows are not replanted every year, its an ongoing thing that nature does on its own, with a little help of removing cut grass each year.

 

I think most gardeners work with nature, use it and guide it, rather than fight it which is a losing battle.

 

Hi,

My wildflower meadows are reseeded every year for reasons I've already stated.

Yes; this is why so much weeding is carried out each year.

As long as I'm in the garden keeping busy I'm happy and doing something I like. It's been a good day today; something to show for it

Kind regards, Col.

 

I think you’re doing a grand job @Retired in just the way you are doing it. It keeps you busy and happy and you are creating a lovely space . It’s jolly hard work though, at times, but you are doing a tip top job in my opinion. I couldn’t manage a plot that size, it takes me all my time to cope with my small garden! Take regular rest though,, they are important too

 

I thought wildflower meadows were only cut in early autumn after seed had set @NigelJ . I doubt they'd be used for hay - it wouldn't be suitable for that due to the flowers.
Managed meadows will be exactly that - they need managed depending on the site and location etc. There tends to be an implication on TV shows or magazines etc, that you just sow seed and then it does it all by itself. I think that's really misleading.
I know what you mean about that kind of neighbour @Retired ! I live in a very 'mixed' location in terms of houses and the people who live in them. You and I are used to some manual labour, so a bit of grit spreading is nothing to us, but there are some who never do anything themselves. I live a short distance from one of the wealthiest suburbs on the south side of Glasgow. Let's just say the running joke where I worked [many were clients] was that it was full of bookies and gangsters!
Nothing done outside yesterday as it was smirry and manky all day. It's meant to be drier today and then decent over the weekend, so I'll try and prep my little area for the concrete today, and do the concrete tomorrow. There's to be rain overnight tonight, so I'll play safe. I'd rather have our more usual frosty weather for this point in October, but every cloud....literally....

 

@fairygirl while I am no expert on hay meadows, I have seen some of the meadows on Dartmoor in summer Haymeadows | Dartmoor
and in Yorkshire (years ago when in the scouts) Hay Meadows - Yorkshire Dales National Park

 

@Retired if you want to kill the grass you could cover it with a sheet of black plastic, but with yours you would probably need to do it in small sections, don't know how long it would take to kill it.

 

Interesting @NigelJ I presume they're hand cutting a lot of those areas for hay ? You wouldn't easily get machinery on land up here at that height [apart from the lowest levels] due to the nature of the landscape, so it would have to be hand cut, but you don't get much viable hay on this side of the country anyway due to the climate, so it's mainly haylage that's done. It would only be small areas that could be used if you wanted viable hay. Even on the east side where virtually all the arable farming is done, I can't see how it would be cost effective because the amount of growth wouldn't be great, although they'd be able to use machinery more easily there as it's a different type of landscape.
I'm not sure how worthwhile the end product would be either.
I know many farmers are now leaving strips at the sides/boundaries of hay fields for wildflowers etc, which is always a good thing.

 

Hi,

Thank you @Songbird for your kind support and encouragement; it really is appreciated. Those living in apartments/flats with no space for hobbies or gardens must struggle to occupy their time which must often lead to depression and shorten their life. Your small garden will enrich your life whilst providing exercise; stick with it.

Well said @fairygirl I didn't think I needed to justify what I was doing in my own gardens although I'm happy to hear other points of view especially from those with more knowldge than I have. It's likely some wildflowers would harm livestock. Starting the meadows each springtime from scratch prevents grass forming a dense root system.

You raise a good point @fairygirl regarding TV shows and magazines skipping over what really is involved in creating a top class wildflower meadow; the heavy work involved creating my meadows was way over the top; due to the steepness of the garden and all the huge hedges and very tall trees I was off to a very bad start with long established couch grass; mile a minute vine; brambles; stinging nettles; holly trees etc to clear but the stumps and roots too had to come out.

Here's what I had to clear just to build the low wall.

I can't do a thing with this; it's full of couch grass and the root system is dense; I've piled it up out of the way for the time being hoping most of it will rot down; I could get a skip but getting it down to the skip would involve more heavy work. No way do I want my meadows to end up like this again; I had to dig the whole area over twice before the rotavator would be of any use and it wasn't a quick job.


One of the 80' tall trees; please note all the growth around it which was also eventually cleared.


Here's the same tree being logged. No one helped me whilst I felled the tree; logged it then carried each log one by one all the way down to the driveway where then I got plenty of help; neighbours collecting free logs for their woodburners.


More of the trees cut up; taming this garden has been a huge job but once I started I got stuck in; on top of this I was also upgrading our bungalow.


More heavy work; would you believe this is a laurel stump; here I'm slowly winching it to the corner of the garden having broken it free by digging and using 24 tons of hydraulic jack pressure; trolley jack and bottle jacks involved; there was also an incredible amount of stones to get rid of.

It was nice though to see this.

How much concreting are you doing @fairygirl? I agree; a bit of grit spreading is a very small task to us because we aren't scared of getting our hands dirty; it's always a good feeling to be tired at the end of the day but with something to show for it. Good luck with your concreting.

Kind regards, Col.

 

@fairygirl I expect in Scotland you are quite right and in England most hay meadows are in national parks and other protected areas these days due to changes in farming practice; so they are only left on less productive areas. I believe they are cut mechanically, dried in the fields and then baled for people who want hay bales for various things. Hand cutting is not economic.
The SSSI near me is cut once a year in summer left to dry and then raked up (at which point seeds drop out and keep the cycle going) and generally removed to the recycling site where it goes into the green waste. for compost.

 

We have been busy last few days deep cleaning small greenhouse. managed to fit 18 large containers in there for experiment of over winter veg growing. Resting today making list of best veg to grow in them, but got loads seeds already germinated to go in some of the containers, ie metetor peas, dwarf kale, Artic lettuce. Space also for small pots of hopefully winter herbs. Kitchen back door 'stir fry' containers doing really well. Will be doing first pickings this weekend. Also need today to plan for deep cleaning potting shed next wk. The layout isnt working and needs to be more organised. Its going to be my Beatric Potter theme she shed lol.

 

The word meadow suggests to me it contains grass.
A wild flower meadow surely is a mixture of wild flowers and grass.

 

Hi,


I agree with you @pete yes; usual thoughts of meadows are with horses grazing on lush grass and meadowmania sell seeds to accomplish this; I'm unsure what effect wildflowers would have on livestock though?

Wildflower Meadow Mixtures (with grass seed)

Also it's possible as in my case land owners don't want wildflower meadows to include grass hence meadowmania cater for both types;

Native British General Purpose Wildflower Seed Mix

I'm very happy to not have grass; just a blaze of stunning colour much admired by all who see my meadows; I use the term my wildflower meadows loosely when in fact I've converted three large areas of my garden into seperate wildflower meadows with grass paths for access. The rights and wrongs regarding descriptions don't cause me any problems I just post in good faith what I get up to in my own gardens which I've got full control of.

Out of curiosity and being nosy I've just had a very quick web search;

This popular gardening trend can be toxic to pets

I don't have livestock to think about so can grow things I like; can I make it clear please; I'm sick of grass so I buy grass free wildflower seed mixes only.

Gardening is just one of my many and very varied hobbies; I'm not a gardening expert but I'm doing OK. How many gardeners can do other hobbies I have; being a mechanical engineer I'm at home doing this;


Bought as scrap.


After a bit of TLC.

One big job Bron and I did was to replace the bungalow and two roomed extension roofs after the insurance company failed to pay for repairs six weeks after we moved here when water poured through two ceilings. Never having done roof repairs and couldn't borrow more money I spent the next 18 months researching whilst we saved for materials living with buckets and bowls.


Bron filled bags with ceiling plasterboard and also filled the skips whilst I was on the roof for two weeks; we worked side by side but now I'm sadly on my own but still grafting.

I'm off topic again but I like to encorage anyone to leave their comfort zone to try something totally new; one skill leads to another skill.

Creating the wildflower meadows was incredibly hard work but I wanted to do something for my wonderful Bron to enjoy.

I've rambled on enough; time now for a violin practice which is another difficult skill to learn but one I'll deeply enjoy during winter; I'm also learning sight reading because I've a poor memory for remembering notes.

Kind regards, Col.

 

Volunteer day yesterday, sadly I had to dig up a whole bed of azaleas, all bar one had succumbed to the summer drought. The close proximity of a Yew hedge didn't help either.
Today I lifted the last row of maincrop spuds on the plots. I've posted details on the veg thread. I'm repeating myself a bit, but for those that don't follow that most were good size, some were huge. Oddly, on one root, they were all tiny with what look like the start of extra tubers never seen this before.

 

My supplementary order of tulip bulbs arrived today. My initial order was enough but I needed more . I put some in the new grass border in my front garden and some in a couple of containers, an orange, red and yellow combination of T. Ballerina and T. acuminata, a botanical tulip which looks like a flame. I then managed to remove three bits of the laurel hedge which were sticking up after the recent trimming and were concerning me , using a long reach pruner on an extendable pole.

Some of my perennials were in need of cutting back due to mildew and being trashed by wind and rain so I topped up one of my garden waste bins with them. I then tidied up one of my sloping borders where I’m getting the chainlink fencing replaced with wooden fencing next month. It was a bit cooler today but pleasant with no wind or rain and set to continue for a few days.