It will be a year this April since the conception of our Wildflower Meadow at Llanteg, Pembrokeshire. The past year has been one of mixed emotions for all of us, somethings we wish to forget and others which will stay fixed in our mind.
On moving to Pembrokeshire in November 2020 after 13 years as Production Manager for Wildflower Turf during which we completed many prestigious projects including the London 2012 Olympic Games and Olympic Park giving Wildflowers a huge boost. My working life prior to this was spent Arable farming. (I guess that is what they call diversification!) Obviously, the priority is not to paint the house but to establish a Wildflower Meadow which we duly did. Autumn and early spring are both ideal times to establish a Wildflower space. Thinking we would be guaranteed plenty of warm welsh rain ideal to get the seeds germinating and off to a flying start…. We had NO RAIN! for 8 weeks just baking continuous sunshine. We had no choice but to start irrigating, and so with that the first shoots of growth started to appear.
By the end of May we had achieved good establishment we stopped watering at that point and just watched and waited. It was now fascinating to watch a whole host of invertebrates, insects, pollinators and small mammals starting to take up residence in the Wildflower Meadow.
By this time, we were in the middle of the first lockdown and there is now much media talk regarding mental health and the importance of having access to green open space and more interaction with nature and how we must respect it.
By mid-July, the meadow was a blaze of colour and full pollinators busily going about their work. It carried on flowering until early October with Yarrow being last in a long list to finish flowering. This would be my favourite Wildflower the flower starting off a creamy white then turning purple in the autumn sunshine.
The meadow was cut in mid-October and all arisings removed. During the winter period the meadow has drawn in numerous numbers of Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Redwing, Mistle and Song Thrush and so the whole cycle will start again this coming Spring but when it comes to Wildflowers no two years are the same.
There has been much talk over the past 12 months regarding Carbon Offsetting using Wildflower Meadows. It is estimated that an acre of rainforest can offset up to 260 tonnes of CO2, Native British woodland stores up to 1.4 tonnes/ha and grassland and Wildflower Meadows 3 tonnes/ha.
So, there are many benefits to establishing a Wildflower spaces Big or Small as well as providing food for pollinators, invertebrates and birds they could also help in fighting global warming. Farmers and landowners can now make an income from Woodland and Meadows by big Business looking to participate in Carbon Offsetting.
Meadow Creations operate out of Llanteg, Pembrokeshire creating and maintaining Wildflower Spaces using seed, seeded substrate and Wildflower Turf.
Website: meadowcreations.co.uk
