Saturday 7th April
A bank holiday weekend and the weather forecast includes rain after weeks of fine dry weather. This is excellent news for the conservation area.
We have created the seed bed to sow a further area of wild flower meadow mix. On the steeper parts of the site that will be difficult to cut we have sown tussock grass.
The varied forms of the grasses in tussock grass mixture provide the main focus of interest of this mixture. The tussock forming grasses are combined with wild flowers like knapweeds and vetches which can cope with competition from taller vegetation. This mixture has been devised to create areas of tussocky grassland that, once established, require little or no maintenance. This grassland type can form a good habitat for insects, small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, providing nesting sites during spring, food during summer and autumn, and shelter during winter.
At the far east end where it is more shaded we have sown woodland mix. It is a very good mixture of woodland wild flowers and grasses that will bloom in spring and early summer. Woodland wild flowers require some shade to thrive. So, use this mixture is for use in established woods, or in young woodland, as the canopy begins to close in.
