Wildflower and Meadows Project

There’s something missing in our countryside, and if you’re not careful you might think it’s still there.

Please see note below concerning this project.

When you’re driving through rural parts of our countryside, or even along trunk roads and motorways, then in early summer you’ll probably see masses of ‘wildflowers’. It’s one of the treats of that season. Seeing our wildflowers not just individually but gathered together in great crowds, especially in meadows, is one of the touchstones of the cycle of our seasons – every bit as special and important as the turning of the leaves in autumn, or the snowdrops of winter and the woodland bluebells of spring.

Venture away from the roads and their verges though and the sight of wildflowers in bloom is quickly lost. Where are the wildflower meadows we might have expected to find beyond the hedges?

Since the 1990s the Highways Agency has been sowing wildflower seeds on our roadside verges. This has been done with the best of intentions, but has had an unfortunate consequence. It’s bred complacency. Most people haven’t noticed the dramatic loss of wildflowers, and our wildflower meadows from the countryside, because they see masses of wildflowers almost every time they get in the car and drive out of our towns.

Public outcry and horror at the very visible loss of our ancient woodlands and hedgerows led to a change in policy, and thankfully both are now relatively safe. Unfortunately this isn’t true of our wildflowers and meadows. We’ve lost 98% of our wildflower meadows since 1935 – with perhaps as much as 31% of that occurring since 1970. This loss is still happening. Most surviving wildflower meadows are very small, and typically below the size where an environmental impact assessment becomes mandatory. So it happens silently and quickly. The field will be treated with herbicide, ploughed and sown with agricultural grasses – sometimes within as little as a fortnight the field may be green again, and from a distance no difference will be seen. When a wood is felled or a hedgerow torn out the difference in the landscape is there for all to see and react to – but the loss of a wildflower meadow is usually unnoticed and unmourned.

In the past our wildflower meadows were used to produce hay. Hay was needed to feed the farm’s animals through the winter. When heavy horses provided the power for ploughing and other tasks, all farms, even arable ones keeping no other livestock, had hay meadows. With the coming of the tractor these were no longer needed. When we joined the Common Market in the early seventies the price of wheat shot up, and many of the last remaining small hay fields were ploughed up as they suddenly became economically attractive to have their boundaries removed and be amalgamated with larger fields to grow wheat.

A second cause of loss came with the advent of ‘fertility’ in a bag. Inorganic chemical fertilisers change everything in grassland. Grasses can respond to the extra fertility by growing much faster, but wildflowers respond much less. Where the fertility is high the grasses can swamp the wildlfowers, and after a few seasons all that remains is mostly grass. This situation has been made even worse by breeding special varieties of agricultural grasses that can respond even more to the extra fertility, and grow even faster than the native natural ones. In Britain almost all the grassland that you see animals grazing on, or grown for silage, is a mixture of non-native artificially bred rye grass and clover.

Please Note: The following project is currently suspended due to the member who was running it having personal problems preventing their involvement. 

TDN is starting a project that we hope will offer people the opportunity to reconnect with our native wildflowers and cultural heritage of meadows. The idea is that TDN members and their friends will grow wildflowers in pots at home, and then we’ll all come together in late summer and plant these plants out in fields that are being managed for conservation as wildflower meadows. We will provide you with pots, seeds and perhaps some very small plants, together with instructions on how to set everything up. Growing wildflowers this way is very easy. The Environmental Project Pages on the TDN website will include a lot more information about the plants you’re growing – their natural history and ecology, but also their mythology, old symbolism and uses in herbal medicine and more. A Wildflower Gathering will be set up where we can share tips, information and photographs and follow how each other’s plants are doing.

For those who are interested this project will involve more than just straightforward conservation.  On the Wildflower Gathering we will be sharing what it means to build relationship with these plants – not just as individuals but with their kind – their tribe. Having the sort of intimate knowledge of a wild native plant that you may gain in growing these plants from seed gives you a special “way in”, a key to a different sort of relationship with the landscape around you when you find their kin growing in the countryside.  It’s like finding someone you know well at a party of only slightly familiar faces, you get quickly re-introduced, accepted and the stories you hear will be different and deeper.

At the planting events late next summer, when we will be planting our plants out into meadows carefully maintained as conservation sites, we will also look at our cultural and ancestral connections with meadows. Working together in these fields we will be making connections , and exploring our relationships, with the generations and footsteps of those that have worked that soil before us.  

Please don’t let any doubts as to how green or not your fingers are or lack of space hold you back. There will be no pressure and lots of help. The Wildflower Gathering will provide all the backup and support you need, so that any questions that arise can be quickly answered. Wildflowers are easy to grow and easy to provide for even if you are going away on holiday. The species we have chosen to focus on this year are all easy to care for, have interesting herbal uses and ‘magical’ associations, and are of great importance to many species of butterflies and other animals.

There will be no charge for any of the seeds or pots, though any donations towards postage would be very welcome. This project is also ideally suited for children to get involved with, and if there’s sufficient interest we will try and run special ‘planting out’ days for families with children. If you want to get involved, however many you wish to grow (either one or huge numbers!), or have any questions please get in touch with me as soon as possible!