Thank you. This side of the orchard has been a work in progress for about twenty-eight years! For years the grass was growing strongly but in time the amount removed when cutting it down grew less and more flowers appeared. Parts of it are still too dominated by coarse grasses (some of which make strimming difficult) but the yellow rattle is helping. The orchids are increasing but I have to cut around some of them in July in order to leave them to set seed. Things like pignut and oxeye daisies tend to fluctuate from year to year. This was a good year for pignut. The bistort is a bit of a problem as it takes over in damp areas leading to loss of variety. It doesn't like to share ground. It's good to see the insects that are attracted, right from early spring with the crocus, through to July when I cut it. There is no 'one size fits all' in this kind of thing, the ground and the rainfall decide what will do and what won't. A wet summer makes it difficult to cut and dry the grass, makes it hard work. But it gives me a lot of pleasure to see it.
@Woodgreen Do you have those little blue butterflies? The church here have had a "no mow" May,so many wild flowers and grasses,but also hundreds of those blue butterflies,they were amazing to see,I wonder where they all come from? How do they know?
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Hello @Valley Gardener I have noticed reports on here of lots of blue butterflies, but I rarely see a blue one here, and none so far this year. The little brown butterflies, such as meadow browns like the long grasses, later there will be lots of those and many other species but blue ones are not common here where I live. Maybe I'll see more this year but not up to now.
Parts of our local churchyard have been left to allow the Lent lilies to go to seed and there are fine grasses and wildflowers there too.
Posts
Lupins, delphinium and foxgloves.
Heuchera ' Marmalade' and saxifraga rubrifolia.
This side of the orchard has been a work in progress for about twenty-eight years! For years the grass was growing strongly but in time the amount removed when cutting it down grew less and more flowers appeared. Parts of it are still too dominated by coarse grasses (some of which make strimming difficult) but the yellow rattle is helping. The orchids are increasing but I have to cut around some of them in July in order to leave them to set seed. Things like pignut and oxeye daisies tend to fluctuate from year to year. This was a good year for pignut. The bistort is a bit of a problem as it takes over in damp areas leading to loss of variety. It doesn't like to share ground.
It's good to see the insects that are attracted, right from early spring with the crocus, through to July when I cut it.
There is no 'one size fits all' in this kind of thing, the ground and the rainfall decide what will do and what won't. A wet summer makes it difficult to cut and dry the grass, makes it hard work.
But it gives me a lot of pleasure to see it.
Do you have those little blue butterflies? The church here have had a "no mow" May,so many wild flowers and grasses,but also hundreds of those blue butterflies,they were amazing to see,I wonder where they all come from? How do they know?
Parts of our local churchyard have been left to allow the Lent lilies to go to seed and there are fine grasses and wildflowers there too.