On the ninth of this month I finally finished preparing the ground for our new native meadow. It had been an exhausting job. Determined to create the best soil conditions possible I'd spent several days digging a series of deep holes. Native meadows thrive best on soil that's very poor, so by doing this I was able to bury the nutrient-rich top soil deeply under thick layers of the poor yellow subsoil from below. Once done the area was then raked to a fine tilth, the stones removed, and the whole bed sowed thinly with a mix of native meadow wild-flowers and fine-leaved grasses. I was also able to replant a few primroses, field scabious and the kidney vetch we'd purchased last spring. Once netted against cat attack it was a matter of anxiously waiting for signs of germination. And it's started! Tiny stalks of green grass have begun to show. For the first year the meadow will be mainly a carpet of featureless grass I'm afraid. It's only from the second year on that the flowers will begin to show, but from then on it will get better and better as each year passes.
Several times during the last two weeks of August our pond was graced by a lovely amber-winged dragonfly; an aeshna grandis; another new species for the garden.
Temperatures remain high, and on the 27th of the month we found a tangle of seven slow worms resting atop the rotting vegetation of our compost heap. The borders are still bright and colourful with red campion, globe thistle, verbena, gladioli, common poppies and field scabious still sharing their hues whilst the purple loose strife remains a fine sight. Our cornfield annuals patch has been magnificent this year too, dominated mainly by the sulphur-yellow wild mustard and the tall pink corncockle, all doing a wonderful job of attracting insects. Once the flowering was over we collected a fair bit of seed then began clearing the area ready for sowing our new meadow. Exciting stuff! |