My experiment with the front lawn came to an end today when I cut it for the first time since the middle of May.
This was my first adventure into the world of 'wildflower meadows'. The simple technique I employed here is recommended by Chris Baines in his book
How To Make a Wildlife Garden (see also the diary entry for
May).
I was pretty pleased with the results (which will shortly be described in a new feature article), not so much because of the flowers and grasses that grew (which were more or less those I expected), but rather because of the restricted growth of the grasses over this seven week period. I had expected the grasses to grow and swamp the flowers, but in fact they kept quite low - very low in some places. This is indicative of a low soil fertility - ideal conditions for a wildflower meadow. I am now giving serious thought to managing the area more formally as a wildflower meadow next year.
