Yellow Rattle Meadow - 2023
My aim here is to create "lazy grass" that I can manage by mowing in mid-September. If over time the meadow also becomes more diverse, with more annual/perennial wildflowers, so much the better. The soil in my fields is probably rich. It's old animal pasture that gets lots of leaves each autumn, it's been mulch-mown for the past dozen years and it probably receives fertiliser run-off via the wind and groundwater from neighbouring arable fields where cereals are often grown and lots of fertiliser added.
Yellow rattle seed was from eBay (a great source of fresh, high-quantity wildflower seeds). Seed was sown in Oct-Nov, into ~30x30cm scrapes made to expose some bare soil, either with a hand rake or a roller rake (much easier). Scrapes were arranged in a grid, spaced ~0.5m apart, 20--30 seeds were scattered into each scrape and pressed down by foot. The sowing rate was 0.2-0.3g/sq.m based on the sizes of the overall areas, which were estimated in sq.m using the app Locus GIS.
Yellow rattle plants appeared in March-April, emerging from low-level sward mowed the previous autumn. I mulch-mowed the area after this video in September 2023, i.e., I didn't collect the clippings (as it's always said you should) because I don't have a big enough collector mower. Maybe in future I'll mulch-mow one part, mow-and-collect another and make comparisons. Yellow rattle litter is apparently more nutrient-rich than other meadow plant litter so the clippings could make good garden compost, like leaves make leaf mould.
You could call this the wheelbarrow or engineer's approach to meadow management. A wheelbarrow supports two-thirds of the weight for you, and an engineer can do for $100 what anyone else can do for $1000. Or you could call it the "Tomte" approach. The Tomte is a character in Nordic folklore who's traditionally associated with a rural settlement. He performs useful jobs around the place and is mostly conscientious and good-humoured. But give him too much work and he might turn "evil and psycho".
#Scotland #meadow #biodiversity #yellowrattle #wildflowers
Music: Util Paisagem - Clara Mendes (Epidemic Sound)