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Index- Wildflower Gardening Web Index
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Low
Growing Mixtures: Mini-Meadows
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Most customers have tall, short and special effect meadows together in one
wild flower scheme.
Short cut or low growing meadows require the most maintenance, especially
when planted with grass. A short meadow can be cut at any time at any interval only experience
can guide you for your particular situation.
You can also cut different areas of flora to different heights to encourage different species.
Spring meadows can be kept short to grow
plants such as Red Clover, Trefoil, Cowslip and Selfheal.
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Time of Cutting |
| First
Cut each Year. |
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Low growing Spring flowers can start flowering in April. The years first
cut of a low growing meadow should be before 21st April for spring flowers
and 21 May for summer flowers, even if early plants are flowering. like
daisies in a lawn, they will re-grow. Low growing spring flowers are
then allowed to flower until June when Ox-eye Daisy, Campion, Rattle, Sorrel,
Plantain and Trefoil
flower.
- Before they finish flowering, cut all the flowers in July.
Sometime about six weeks later, some of the early spring flowers and
most of the latter will start to fade just before they set seed in
August.
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| Second Cut
each Year. |
- Give the low grow meadow a second cut mid July.
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| Third Cut
each Year. . |
- Cut again when the meadow has finished flowering after 21st August again at the latest.
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Late summer or tall flowering meadow plants will now flower and
until mid September. Yarrow, Devil's Bit, Marjoram, Bedstraw Loosestrife and Meadowsweet respond well to late cutting.
If at this stage and over mild winters if the meadow seems untidy or is
too tall cut it back to 4".
Indian summer: if the summer is prolonged, a mini meadow may flower
into November.
In truth the cutting dates are entirely up to you and these ones listed
here are for a cool/ temperate oceanic climate.
The cutting dates provided are used as guidelines and cutting should depend on when the flowering season is finished or when specific heights are reached. |
REMEMBER: Always remove 'cut' materials.
Most wildflowers will die if grass cuttings are not removed. |
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Mini Meadows |
| A mini meadow can be as small as
a (9" flat or tray or as large as you like
However, it is planted on 6" pure sand or nutrient poor soil.
The aim is to restrict the roots and force flowering. Often a
mini-meadow will have newspaper below the soil. |
| To refine the planting of mini
plant collections such as rockery wildflowers supplied from DBN, from your
local garden centre add bulbs and dwarf shrub such as Juniper, Rock Rose
and Salix lanata.
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| When
should I cut a low growing meadow?" Cut in Spring, July
and again in September. Be careful with a lawnmower, remember to keep your
feet away from the blades. Low growing meadows attract bees".
Will children playing on the meadow kill
the wildflowers?" Yes but if you allow 5m2 per infant and
50 m2 per young adult they will recover". |
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