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Belleek Hotel, Co Mayo |
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Belleek Hotel, Co Mayo |
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Sorry I do not have the updated photographs of Belleek Hotel, its a long way to Mayo. And when I last visited, the meadow had grown but it was too earlt for flowering.
However the incentive is there to revisit, so I will as soon as I can, as the hotel is beautiful, the four poster beds and fine local food are just marvelous and the staff are entertaining.
What an excellent place for a wildflower grower to be contracted to travel and stay over night to sow seeds!. |
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DBN started planting wildflowers in the extensive grounds of Belleek Castle in 2002, the meadow should be one of our very best as I planted it myself, so they will be no excuses...
The soil is fine, acid to neutral Ph. and not too fertile. There are invasive grasses, rushes and very exact requirements as the meadows is to provide fresh flowers for weddings, and become the back drop to many wedding photographs.
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The meadow has germinated successfully, there was some winter flooding, after sowing, the gardener reports some patches which did not germinate, we replaced the seed in the areas that didn't germinate in spring 2003 and look forward to 2003.
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The management and staff have wisely chosen to maintain and enhance existing features, the totality of the grounds contain woodland and wide open parkland spaces, these were mainly left untouched, except for hedgerow wildflower planting (EC04) around the edges to demark the native woodland flora and soften the transition between meadow and wood
Around the large Oak tree at the Main gates, we planted Bluebells and woodland wildflower Ecotype Seed Mixture EC03 |
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As you can see the soil was not entirely clean at sowing time, but the ground area is large and one can get away with sowing such large areas, without totally eliminating all the native flora.
Note to the right of this photo there is native birch woodland, Jacky, the Hotel Manager, in her wisdom, realised that this is precious ecology and decided not to interfer with it...
But we identified a route through the wood to enable visitors to enjoy it without disturbing the native ecology. |
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The main challenge to the entire site was the differences in the varied places to sow native flora, there is shaded, semi, shaded, wet and dry areas.
Then there were spots for 'must have the most colourful display' and areas where the client wanted just 'sparse natural plantings' to reflect the wider countryside.
Some sections had to be robust to withstand trampling other had to compliment views from hotel windows, enhance the experience of the wonderful driveway and th whole planting had to look natural.
As I say I will have photographs as soon as I can visit again. |
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