Mini MeadowIn our Mini Meadow you will see a mixture of herbs and wildflowers. Many of these are chalk grassland species, including knapweed, ox-eye daisy and wild carrot.
This meadow sits on our former Herb Garden, which had to be dug up due to essential ground works, but some sturdy herbs have persisted such as mint, tansy and comfrey. This little flower meadow is a great nectar café for bees and butterflies in the summer, which along with other insects, help to pollinate many of our edible plants and wild flowers, shrubs and trees. These plants also support beneficial insects, including ladybirds and lacewings, which help to control aphids and other plant-eating insects in our food growing areas. They like to overwinter in hollow plant stems. Encouraging these beneficial insects by providing the habitat and resources they require throughout their lifecycle is known as conservation biocontrol. If we provide the habitat, they do the rest of the work for us! |
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In the winter, this area may not look tidy, but the birds love to eat flowers’ seed heads and insects thank us for the shelter. So don’t cut back all your seed heads; leave some standing in your garden for wildlife over autumn and winter! They look great in the frost too!
