Making the Meadow

Our festive decorations (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

Peter kindly came along and carried out a survey of Bryophytes (a group of plants including the liverworts, hornworts, and mosses) adding 15 species of moss to our plant list (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

Thanks to a donation we added another Holly bush to the Meadow (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

With seed from High Ash Farm we sowed Yellow rattle onto the new wildflower area (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

The cuttings (known as 'arisings') need to be raked off to prevent nutrients building up in the soil as wildflowers thrive best in impoverished soils (photo by Dave Jones)

The cuttings are left for a week or more to allow any seeds to fall (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

After the summer cut (photo by Dave Jones)

Before and after the summer cut viewed from the northern corner of the Meadow (photos by Dave Jones)

Before and after the summer cut viewed from the eastern corner of the Meadow (photos by Dave Jones)

Bob cutting the Meadow (photo by Dave Jones)

Bob cutting the Meadow (photo by Dave Jones)

Bob cutting the Meadow (photo by Dave Jones)

With the 'green hay' down we now need to wait and see what comes up (photo by Dave Jones)

Our enthusiastic team was soon hard at work spreading the green hay (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

Thanks to Norfolk Wildlife Trust we had another batch of green hay to give our new wildflower area a good start (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

Our green hay ready to spread on the new wildflower area (photo by Pauline Montgomery)

For the last few years NWT have generously provided 'green hay' cut from other local wildflower meadows. This year we were able to add hay from flower-rich areas of our Meadow cut by hand using scythes (photo by Dave Jones)

In preparation for putting down green hay Bob lightly harrowed the new wildflower area after we had removed the membrane to reveal bare earth (photo by Dave Jones)