Gardening, wildlife and the environment

[karatestu]

Did you pick some to eat?

No. I wouldn't dare touch something as precious as an Orchid. I have been enjoying pineapple weed tea though. A relaxing infusion that you can easily make yourself (as long as you know what they are and can find some). They are in flower now.

[Andy-831]

Your orchids look like Dactylorhiza fuchsii the Common spotted orchid which is native throughout Britain. I have some growing in my garden and they are quite a delight.

[slinger]

I have been collecting yellow rattle seeds to try and introduce it in the meadow. It is an annual with yellow flowers and when the seeds are ripe the seed head rattles- hence the common name.

It is an amazing plant and much loved by wildflower meadow creators and managers but hard to establish. Yellow rattle along with a handful of other native plants are hemi parasitic meaning they feed off the food in other plants but don't kill them. In the case of YR it feeds on grass which is really useful as it reduces its vigour and prevents it from growing high or swamping the precious wildflowers we are trying to encourage.

[slinger]

You might like this article, Stu.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2012/sep/27/yellow-rattle-meadow-grassland

It's got quite a few aliases too: Bays rattle, corn rattle, cockscomb, hay rattle, little yellow rattle, pots and pans, rattle baskets, rattle grass

[slinger]

You might like this article, Stu.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2012/sep/27/yellow-rattle-meadow-grassland

It's got quite a few aliases too: Bays rattle, corn rattle, cockscomb, hay rattle, little yellow rattle, pots and pans, rattle baskets, rattle grass

Good article Paul. I already knew all that but it helps spread the word. Article says Yellow rattle is hated by farmers - well not this part timer. Wildflower meadows have disappeared at such a rate as the farmers looked to 'improve' the pasture and get a better yield of grass. Thankfully people are becoming aware of the issue and more and more meadows are being saved or new ones created.

[Andy-831]

Stu, from personal experience it's a grand plant is yellow rattle and it does work however it tends to produce good results when the grass it is sowed into is a fine delicate species, it's not so good on couch grass and wider leaf varieties.

I have come to the conclusion that the area I sowed with Yellow Rattle which has been established for 4 years, does need major surgery, and this autumn I plan to collect Seed and resow the area, but I intend to strip an area of grass completely and resow with wild flowers including YR but include fine ornamental grass seed too.

Andy

[slinger]

Stu, from personal experience it's a grand plant is yellow rattle and it does work however it tends to produce good results when the grass it is sowed into is a fine delicate species, it's not so good on couch grass and wider leaf varieties.

I have come to the conclusion that the area I sowed with Yellow Rattle which has been established for 4 years, does need major surgery, and this autumn I plan to collect Seed and resow the area, but I intend to strip an area of grass completely and resow with wild flowers including YR but include fine ornamental grass seed too.

Andy

Hi Andy. It's great to have somebody here with some experience.

I have to work with what I have got which isn't bad at all but my management plan does include removal of the more vigorous plants like Yorkshire fog. I have an area with some couch grass but that battle is one you can very rarely win. Dealing with docks and cow parsley is a much easier task.

I am currently enjoying the common knapweed and the pollinators it is attracting.



More to come although I am not sure why I am posting such things on a hifi forum ? After my family its the main thing that makes me happy. Thinking about hifi is now a distant (bad) memory.

[Andy-831]

Gardening free's my mind.

I have enjoyed it for donkeys years, but I am certainly not an expert, and like you every day for me is still a school day.

I have moved away from liking manicured gardens, to a much more relaxed informal style with a cottage feel, fruits and veg in amongst the flower beds and small areas of completely unmowed grass with wild flowers, I have recently made two small wildlife ponds which are fascinating and essential to get birds and amphibians into the garden. My garden was always plagued with slugs and snails, since building the ponds I can't remember seeing one this year, plenty of frogs and toads though.

[Grumpytim]

Gardening free's my mind.

I have enjoyed it for donkeys years, but I am certainly not an expert, and like you every day for me is still a school day.

I have moved away from liking manicured gardens, to a much more relaxed informal style with a cottage feel, fruits and veg in amongst the flower beds and small areas of completely unmowed grass with wild flowers, I have recently made two small wildlife ponds which are fascinating and essential to get birds and amphibians into the garden. My garden was always plagued with slugs and snails, since building the ponds I can't remember seeing one this year, plenty of frogs and toads though.

Excellent stuff Andy, you should be proud of what you have achieved. Build a pond and they will come I have a large pond that I dug with a 360 degree excavator but I don't like to go near it for fear of scaring the wildlife. Also a toad has spawned in an old plastic kids sand pit I was using to stand plant pots in to water them from the bottom up. Amazing the opportunities they will take. I have had to keep this topped up with rain water for weeks now so the tadpoles don't run out of water

I'm wildlife crazy . The wildflower meadow has been there decades, longer than I can remember but taken for granted. It is only the last ten years or so that I realised how special it is and started managing it properly.

A couple more wildflowers spotted yesterday. Lady's bedstraw and Betony. Both lovely . It's getting to that time of year when I have to start thinking of hay making. Putting it off until the end of the month to give things more of a chance to flower and set seed and also for more butterflies and moths to complete their life cycle.

[Andy-831]

Some nice plants growing in that meadow Stu. I imagine all that variety will make the haylage so much more nutritious than the almost monoculture grasses farmers locally turn into haylage. Although I guess if you are trying to manage the grassland better do you wait and make hay to allow the wildflower seeds to drop?