Wealden Times | WT210 | August 2019 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

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Jane Howard’s Fables from the Farm Jane tackles the challenge of a wildflower meadow The wild flower meadow has not only been looking wonderful all summer but more than ever before it’s been buzzing with bees, and birds and butterflies have all taken advantage of the many different flowers and seeds on offer. We made the meadow five years ago. It was a huge project that involved turning back the clock and accepting it would be less productive in terms of the amount of grass it produced, but it has been worth every penny. I don’t imagine you ever give it a second thought but the fact is almost all the fields of grass you see round and about, will in recent history have been ‘improved’. Over 97% of original Wealden meadows which would “Over 97% of original Wealden meadows have been ploughed and sown with high yielding grasses, such as perennial rye grass” have supported about 50 different species have been ploughed and sown with high yielding grasses, such as perennial rye grass, a fast growing, tough thug that doesn’t let any others get a look in. This kind of intensive grass production while supporting more sheep and cattle leaves little room for plant diversity or wildlife. New wild flower meadows are called ‘semiimproved’ and it’s much harder to make one than you might imagine. To get rid of the rye grass we had to spray it off in the autumn not one, not two but three times and then as though making turf, a machine was brought in to slice and remove the top few inches of rooty soil. This created a house size pile which we put in the woods much to the delight of the pigs who thought we’d built them their very own piggy Alton Towers. It was then left to overwinter as a sad, bald patch of land. In February, seed from a host of different species of clay-loving wild flowers and grasses were sown and ever since it has been an annual riot of colour. But it’s gang warfare out there and to prevent the bad boy grasses, thistles and docks, from moving back in we have to make every effort to keep the soil fertility low. And one of the key heroes in this ongoing battle is yellow rattle, a semi-parasitic annual plant that attaches to the roots of the vigorous species and takes nutrients, thus preventing them outcompeting the gentler wildflower species. Often known as the meadow maker it’s such an important plant that it has a whole line-up of regional names, including pots and pans, hen pennies, tiddlibottles and shacklecaps. And while on the subject of monikers there may be many ways I didn’t get 10 out of 10 for my parenting skills – no piano lessons, too busy to take them to museums or make things with egg boxes and sticky-back plastic – but I did teach my girls the names of all the wild flowers they came across. And even if it won’t feature on their CVs I remain immensely satisfied, maybe if I’m honest a touch smug, that they can tell Jack in the Hedge from Herb Robert and Ladies Bedstraw from Yellow Archangel. Another way to keep the fertility down is to cut the meadow every year for hay. In the other fields on the farm we cut hay in late June and later spread muck taken from the cow sheds the winter before. But the meadow gets left till late summer, usually the end of August when all the seeds have dropped and having been mown it gets not so much as a sniff of manure. Talking of aromas it also produces the most delicious smelling hay, a heady mixture of vaguely medicinal Meadowsweet, mingling with the soporific scent of Ladies Bedstraw (which was why it was used to stuff mattresses) and the slightly vanilla scented sweet vernal grass. And it’s not just the smell, evidently if you’re a cow or sheep you really can taste the difference. Open a bale of that on a cold wet February morning in the sheep shed and it’s a race to get there first. Cue music and sexy voice, “It’s not just any hay, it’s late-cut meadow hay”. Follow Jane Howard – and the farm – on Instagram @coopersfarm wealdentimes.co.uk 142
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Wealden Times | WT210 | August 2019 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

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