Cutting down a meadow in late June
Is June too early for cutting down a meadow? The answer is… it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. For most meadows, it’s too early. The wildflowers won’t have set seed yet. And what if you have ground-nesting birds?
But if you’re trying to remove as much nutrition from the soil as possible, enabling the wildflowers to compete with the grasses, June could be the perfect time.
Watch the video: and read on for more details
Why do we need to remove nutrients from the soil to encourage wildflowers?
It comes down to grasses versus wildflowers. Both are important parts of a healthy meadow ecosystem. But if the soil is too nutritious, the grasses will outcompete the wildflowers that we’re trying to encourage.
A meadow on former agricultural land, which has historically been highly fertilised, is not likely to have very many wildflowers. The same is true of meadows on naturally rich soil or in gardens that have had lots of fertiliser or manure applied.
Although these soils can still produce valuable meadows, increasing floral biodiversity can be more challenging.
How to remove nutrients from your garden soil?
So long as we remove the grass clippings… whenever we mow a lawn or meadow, we are removing nutrients. We take those nutrients and organic material, and we put them on our compost pile.
A great use of grass clippings!
To maximise the effectiveness of this clipping removal, we can time the procedure to perfection. By late June, the grass plants have reached their maximum above-ground biomass. The grass hasn’t started returning nutrients to its root system, so now is the time to cut and remove clippings.
For optimum timing, aim to cut around the summer solstice.
There’s something else. Some of the bigger wood sages such as ‘Tuisalv’ can start to splay out after flowering. In other words, they become a bit messy and can intrude on other plants “privacy”. By cutting back hard we control this. We get fresh growth from low down resulting in a stronger plant.
Are there other ways to remove nutrition from a meadow?
Yes, there are, and I’m going to be demonstrating one method later this year. That is sowing a parasitic wildflower plant called Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor).
Technically, this doesn’t remove nutrients from the soil at all, but it does control grass growth. What it does is reduce grass growth by parasitising it. It removes water from the grass roots, thereby reducing grass vigour.
I’ll explain this in more detail when I show you how to sow Yellow Rattle in autumn.
Are you cutting down a meadow this June?
As I’ve said, June isn’t always the best time to cut a meadow, but it can be. I’d love to know if you’re cutting down a meadow this June or if you’ll be waiting until July or August.
Let me know if the comments!
Happy gardening.
Joe
Joe Vary Dip. Hort (Wisley), MCIHort, CMTGG
Gardener, educator, consultant, and planting designer. Learn with me 1-2-1, or in the My Gardening Mentor community.
This Post Has 3 Comments
Such an interesting series – I’m just wondering how small can a lawn patch be before it is too small to turn into a meadow? I have a very small grassy area that I have left as a ‘wild patch’ . It is very rough looking but I would really like to be able to officially call it a mini meadow! Would your instructions shown on the video series work on a mini scale?
Good question! I think someone managing large scale meadows would probably not call the one in our garden a meadow… but I still think it is.
So I’m happy to call even a tiny patch (say 1m2) a meadow.
Bigger areas are easier to manage in many respects. They have a bigger buffering capacity. By this, I mean that if for example, a section of the meadow has a bad year, adjacent areas can still support life and return it (seed, creeping growth, animals etc.) the following year.
Furthermore, bigger areas are often managed with machinery that sometimes (but not always) does a better job of maintenance tasks.
They are also less prone to leaching of harmful nutrients than a smaller meadow is.
On the other hand, a smaller meadow (even a 1m2 patch) can be carefully managed by an individual. It takes very little monetary or physical input. You may occasionally decide to buy seed or a new tool (a rake or some shears), and you will need to do a bit of maintenance work from time to time, but not very much at all.
Most people with a very small patch could even justify spending a few £ on some wildflower plug plants.
So I think you can call it a meadow no matter what size. It’s up to you. Call it a wildflower patch if you prefer.
Having a small patch can be limiting in some respects, but freeing in others. And importantly, you can still use a small wildflower patch/meadow to create something beneficial to wildlife, and to you.
The maintenance practices will be very much the same for a larger meadow, but how you implement them will be slightly different.
Very helpful and encouraging . Thanks Joe