Wildlife Field
Wildlife Meadow: Summer Reflection (2023)
The meadow has coped with a more traditional summer this year by growing vigorously throughout spring, slowing down during a hot, sunny and dry June and then running amok during the two wet and rainy months of July and August. The annual task of cutting the three meadows is well underway and the dry east meadow cut is now complete and the many anthills have reappeared. The west meadow is next on the list with the large central meadow to follow, probably in November. Because of the many anthills, more than 70, and the nature of the ground, the cutting cannot be tackled by AWS's ride on mower but is cut with a brush cutter blade attached to a Stihl machine. The whole mowing takes about ten weeks depending on the weather but a new and second operative, Kate, now offers the promise of faster progress. The small in number but big in heart and very loyal meadow group then carry out the tiring but crucial job of raking all the cut material and barrowing it to the periphery of the meadow where it joins the cut stuff from the last decade. This cummerbund of dead grasses, flowers and scrub provides excellent habitat for mice and field voles, frogs and toads.
To maximise biodiversity a summer hay crop is not harvested which means that after this warm and wet summer the heavier grasses have collapsed into a prostrate mattress of soggy grass, very difficult to cut. The ride on mower would just ride over this flattened grass and further compress it hence the necessity to use a powered brush cutter.
The other benefit, hard earned, is the opportunity to cut so hard as to poach the ground and create patches of bare earth in which meadow flower seed can be broadcast. The most useful of course being the Yellow Rattle seed which we harvest from the meadow each summer and sow in early December after the cutting and raking.
And then our splendid team can take a well-earned break and reconvene in early March when the meadow is reawakening and the pond is filling with spawn.
My thanks to each of them for their tremendous efforts which, happily, are now more widely appreciated by a growing number of plot holders
and their families.
Malcolm Bridge
