End-of-season meadow management involves bringing in large contracting equipment to cut, row up and remove the hay on this 5.5 acre meadow.
The team at EJ Ward did a very professional job mowing the meadow and harvesting the hay in mid-September this year.
The meadow is cut and the hay allowed to dry out to allow meadow seeds to drop. The hay is then ‘rowed up’ and removed. Removing the thatch from the meadow allows light and warmth to reach germinating seeds. At this point we add hand-collected Yellow Rattle and Eyebright seed, which are parasitic on grass and keep the sward in check, allowing wildflowers the space they need to compete with the grasses. We add additional wildflower seed such as Red Clover, Meadow Vetchling, Tufted Vetch, Great Burnet, Meadow Crane’s-bill, Betony, Selfheal and Rough and Autumn hawkbits. These have all been hand collected which is a time consuming process.
The next stage of the management operation is to put sheep on to graze the meadow down, add dung and trample in the seeds. A selection of plugs will be added to less diverse areas of the meadow.
This year the meadow has been used as a donor seed bank for other meadow sites and six local groups and many individuals have collected seed from Hermitage Field.
