My circular meadow is coming along nicely, or I think so anyway. The grasses are growing, the buttercups and daisies are making a wall to wall carpet and other wild flowers are popping up. Some I have seen in previous years but one in particular has made its first appearance and it is looking very lovely indeed.
The view up the steps outside the back door.
Buttercups and daisies form the background to the meadow, it looks as though the sun is always shining.
According to my wild flower book the creeping buttercup, Ranunculus repens, occurs in damp, nutrient rich soils and can appear in flooded grassland, which it did last winter when the bog garden overflowed.
Unlike the Meadow buttercup, Ranunculus acris, which is much taller at 18 inches and frequents hay and water meadows. I have just the one plant so it is very precious
The flowers on the meadow buttercup are a slightly different shape, the petals don’t curve inwards like the creeping buttercup and have a more wavy edge.
My new flower for this year is Conopodium majus or Pig Nut to you and me! When it first appeared I wondered what it could be, then the flowers started to open and I was hooked, they are so beautiful, like a very small dainty cow parsley. It is apparently a classic species of acid grazed pasture and this used to be farmland. Under the ground it forms tubers and back in the olden days pigs were trained to root through and bring the tubers to the surface, they are supposed to taste like hazel nuts. No I don’t think I’ll try them, I’ll leave them to grow for another year.
When the flowers open fully, all the stamens are visible, making the whole flower look like lots of pin cushions..
I thought my white clover, Trifolium repens, had vanished but suddenly it all popped up, the honeybees will be happy as they like this very much.
Self Heal or Prunella vulgaris is like a tiny Ajuga. I had a large patch last year but that seems to have disappeared and now there is another patch forming by the cut path up the centre. Way back leaves were pulverised and mixed with wood ash to make a poultice to heal skin wounds. The flowers and leaves were also made into a syrup to heal inflammation of the throat and tonsils , I don’t think I’ll be trying this either.
A new patch forming, but there is also plenty of self heal in the “proper” lawn, little spots of purple everywhere.
There is a lot of Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea, which is a common plant of rough grassland. It has a tiny flower so is hard to see amongst all the other plants.
I’ll just finish with a few views of the little meadow, this is the left hand side where the swinging seat under the dead oak is ideal for morning coffee.
The view I have with my morning coffee from the swinging seat, soon I won’t be able to see the bog garden any more!
The right hand side with the bog garden at the back.
Looking back towards the house.
So that is my little meadow for June, I’ll photograph it again at the end of July, when I think that by then it will be mostly grasses, unless of course something interesting pops up in the meantime. I’m really enjoying my coffees and teas on the swinging seat, watching all the birds and insects, it is such a peaceful spot, sometimes so peaceful that I forget I have weeding to do!
What a wonderful variety of wild flowers in your meadow Pauline and I am sure the insect life is just as varied. I can just see you sitting there on the swing enjoying your morning coffee. It’s good to forget about the weeding for a time…..I do sometimes find my eyes scanning past the flowers and focusing on the weeds lol!
Thank you Denise, I just wait and see what pops up, I’ve not introduced anything yet, I’m leaving it all to nature.I’ve noticed lots of different bees and butterflies which is good, I’m hoping that they find something that they like. I’m like you Denise, where other people see the flowers, all I can see are the weeds, but at least they are easy to pull out after all our rain last weekend.
Aren’t wild flowers lovely? How pretty your meadow looks, I can imagine how lovely it must be just watching all the insects buzzing about. I bet they’ll thank you.xxx
Wild flowers certainly bring in the insects Dina, there were lots of butterflies yesterday along with a lot of different bees. The swinging seat is almost as good as a bird hide, if I stay very still, they all come amazingly close.x
What a glorious meadow you are creating Pauline, in such a short space of time – I love those pig nut blooms especially
The flowers were there already in the lawn as I don’t use chemicals on it, as long as it is green then that is fine by me Cathy. When I watch all the birds and insects on the lawn, I would hate them to be eating chemicals. The flowers soon pop up when you stop mowing.