Brimwood Farm Woodland
Approximately 3 acres of ploughed ag land was set aside to create a wildflower meadow with plans to use natural topping methods including scything and grazing towards the end of summer. Funding couldn’t be acquired to buy enough seed, so a strip was initially sown and then the seeds allowed to disperse. This is an ongoing process but the nature continues to do her work, with wildflowers creeping across the field.
Started in 2015, see below for gallery, plant list and timeline.
FLORA LIST
Oxeye Daisy
Birdsfoot trefoil
Plantain
Meadow buttercup
Dock
Thistle
Ragged Robin
Ragwort
Lady’s Bedstraw
TIMELINE
The first wildflower seeds were sown. The field had previously been ploughed and had secondary rapeseed oil growing in it. As this is an annual crop, it was left and the seed simply scattered amongst it. No attempt to flatten the ruts from ploughing was made as thatch and organic matter from future years would level this out.
The small strip of wildflowers was left as long as possible for seed dispersal. We (and some friends) manually scythed the strip, whilst the remainder of the field - mostly dock and thistle at this point - was topped by a local farmer.
Very little maintenance has been given, aside from scything and topping at the end of the year. Due to the field having been previously ploughed, grass abundance was low and so there was no need to thin or graze. Wildflowers have been gradually widening the strip through seed dispersal.
Golden rattle to be sourced and sown as, after five years, grass is finally beginning to take hold across the field. Sheep are also now on site so conservation grazing can be used.