A mix of wildflowers and grasses suited for calcareous soils, designed to create habitats in challenging sites. It can be grazed by sheep long-term, though cutting may be needed in the first few seasons to develop sward depth and prevent poaching. It provides excellent habitat for invertebrates, birds, and mammals. When cutting in late summer, leave one-third uncut for overwintering invertebrates, rotating the area each year.

Applications

  • Free-draining soils

  • Limestone areas

  • Earthwork areas

  • Road verges

  • To encourage insects and birds

Mixture

1.0%

Yarrow

(Achillea millefolium)

0.5%

Kidney Vetch

(Anthyllis vulneraria)

0.5%

Hoary Plantain

(Plantago media)

1.4%

Lady's Bedstraw

(Galium verum)

1.0%

Birdsfoot Trefoil

(Lotus corniculatus)

0.5%

Yellow Rattle

(Rhinanthus minor)

3.1%

Sainfoin

(Onobrychis vicifolia)

3.5%

Ribwort Plantain

(Plantago lanceolata)

1.1%

Salad Burnet

(Sanguisorba minor)

2.0%

Oxeye Daisy

(Leucanthemum vulgare)

1.0%

Red Clover

(Trifolium pratense)

1.0%

Wild Carrot

(Daucus carota)

0.1%

Betony

(Stachys betonica)

3.1%

Flax

(Linum usitatissimum)

0.2%

Goats Beard

(Trapapogon pratensis)

30.0%

Sheeps Fescue

(Festuca ovina)

20.0%

Slender Creeping Red Fescue

(Festuca rubra litoralis)

8.0%

Crested Dogstail

(Cynosurus cristatus)

10.0%

Tall Fescue

(Festuca arundinacea)

2.5%

Creeping Bent

(Agrostis stolonifera)

1.0%

Browntop Bent

(Agrostis Capillaris)

2.0%

Tall Oat-grass

(Arrhenatherum elatius)

2.0%

Golden Oat Grass

(Trisetum flavescens)

1.0%

Tufted Hair Grass

(Deschampsia caespitosa)

0.5%

Crested Hair Grass

(Koeleria macrantha

1.0%

Quaking Grass

(Briza media)

2.0%

Timothy (Small eared)

(Phleum bertolonii)

Usage guide

Sowing Rate

5 g/m2

Sowing Time

March - October

Sowing Depth

10 mm

Sowing Instructions

Create a fine friable seedbed down to 150 mm in depth. Carry out two equal sowings at right angles to each other and diagonally to main axis. Broadcast manually or use seed drill, rake level and roll. Ensure good seed to soil contact.

Maintenance

Autumn Sown

Year One

First cut early July, then monthly during August, September and October. 

Cutting height 70 -100 mm

Thereafter

Cut from mid-July to early September. This can be done as one cut but preferably, and if the meadow is big enough, you will cut it in sections leaving a week to a fortnight between cuts. Ensure you collect the arisings. If the meadow is large enough, consider allowing up to a fifth to stand uncut through the winter and cut down and remove the clippings in March the following year, this will provide a habitat for invertebrates and some vertebrates over the winter. Rotate this area so a different section is left uncut each year. This more closely replicates the grazing of animals which would leave some small areas not grazed.

 

If possible, and with the obvious exception of areas you are leaving uncut, lightly mow the sward down to 70 -100 mm as required throughout the winter months until March and collect the clippings.