This mixture replicates valuable water meadows, providing habitat for invertebrates, mammals, and birds of prey. It can be managed by grazing long-term, but cutting may be needed in the first few seasons to establish the sward and prevent poaching. In late summer, leave up to one-third uncut for overwintering invertebrates, rotating the area each year.

Applications

  • Water meadows

  • River and lake banks

  • Seasonally flooded lowlands

  • To encourage insects and birds

Mixture

0.5%

Meadow Sweet

(Filipendula ulmaria)

1.0%

Dandelion

(Taraxacum officinale)

3.6%

Oxeye Daisy

(Leucanthemum vulgare)

0.1%

Ragged Robin

(Lychnis flos cuculi)

4.0%

Ribwort Plantain

(Plantago lanceolata)

2.0%

Self Heal

(Prunella vulgaris)

2.0%

White Clover

(Trifolium repens)

2.0%

Red Clover

(Trifolium pratense)

0.8%

Yellow Rattle

(Rhinanthus minor)

0.1%

Water Avens

(Geum rivale)

0.1%

Greater Stitchwort

(Stellaria holostea)

0.6%

Soft-Rush

(Juncus effusus)

1.9%

Meadow Buttercup

(Ranunculus acris)

1.3%

Salad Burnet

(Sanguisorba minor)

25.0%

Slender Creeping Red Fescue

(Festuca rubra rubra)

20.0%

Crested Dogstail

(Cynosurus cristatus)

15.0%

Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass

(Poa Pratensis)

5.0%

Meadow Fescue

(Festuca pratensis)

2.5%

Creeping Bent

(Agrostis stolonifera)

5.0%

Lolium perenne

(Lolium perenne)

2.5%

Yorkshire Fog

(Holcus lanatus)

2.5%

Browntop Bent

(Agrostis capillaris)

2.5%

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.

Spring sown

Year One

First cut mid-September - 1st October and collect the arisings, 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.