The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

Jackie - that betony currently looks like a prize specimen! As an experiment, if you have another nearby plant, you could always control the rattle around one of them to see if it has any effect. The rattle may just be suppressing the grass around the betony, meaning that the betony actually has les...

@TheField - it says that anyone who is interested should email Simon Tomasso at stomasso@devonwildlifetrust.org

Debra, were you not given a management plan with your restoration project? If you have a hay meadow, and it was sown with yellow rattle, then since it's an annual, it's essential that it isn't grazed after germinating, as you'll lose it from the meadow. I don't know the season in sunny Totnes, but i...

4 acres of saltmarsh near Barnstaple

Kind of looks like lavender - does it still smell?

That sounds like a cool piece of kit. Is it an all in one machine (flail + collector) or separate? If the former it wouldn't be suitable for making hay...therefore would the cuttings just have to be composted? And do they have any idea of the rate per day that they are likely to charge?

Generally speaking there is positive correlation between wetness in meadows and species diversity, however, we've had an extraordinary amount of rain over the last few weeks, even by Devon standards - I've also had springs come up in places I don't remember seeing before - so I'd be hesitant in impl...

I suggest sending a message to Lynne Kenderdine memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=239 lkenderdine@devonwildlifetrust from the Avon Valley Project. She is likely to have local contractor contacts.

Hi Jon, I don't agree with your farmer. I have about 40 acres of hay meadows full of yellow rattle, from which the hay/lage is fed to my cows, and I've never known the seed to spread to fields where I don't want it. However, as an annual, if Yellow rattle seeds were to germinate and grow where they'...

Common centuary. Lovely indeed. I did have some plants in my haymeadow, but they seem to have gone unfortunately.