The Meadow Makers' Network Forum

Yes, there's nothing more exciting to find in your meadow. I had my first one last year and this year there are nine!

I am trying to help a group of Devon growers who are hoping to find some land that would offer space for a number of separate but co-operating land-based businesses, including a market garden, agroforestry, edible food forest, education and events in sustainable land-based practices. They are thinki...

Thanks for the video, Amy. Though I usually just cut a few HWDs before they set seed (and leave the rest), they seem to have gone mad this year, so I have dug the roots up in a few places. I knew they were poisonous, but I didn't realise they were that dangerous. I've put all the roots in cardboard ...

Laying the hedge should fill the gap, so long as the trees are taller than the width of the hole. Hedge-laying is surprisingly easy - after one day's training I felt confident to manage various sections around our land. If it is a long continuous hedge and you don't have the energy to lay it all, yo...

We usually have a great display of cuckoo-flower, as we have a wet meadow. But last year, though there were plenty of leaves, there were very few flowers. There were about a dozen pheasants around (our neighbour is the Clifford Estate). This year, hardly a pheasant in sight and a glorious abundance ...

Another reason to leave ash trees alone, unless they overhang roads, rights of way, etc is that it is believed that about 3% are resistant to the disease - 1.5% genetically and 1 .5% because they are in a sunny or windy position that the fungus doesn’t like (Woodland Trust estimates). Since ash seed...

OK, I admit that "glyphosate will kill the lot" is an exaggeration. I perhaps should have reflected a bit more before firing off my post. However, there is a large body of evidence of the damage that glyphosate causes, in terms of soil health. For example, consider the following, from Biom...

I haven't seen yellow rattle appear in the wetter parts of my meadow, but here it is never visible until May or even June. So don't give up yet!

I am surprised to see anyone recommending glyphosate. The success of any plant depends on the prevalence of the right bacteria, fungi and animal micro-organisms in the soil. Glyphosate will kill the lot. There are also suspicions that it is responsible for cancers in humans who handle it. I'd rather...

Dear Amy, Thanks very much for your comments. I need no convincing that creeping buttercup is fully entitled to its place in the meadow. It is part of the sparkling display that we get here in May. I will watch more closely to see which insects are visiting it, and send a report for the FIT count. W...