From 2027 we will leave the wildflower area as a grass meadow with possibly a small wildflower garden on the slope, because despite following all the advice where possible, our wildflowers have not performed well in 2025 and 2026, the only place they flower is on the sloping bank. We'll still cut paths through the meadow.

Advice we have followed includes having yellow rattle in the seed mix which controls grass growth, watering the meadow in 2026, creating a new area with bare soil, cutting the meadow as advised, leaving flower seeds to fall, clearing cuttings to avoid soil enrichment, removing weeds, modified the harrow to improve it and harrowed the soil before sowing and again to disturb seeds to encourage germination, rolled seeds for good soil contact, and re-seeded every season twice a year.

Despite all this work and effort, we had poor flowering in the last two years and the high amount of work is not justified for the poor results. We made a chart showing when sections of the meadow were seeded, the only successful flowering was on the sloping bank, which could just be due to the thicker soil there.

The main reason wildflowers fail after a few years is because grasses take over and out-compete the flowers, this is why our maintenance plan was adhered to and why yellow rattle was included in the seed mix. We ran out of cornfield annual seeds last year and had to reseed with the original flower and grass mix in some areas, which will have increased the grasses in 2026, but does not explain the poor results in 2025. Both seasons were extremely dry but we watered in 2026 which made very little difference.

The wildflower meadow project was created so we could apply for a grant to buy a ride-on mower which we needed for our large areas of grass. The mower is still in regular use, mainly for cutting all the grass on site, so we achieved our aim. There are also many other aspects of the wildflower meadow grant which we still benefit from:-

The new shed was part of the project, this replaced an old shipping container to give better views of the site. The shed houses tools, bird food and hardware supplies. The shed freed up storage space in the visitor centre allowing us to display more finds and exhibits including things found when making the wildflower meadow.

The meadow area was originally full of weeds and soil heaps, so the landscaping which levelled the area has created a more attractive usable outdoor space. Because the grant included preservation of adjacent areas, we cleared the trench and tunnels of debris and covered a brick floor with soil to preserve it.

We also bought insect hotels which continue to be used by bees and other insects, these inspired us to make more of our own from re-used materials. Our picnic bench is still in use, the table top planks warped so I got a free replacement top, we repaired the old one and made another outdoor table from it which gets a lot of use.

Grass meadow maintenance needed will be pulling up weeds, cutting paths, cutting the whole meadow in Autumn, clearing cuttings, possibly sowing wildflower seeds in a small garden on the slope and trampling them in and watering them in dry spells.

Although the towed accessories will not get as much use, they will be used when we need to cover areas with soil and grass for preservation. The roller, harrow and seed spreader will be needed for this and the mower trailer will be needed for carrying sacks of grass seed and watering with our sprayer, the trailer also gets plenty of use at work parties and the collector is still used to clear grass cuttings before open days.

So although the whole meadow will no longer flower, there are still many advantages of the grant which we continue to benefit from, particularly our mower and shed. Poppies and other wildflowers always come up in various places around the site and we often plant cornflowers in our gardens, so we will still have wildflowers on site. If any wildflowers return naturally to the meadow we will keep them.

Graham Bartlett

Project Co-ordinator

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