Last year a representation from the Property Group at St Bart’s, Charnwood Borough Council and the Quorn in Bloom group met and agreed the QiB group could create a meadow in the area between the back of CVG and the grave stones in the Church Yard. In the Autumn QiB member Janice bought her mower and mowed over the area several times for us, we then hired a petrol scarifier and went over the area several times with that to remove a lot of the grass exposing soil for us to seed and plant into. We planted a limited selection of perennial wild flowers as 9cm pots with a few plug plants, these we hope will flower this year, we also scattered seed including Yellow Rattle which is semi-saprophytic and so extremely important when trying to establish a meadow in helping reduce the vigour of the grass to enable the young plants and seed to succeed. Removal of the grass /hay at the end of the season is just as important because if it is left on the meadow it will break down and increase the fertility of the soil increasing the vigour of the grass. Varieties of seed/plants we have planted are
Red Clover, Birds-foot trefoil, Cowslip, Lesser Knapweed, Harebell, Betony and Meadow Cranesbill We didn’t add Oxeye daisy or Cow Parsley as we believe they could dominate the meadow at the expense of the other wild flowers (It will probably be difficult to keep them out!!) neither did we add flowers we believe will come of their own accord such as Buttercups, Common Vetch, Germander Speedwell etc. Meadows are a process so we look forward to it’s development. What we are hoping to create is a perennial native wild flower meadow, the varieties chosen are good for insects and give a good range of colourful flowers. ( Thanks to Leaders for their financial support towards the meadow it’s much appreciated )
Welcome to Quorn in Bloom 