Residents' wildflower project at Lyewood

A harvest of wildflower seeds (still in their husks etc) has been collected with the intention of providing some colour in one of the swales (drainage ditches) at Lyewood. These swales had inevitably become colonised by dock, thistle, ragwort etc. which we have been cutting back, then clearing small areas in which to sow seed and plant wildflower seedlings grown at home. Our efforts this spring weren’t very successful perhaps due to the heavy rain soon afterwards, followed by armies of slugs and snails, but some chicory did produce its lovely blue flower.

Nature itself has produced some welcome growth: small clumps of great willowherb, woundwort and fleabane which may increase along the bottom of the swale. Encouragingly, cranesbill is spreading in the grass and as it’s related to geraniums, which slugs evidently dislike, we hope it will become a feature.

The bowl of seeds in the photo contains more than a dozen varieties of wildflower including poppy, mallow and ox-eye daisy. We’ve noted that mallow, with its lovely pink flower in late summer, is very prevalent on nearby waste ground so perhaps this at least will become established.

This autumn we’ve sown some of this year’s seed harvest but most will be spread in the spring. The marvellous thing about this project is that it hasn’t cost a penny!

Michael - Lyewood resident