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Post by NellyDee on Mar 7, 2016 17:09:45 GMT
Had to have major drainage work done, and things did not turn out quite as expected. Basically a trench, 8ft deep, had to be dug to take the large drains along the side of the access road. But, the very wet peat just kept slumping down the hill and into the trench. To cut a very long story short they had to bank up the area, so now I have a couple of little rolling hills of peat with quite a few tree stumps here and there. the contractors are going to scatter grass seed (don't think lawn grass will be much cop here) so -
First off I think I should get a tough grass, maybe cotton grass or something like, but don't know how to go about getting it, or maybe the grass used by farmers for their pastures. The problem is it is mainly peat. I doubt that anything that was growing along the area will grow again as so much banking was done, but I am hopeful, the area was rough grass, with an abundance of Devil's Bit Scabacious, wild Raspberries, Billberries, a couple of dog rose and a rock rose, a few rowan saplings no end of germander speedwell and Meadow Vetchling. Knap Weed, Nettles and Thistles.
I also wonder if I should try getting wild seed to spread, or just wait and hope that what was there will eventually surface.
This is part of the area I am talking about.
 Drainage by Helen Skelton, on Flickr
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Post by Harold Smith on Mar 7, 2016 19:26:43 GMT
Hallo NellyDee,
I can see your problem. There are quite a number of grasses, including Cotton Grass, that like peaty type soils.
Have a look at the www.wildflowershop.co.uk. They have an enormous range of wildflowers, including grasses. If you contact them I'm sure they will be able to give some good advice.
Anyway, have a look at the site. It is very interesting.
Harold.
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Post by faith on Mar 7, 2016 21:20:11 GMT
I would be so-o-o-o tempted just to leave it and see what came up! Remembering all the other slightly weird things that seem to have appeared in your garden, you never know what excitement might result! There could be lots of unexpected goodies in the seedbank. (N.B. cotton grass is not a grass, by the way, though I'm sure it would do well there if it is really extremely wet.)
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Post by rowanberry on Mar 7, 2016 21:22:26 GMT
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Post by Tringa on Mar 8, 2016 14:54:14 GMT
Yes it would be interesting to see what arrived naturally, but I guess if it is left bare the rains could wash it away. In addition to the above links have a look at wildseed.co.uk/ Given it likely to be quite wet a lot of the time perhaps some pond margins might survive. Do you have any independent plant nurseries nearby? Someone in the business and in the area will probably be able to give good advice. Dave |
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 8, 2016 17:44:29 GMT
Wow thanks - think I will go for the Irish wildflowers, as they seem to be for exactly the sort of boggy peaty soil I have. I think I might leave the areas that are flatish and see what comes up and just seed the really steep areas. The digger driver's folks are farmers and he is going to bring some of the seed they use. Actually things are not going at all well, I was hoping that the work could be finished before the start of Spring. they were due to finish this week, but unfortunately the pipe has sunk down in the middle of the run, so they have dug up the pipes there again and bought in tons of pebbles and rocks to put beneath the pipe. Still at least I am getting some landscaping done - look on the bright side. Downside, not so good for the wildlife at the moment.
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Post by Tringa on Mar 8, 2016 19:54:12 GMT
These things are sent to try us, Nell.
How about taking a photo from the same position every month to see how things change?
Dave
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 9, 2016 9:30:04 GMT
These things are sent to try us, Nell. How about taking a photo from the same position every month to see how things change? Dave What a good idea! I am going to do just that. |
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 10, 2016 15:56:04 GMT
OMG! The price of wild seed - looked up the price for wild seed for soil with high peat content £150.50 for 1kl. and that does not include VAT or postage. Think I will go with the wait and see what appears approach. And also gather some seeds here and there when out walking.
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Post by Harold Smith on Mar 10, 2016 16:24:37 GMT
OMG! The price of wild seed - looked up the price for wild seed for soil with high peat content £150.50 for 1kl. and that does not include VAT or postage. Think I will go with the wait and see what appears approach. And also gather some seeds here and there when out walking. Do you have any local farmers who have old fashioned meadows they cut for hay? If so, it might be worth obtaining a couple of hay bales and spreading them about. There should still be a lot of seed in the bales.
Harold.
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Post by Cotham Marble on Mar 10, 2016 17:22:13 GMT
If it were me, I would take the opportunity to introduce some selected species to that location before other plants get to take over. I certainly wouldn't though spend £150 on it. My approach would be to go to Emorsgate wildseed.co.uk/species/category/wild-grasses and buy a selection of grasses in single species - even the 1gram packets can contain many seeds so there's a chance of getting good numbers established from a single sowing. The species that stand out to me as probably being suitable are Tall Fescue, Smaller cat's-tail, Red fescue, Sheep's fescue, Wavy hair-grass, Tufted hair-grass, Sweet vernal-grass, Marsh foxtail, Creeping bent and Common bent. Wildflower species could be added depending on cost/appropriateness. Harold's suggestion about hay bales is good and I'd certainly try that. I wouldn't do anything about soil preparation other then raking the area(s) to be sown and then treading in the seed using a board, as protection from birds even if that does reduce germination success. With the variation in elevation - the central dip will presumably stay wetter the the top of the slopes, a range of micro habitats should quickly develop. |
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 11, 2016 9:50:09 GMT
Thanks CM and Harold. I like the idea of getting an assortment of grasses and thanks for the suggestions. The digger driver's dad has a large farm, and today he came with a bag of the seed they use for their hay growing. the area has somewhat increased in size - nightmare! A valley has had to be dug out and 2 more pipes laid leading to the main run off pipe. The water was just pouring down. someone recalled that when he was a lad there used to be a burn there - long gone buried in undergrowth and debris and it seem it has inadvertently been opened it up again, does explain why the area was always so waterlogged.
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Post by rowanberry on Mar 11, 2016 10:43:44 GMT
OMG! The price of wild seed - looked up the price for wild seed for soil with high peat content £150.50 for 1kl. and that does not include VAT or postage. Think I will go with the wait and see what appears approach. And also gather some seeds here and there when out walking. That's terribly expensive... it that how much it is from the link I sent you? I didn't check the prices first... it's all per gram, and I didn't know how much you would need. |
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Post by NellyDee on Mar 11, 2016 13:18:37 GMT
Yes it is from the link, but the price range is about right on other seed sites. It is a very large area I now have to contend with approx. 350ft x 40ft - 80ft in places wide. It all became a wee bit of a nightmare both for the contractors and me. Another two subsidiary pipes have had to be put in to join up with the main pipe. the digging of the trench and clearing the land around the area where water was backing up, inadvertently released a small burn, which had disappeared from sight over the decades, but was merrily saturating and spreading out into the land behind, it suddenly burst forth filling the trenching and running down the road, luckily veering off and into the burn on the lower ground. two of the small trees that were over/on the area also lost their grip and fell over. Anyway it is all sorted now and seems to be working as the 'occasional loch' is receding and there is no longer a big puddle around the house and clear water is running out of the pipe into the burn. Interesting that a burn could so disappear from sight and in retrospect, I don't think it was only the work being done here, The farmer has at last been putting up fencing and I think they too had the clear land to get the post up to the area and along behind us. Oh what fun life can be!
On the upside, maybe now I will get my attempts at 'wild meadow' on the lower ground going again, especially as now the dear hill farmer's sheep can no longer graze here and if it is a reasonable summer carry on with the burn repairs.
On the down side - the wildlife, hopefully it is still early enough in the season for them to recover. |
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Post by Cotham Marble on Mar 11, 2016 13:57:59 GMT
I hadn't appreciated the size of the area; from your dimensions it sounds to be in the region of 2,000 square metres which at 5grms a square metre is 10 kilos of seed. If you do supplement your commercial seed with specific species, I'd suggest keeping the species in a discrete area. There is a supplier which has a different business model to Emorsgate and has native seed at £50 a kilo. www.meadowmania.co.uk/wild-flower-meadow/wild-flower-meadow-seed.htm?gclid=CJ3v-ObguMsCFUKZGwodpd0FQg .The acid soil and clay soil mixes would probably be suitable, 500gramms of each would give you a good cover over part of the site if that's the route you wanted to go, otherwise a small patch that you can use to enrich the large site year on year would likely work. For wildlife a tussock area would be good, so that would need to be planned into how the whole area is to be managed given that close mowing would defeat the purpose. Tussocks are important for overwintering butterfly and moth larvae that feed on meadow species. |
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