Brief Guide: Sow mid spring to late summer into a well prepared seedbed

Sowing Rate: 5- 10 grams per square metre (20.00 kg per acre)

1.00 kg covers 100- 200 square metres

80% Meadow Grass Seeds   35% certified Hard Fescue festuca ovina   20% certified Crested Dogstail  cynosurus cristatus   20% certified Fine Fescue festuca rubra litoralis   10% certified Smooth Stalked Meadowgrass poa pratensis     10% certified Smaller Catstail phleum pratense bertolonii     5% certified Bentgrass agrostis capillaris

20% Agricultural Flowers & Native Cornfield Annuals
Vetch vicia sativa Sainfoin onobrychis viciifolia Borage borago officinalis Corn Cockle agrostemma githago Crimson Clover trifolium incarnatum Field Poppy papervar rhoeas Birdsfoot Trefoil lotus corniculatus Yellow Trefoil medicago lupulina Alfalfa medicago sativia Corn Marigold chrysanthemum segetum Alsike Clover trifolium hybridum Phacelia phacelia tanacetifolia Corn Chamomile anthemis arvensis Cornflower centaurea cyanus  Red Clover trifolium pratensis White Clover trifolium repens  Chicory cicorium intybus Yarrow achillea millefolium Burnet sanguisorba minor Parsley petroselium crispum
   
Additional Information:
Before the introduction of intensive farming methods, powered agricultural machinery and extensive herbicide use, our farmland was a significantly more diverse landscape with many flowering forage clovers, herbs and specialised local crops. Sainfoin for example was mainly grown on the Cotswold Hills and Hampshire Downs providing a high protein feed for hard working farm horses. The flower of Sainfoin (pictured) was said to 'attract Bumblebees with great excitement'. Borage is another example of a specialised crop which has all but disappeared from the working countryside and although white and red clover have made a small resurgence in use over recent years, they rarely have the opportunity to flower before being cut for silage or devoured by grazing stock. Similarly, cornfield annuals have no place in modern cereal production which is largely cultivated in a sterile environment for maximum yield. We believe these bygone flowering crops and the somewhat 'outdated' ways of our great grandfathers may have provided a valuable source of pollen and nectar our now struggling Bumblebee and butterfly populations are desperately missing from their current habitat.
For further information on Wildflower Meadows see our Grass Matters site