Large numbers of plants can be grown with little cost beyond the labour involved. One of us has collected seeds from these plants growing locally:
- Oxeye daisy
- Bettony
- Meadow cranesbill
- Meadow vetchling
- Birds-foot trefoil
- Self-heal
- Pignut
- Field scabious
- Devil’s bit scabious
- Yellow rattle
- Yarrow
- Common knapweed
- Hawksbit
- Cow slip
- Ribwort plantain
All of these plants are typical of hay meadows and all should grow well from seed. Seeds can be sown in seed trays in the autumn or spring and transferred to trays like the following for growing on, before being planted out as plugs:
Suitable trays are available from a number of suppliers like Nutley’s Kitchen Garden and Quickcrop. How many people would like to take on this challenge – perhaps to propagate one or two trays of plugs?
Commercially grown wildflower plugs are also available from a number of suppliers, including Cumbria Wildflowers. This can reduce the time required to establish a meadow. We are investing in about 400 plug plants to be planted early in 2019.
Costs
We do not expect there to be any additional costs for the Parish Council. If anything, the mowing work might be less which might save a little money.
Plenty of plug trays and compost can be bought for under £100.
We have a budget of around £250 for plug plants in 2019.