1 July is National Meadows Day.
We’ve lost a staggering 97% of our wildflower meadows since the 1930s, mostly lost to intensive agriculture. As well as being beautiful in their own right, species-rich meadows and grasslands support a wealth of plants and wildlife. The area of meadows in the UK has become so depleted, that rural roadside verges are now a significant habitat, home to over 700 species of wild flowers.
National Meadows Day is an initiative by the Save Our Magnificent Meadows partnership, whose objectives are to raise awareness of the plight of wildflower meadows and grasslands, and help communities reverse the trend. Between them, the partners maintain just under 6,000 hectares of wildflower meadows and grasslands in nine strategic landscapes across the UK.
The partnership is led by Plantlife; the other partners are Cotswolds Conservation Board, Medway Valley Countryside Partnership, National Trust Wales, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Somerset Wildlife Trust, Ulster Wildlife and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.
You can find out more about the initiative here.
There are events nationwide for National Meadows Day – the closest to Chiswick are in Greenwich, Morden Hall Park and Saltbox Hill Nature Reserve near Biggin Hill
Places to see wildflower meadows in or near London
- Palace Road Nature Garden, Lambeth Wood “a nature reserve with woodlands, wildflower grasslands and pond with a great variety of wildlife”
- Horsenden West, Perivale – the Coronation Meadow for Greater London
- The Queen’s Meadow, Green Park
- Our very own Gunnersbury Triangle Nature Reserve has newly sown patches of wildflower meadow at the entrance, as well as a larger, more established, area on the left just inside the reserve.
- Kew Gardens
Plantlife has 23 nature reserves, of which 3 are in the south east:
- Long Herdon and Grange Meadows, Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire
- Furnace Meadow and Brick Kiln Rough, Ebernoe Common, near Petworth, West Sussex
- Queendown Warren, near Chatham, Kent
You might find these identification guides, for June and July, helpful.
Want to create your own patch of meadow?
The easiest thing you can do is simply stop mowing all or part of your lawn and see what turns up or sow a wildflower seed mix. Wildflowers need nutrient-poor soil, to stop them being swamped by grasses, so ensure that your mix contains yellow rattle, which weakens the grass.
A good place to start is this booklet from Plantlife.