Olympic inspiration…!

Staying at Center Parcs, village Nature, Paris as a base from which we’d visit the Olympics.

In spirit and ethos, the Paris Center Parcs is quite unlike the private equity-owned UK business of the same name. 

And here we found wildflower inspiration. ‘The management’ loved the wildflower areas on display throughout the site. So much so, that there was an immediate agreement to give over a large part of our extensive lawn to wildflower meadow immediately. Mowing and then composting grass is time consuming during the peak growing season. Removing the hay cut at the end of the season is a big job, but will hopefully be less than the frequent mowing and composting.
That is a result - and a bonus for wildlife.

Relaxing in the shade of our chalet I was straight onto

the plan..

Grass is vigorous and so the reduction of this vigour is necessary with parasitic plants like yellow rattle and red bartsia.

Here’s the plan … 

Identify areas for recreation lawn and for meadow

Scarify potential meadow areas with hired lawn scarifier.

Use home-collected seed of:

• Yellow Rattle
• Cowslip
• Knapweed
• Wild carrot
• Field scabious
• Lesser knapweed 
• Oxeye daisy
• Birds foot trefoil 

1. Mix wildflower seeds and sand.
2. Distribute across scarified area.
3. Water - unless sowing done with lots of rain imminent.
4. Continue to mow through growing season 
5. Add spring flowering bulbs.

Control perennials e.g. dock during the following growing season.

Add plugs grown from seed.

Strim all grass in September and remove arisings.

Et voila!!