"Steve - www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk" wrote in message
...
Hi

A word of advice wanted please.

I have just re-laid a lawn with turf and part of the area is a partly
created and partly natural bank. We have decided to allow the bank to go
to meadow for ease of mowing and also because we have added a 8ft sleeper
sticking out of the ground where we have covered it in bird feeders etc.

Where are you? Cheshire has wildflower sites where you can help yourself to
seeds. We found Wheeldon Copse near Delamere. (Having just paid over £100
for seeds from the National Wildflower Centre)
I've been trying to create a wildflower meadow on a bank by a pond (caravan
site) for three years.
'Making wildflower gardens' by Pam Lewis - Sticky Wicket, Dorset- is a mine
of information. You need to remove all the fertile soil off your bank. Bring
the impoverished subsoil to the top. Old english wildflowers don't like rich
soil and they'll be swamped by couch grass and other nasties.Of my fifty
metre long meadow bank only about ten metres have shown prolific growth of
poppies, cornflower, red campion, wild carrot and a few others. Couch grass
has seen to the rest. Your idea of using plugs is good and I'll be trying
that as well. It's such a struggle that I've taken to putting other stuff in
there just for some colour. Raising some Lavatera at the moment. May not be
strictly wildflowers but not many will notice.
DaveK.