Wildflowers

By Nolan Mills

It all started in 2012 when we went to the Olympic Games in London. The annual wildflower beds in the Olympic Park were amazing, I thought we could do that on Wootton Park. So in 2013 I marked out and sprayed with Roundup the first strip. It was 50m long and 1m wide near the Little Walsingham Close entrance. I put it 2m from the cycle track so as not to interfere with mowing and 1m wide because if it failed it would quickly revert back to grass. As expected it didn’t grow well that first year. I hadn’t appreciated how essential a clean seed bed is and to get that from permanent grass can take some time and effort. For the second year (2014) I did much more cultivation - spraying with Roundup autumn and spring before rotavating and sowing in early March. Also I used seed from the company that supplied the Olympic Park – Pictorial Meadows. The result was much better. Over the subsequent years we have used several of their mixes but prefer their cornfield mix – this is mainly poppy, cornflower, corn marigold.

The next year we added a second 50m strip nearby between the Blackthorn Road and Castle Acre Close entrances. We were now experts with the sowing technique. The seed rate is 3g

per square metre so we divide the strip into 5m lengths. 15g of seed is mixed with 500g of sand to spread the seed evenly. The sand needs to be slightly damp to make the very small seed stick. We found the best sand for this job is children’s play sand from Argos! In 2018 the Chairman of the Wootton Park committee asked if they could have a strip on the North Wootton end near the Pyramid, I measured out a 20m strip, this was sprayed to kill off the perennial weeds, rotavated and sown. All three strips produced plenty of colour through the summer for walkers and cyclists to enjoy and were buzzing with insects.

Last year (2020) we did some trials with the strips. What happens if we do not sow and rely on residual seed? We left the ends of the strips unsprayed and did not rotavate at all. The unsprayed area quickly reverted to grass. We did resow 12 m lengths in the middle of the South Wootton strips. It was an extremely dry spring and neither the sown nor unsown areas performed well. It made us realise that rotavating or disturbing the soil is essential.

This year (2021) we have increased our sites of annual wildflower sowing. The three strips on Wootton Park have been sprayed with Roundup, rotavated and sown. The South Wootton strips have been reduced from 50m to 35m, the North Wootton one is still 20m. South Wootton Parish Council have asked us to grow wildflowers in a neglected corner of the Cemetery, also we have two small

beds on the corner of Avon Road/ Rushmead Close. This year we sowed in very early March as conditions were perfect. I am pleased as they emerged before April’s drought and should do very well.

We hope people respect them as always and do not cycle or let their dogs trample through. Can’t say the same about muntjacs (see photo from 2018)!