Pictorial Meadows

Opportunity to get out into the garden has been limited because of the bad weather. The yard looked great covered in snow, and it was nice to see animal footprints out there. One thing I hope to achieve when the garden is done is to give a habitat for some wildlife – a hedghog maybe, to keep the slugs off the flowers, or an urban fox.

Pictorial Meadows - Candy Mix

Mammals would be good, but as I understand it, ecologically speaking bees and butterflies would be better. My pal Bruce Connal told me about a company in Sheffield called Pictorial Meadows who have devised a “unique colourful meadow-flower seed mixes that rapidly produce a naturally vibrant display with  an extended flowering season.  The dramatic, wildlife-friendly Pictorial Meadow mixes contain no grass and all the green foliage you see comes from the flowers themselves”. Sounds good to me. Apparently meadows normally work better in scratchy soil, but in this case they’ve devised a seed mix that works well in good quality soil. Bruce told a story of someone taking a daily train ride, periodically throwing seeds out of the window and slowly over the summer seeing a new meadow grow on the banking beside the railway.

House Return

I’m going to go with the Annual Candy Mix along the right-hand fence from the back wall down the house return, with three trees/large shrubs interspersed down its length. It should look beautiful and be little maintenance for the first year or so, and it will mean I don’t have to make any other decisions for the time being about what goes in that elongated bed, beside picking out the trees I’m after. It’s that part of the garden that is most visible from my desk in the office, so it will the the part most looked-at, and as such I’m glad it’s going to be both handsome and environmentally sound.