This page is full of practical advice on how to manage or restore your hay meadow. It is designed for anyone including smallholders, community groups or folk with lawns or corners of their gardens they would like to manage as late cut flowery swards.

First steps – is your site suitable?

Have a good look at your site - leave the area that want to turn into a hay meadow uncut from early May. When the grasses and wildflowers are flowering take a winding walk through the area and write down what you can see.

Ideally you want to start with a sward made up from fine grasses (fescues, bents) and wildflowers like common sorrel, meadow buttercup, ribwort plantain, red clover and eyebrights. If you have an area that has been heavily grazed and/or fertilised you may have lots of docks, nettles and thistles. These areas, and those with lots of creeping buttercup and white clover, may take a lot longer to turn into a flowery meadow (a decade or more). To be absolutely sure, you may want to get your soil tested through a specialist laboratory to check that nutrient levels are low.

The area also needs to be easy to mow, so that you can maintain it, and if you are going to keep animals on it, strong fencing, easy access and a water supply are essential.

Sloping areas, which may be very free draining, and wetter areas may also be interesting to manage as meadows, and may be quicker to respond to traditional management.

Introducing wildflowers

If you feel that your site is suitable, you can introduce wildflowers through a variety of methods. Yellow rattle is a useful species that keeps grasses down so that wildflowers have a chance to thrive. You can rake over the whole area by hand or machine and scatter seed; heavily cultivate patches and scatter seed, or grow plug plants and plant these into prepared areas.

It is best to introduce plants that are typical of Cumbrian meadows as these will have the most likely chances of success and are the most ecologically suitable. Local seed and plants are available from Scott’s Wildflowers, Cumbria Wildflowers and Emorsgate Seeds.

Smaller areas may be more successfully maintained in the same way as herbaceous borders, with no grass species added at all. At Plumgarths we have planted a large oval bed with pot grown wildflowers, larger ones in the centre and smaller ones and scramblers at the edges. This is left alone for much of the year except for some weeding, then cut to the ground in late Autumn to keep it tidy through the winter. It looks very striking and is relatively easy to maintain

Cutting or grazing?

Your meadow will need to be managed. If you are restoring something as large as a field, this is a big undertaking! Close the meadow to stock from late April to mid August to allow flowers to set seed and for these to drop. The hay can then be cut and baled (you may be able to interest a local farmer) or can be grazed off by cattle (sheep won’t make inroads into a coarse sward). You can manage smaller areas without animals and increase the number of times the meadow is cut through spring.

Unmanaged meadows become tussocky and unmanageable very quickly. Brambles, bracken, shrubs and trees are all ‘waiting in the wings’ to colonise your meadow and only cutting and/or grazing will keep them at bay.

Enjoy your meadow!

Creating a meadow rich in wildflowers is a long-term project. However, as your meadow changes through the seasons and years it will always be a pleasing space to wander through and enjoy.

Downloads and links

Restoring and enhancing wildflower meadows
by Natural England

Traditional Cumbrian haymeadow species
Hay-Day ID leaflet

Wildflower seed suppliers
Scott’s wildflowers  - www.scottswildflowers.co.uk
Cumbria Wildflowers – www.cumbriawildflowers.co.uk
Emorsgate Seeds – www.wildseed.co.uk

Managing your meadow
Hay-Day ‘Managing’ leaflet

Managing grassland by cutting and mowing by Cumbria Wildlife Trust leaflet