Case Study: Wild flower margins

Author: Nicholas Watts
Farm: Vine House Farm, Lincolnshire

Aims:

The aim was to boost insect food for farmland birds through the summer. The farm is on peat soils in the Lincolnshire Fens.

Management:

The first margins were established 15 years ago. A wild flower and grass mix was purchased from Emorsgate Seeds. The seed mixture was 20% wild flowers and 80% fine grasses. Wildflowers included yarrow, common knapweed, wild carrot, lady’s bedstraw, self-heal, meadow buttercup, common sorrel and red campion. In addition, some flowering plants that were not in the original seed mix have established from the seed bank.

We cut them for hay in early August, as we have a market for it. Cutting and removing is important to reduce the fertility and maintain the floristic diversity. In addition, I have applied a herbicide in the spring whenever I have considered that coarse grasses were becoming a problem in the previous summer. One margin was sprayed this year for the first time in 7 years. I also pull ragwort and spot-spray thistles with a knapsack sprayer.

Achievements:

Although the floristic diversity of the original mix has declined, they remain as diverse flower margins absolutely humming with insect life. Knapweed has not survived in some of the mixtures on the acid soils. Our 15-year-old margin still retains mallow, sorrel, wild carrot, buttercup, lady’s bedstraw and self-heal. Yarrow has remained particularly dominant. In one margin, we incorporated cowslip and betony, but these did not appear in the sward until 5 years and 8 years after sowing, respectively.

The range of birds that use them has disappointed me. They are used by skylarks, meadow pipits and linnets (which take the sorrel seeds), but apparently not by my corn buntings and other small passerines. It may be that they are too dense for them. As a result, I have tried uncropped cultivated margins as an alternative means of providing an insect-rich foraging habitat for birds.

I feel that they are a significantly better option for wildlife than the standard grass margins.

http://www.vinehousefarm.co.uk/

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