The Making of a Wildflower Meadow
Work this season put in motion transformative change to the Big Downs landscape, to sow a wildflower meadow which sees pollinators thrive.
With a definite change of season crisp in the air, it feels that this is when our collective longing for summers to come starts to brew. The young trees planted by our loyal season ticket holders during February’s Spring Celebration are now unfurling fresh leaves each week, guiding the mind's eye to imagine how Big Downs will look in the years ahead.
Our lost wildflower meadows
This August, we undertook our first spread of wildflower seed at Big Downs, the ambition being to create a rich swathe of nationally scarce wildflower habitat. Boosting populations of bee, dragonflies, and butterflies teetering on the edge, is part of a nationwide combat to reverse the 97% loss of wildflower meadows since the Second World War. Big Downs will act as a corridor and link with other wildflower meadows in Cornwall, combating habitat fragmentation which threatens many of these declining species.
Bolstering pollinators
Longstanding visitors to the gardens will know that, previously grazed and cut for silage, Big Downs has been reincorporated into Trewithen Gardens. The newly designed garden entrance leads straight out into a network of paths meandering through the meadow. The hum of insects: bees; beetles; butterflies; damselflies; dragonflies, soundtracks a walk through the long grasses, and we very much look forward to hearing this amplified.
The Wildflower Collective
Earlier in the year, Grace Twiston Davies, co-founder of the Wildflower Collective, visited Big Downs, and confirmed that the site is ideal for establishing wildflowers. The Wildflower Collective’s ‘Meadow Match’ is a project that pairs donor meadows rich in native wildflowers with receptor sites, to expand and regenerate species-rich grasslands across Cornwall, Devon, and the Isles of Scilly.
A plan of work incorporating Grace’s expertise was drawn up, with work quickly getting underway. The gardening team first undertook the tiring task of relocating a Miscanthus, or 'Elephant Grass', from a strip of the field, and a hard cut of the meadow kept rigorous grasses at bay.
Spreading green hay
The preparations to get Big Downs primed to receive wildflower seed all culminated late in the evening of a hot day earlier in August, when bales of green hay were delivered to Big Downs from a wildflower meadow near Bodmin. Thanks to the Wildflower Collective, we were matched with this donor site close by, making it possible to cut and spread the hay within a tight window, and to sow a meadow with local seed.
First thing the next morning, and with much appreciated help from farmers, bare ground was raked across Big Downs, and the hay was spread. Right now, it may look far from a vibrant wildflower meadow — with vigorous grasses cut back to give the flowers a chance to establish. The green hay is full of seed heads of knapweed and eyebright, yellow rattle and cat’s-ear, and those seeds are now settling in, with any luck, ready to bloom next summer and for many summers to come.
Meadows of the future
Going forward, we will need to do an early cut to keep those vigorous grasses at bay, and we plan to do another spread of green hay, bolstering density and variety of wildflowers species. Over the next few springs, we’ll also be planting plug plants moved from around the gardens - including bluebells, red and white campion, cow parsley, foxgloves, primroses, and snowdrops - along the woodland edges of Big Downs. The aim is to create a mosaic of species across Big Downs, richly diverse for pollinators.
The transformation of Big Downs is only just beginning, but already it carries the promise of something extraordinary. This project is a commitment to the future - supporting pollinators and reconnecting fragmented landscapes in Cornwall. In the seasons ahead, we look forward to watching Big Downs grow into a place where visitors can experience the joy of a meadow in full bloom, evocative of those in times gone by.