Category: Cabinets

Where there s muck there s grass!

by

My Outdoor Store

In a recent report I wrote about how experiening a variety of guided outings gave me an interest in wild flowers. Having begun to find out a bit more concerning grasslands I was shocked to hear that our wildflowers were literally under threat and this in turn was affecting the wildlife population.

Wild flower meadows are often perfect areas for a picnic or a Sunday walk but not so long ago they played a key role in the economy and society of The British Isles. Meadows provided fuel for transport in the guise of hay for horses; pasture fed the cattle which then became the meat and produced dairy products in the kitchens of town and country; and cattle fed on grasslands furnished the muck that enriched arable fields on which vegetation like wheat and vegetables were produced. Flowers and herbs provided medicine and food long before modern day medicine developed. Traditionally farmed hay meadows was the mainstay of rural Britain. The grass and flower-packed areas were closed up and allowed to develop from spring to mid-summer, prior to being cut back and then dried out to give fodder for cattle during the harsh wintertime.

Food rationing during world war 2 led to \”the Great Harvest\” when land which had not been cultivated since medieval times, was ploughed up again. With the shock of these food shortages, Britain was determined to be self-sufficient in food stuff and farmers were paid to plough up more meadows and downs. Green silage grassland replaced many of the traditional hay meadows. These fields consist of just a few grass species, such as sturdy rye, which is cultivated, then cut and fermented to provide a wet feed for livestock. These coarser grasses do very well on fertile soils that get an annual application of nutrient-rich farmyard manure otherwise known as muck. Applying artificial fertiliser or large amounts of manure to grasslands encourages coarse grasses which then outcompete the fine grasses and flowers.

This decline in hay meadows has a knock-on effect on flora and fauna, particularly pollinating insects such as bees and hoverflies. As meadows become less common so insects have further to travel to discover nectar and pollinate the plants we depend on for food. Due to lack of habitat and appropriate food the insects grow to be weaker and a lot more susceptible to disease and thus they are also on the decline. A nationwide campaign is currently happening in Britain to urge gardeners and open space and parks authorities to grow more flowers that support these vital bugs so as to boost their resistance and halt their decline.

Virtually all grasslands need sympathetic management and require some grazing; without this the fine grasses and herbs become crowded out by the tallest plants and toughest grasses. Although overgrazing stops plants from flowering and dropping seed. All year grazing by, for instance, sheep or horses can damage and destroy grasslands. Tall flowering plants like Ox-eye daisy, Common knapweed or Common spotted orchids are unable to thrive in overgrazed grasslands.

Farmers are nowadays offered incentives to modify land management by spreading less muck and restricting mowing or grazing. Despite this it takes numerous years to change a field from being nutrient-rich to nutrient-poor but we hope, one day, we will see more silage fields changing to meadows buzzing with insects.

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Article Source:

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