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Hurst water meadow newsOctober 2006Wild flower seedingStarting on 4 September, 7½ acres (3 hectares) of meadow were cut and the cuttings collected and left in heaps to rot as a habitat for wildlife. The cut areas were then harrowed or rotavated to expose some bare soil. If this were not done, the wild flower seed would not be able to compete with the coarse grasses. The meadow has lacked the harrowing effect of cattle hooves as well as their grazing which 'de-thatches' the grass sward. The treated area may look rather bare, but the green grass should soon be back, eventually with more wild flowers - we hope! The seeding was done on 6 September jointly by Charles Flower of Flower Farms with Tim Way and his team from White Horse Contractors Ltd. Different methods of soil preparation and seeding were used to see which works best. The process will be repeated next September. The following species of wild flower seeds have been sown: Yellow rattle, lady's bedstraw, common knapweed, cowslip, betony, meadow sweet, rough hawkbit, greater birdsfoot trefoil, birdsfoot trefoil, oxeye daisy, field scabious, meadow buttercup, meadow vetchling, ragged robin, selfheal, common sorrel, yarrow, burnet saxifrage, great burnet, dropwort and sneezewort. Peter Pritchard, Hon. secretary October 2006
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