Once upon a time this section of the garden was our chicken run. We ate eggs everyday from the bantams and hens and all was very well. In fact all was so well that we had two births, - two lovely little chicks. And then one day......guess what happened, you've got it - The Big Bad Fox broke through the fence and destroyed them all, - except two that went to live at Jodie's. So the result of this sorry tale is a spare bit of grassy area which we would like to be a little more productive, and to us that is trying to encourage more wildlife (except perhaps Basil Brush).
So Phil the Gardener has started by clearing the ground and putting the rotavator over it. If you are clearing grassland you could spray or better still put some polythene over the top of it for a few weeks and then fork or rotavate over until the tilth is pretty fine. Wildflowers dont need much food so there's no need to add compost. We've decided to seed one half with our Wildflower Mix and add some Yellow Rattle, and on the other half we are going to take the easy option and lay Wildflower Turf.
The easiest way to sow the seed is to mix it with some sand, that way you get an even coverage. We've added our yellow rattle seed in with the mix but you can spread this usefully just about anywhere. Not only will the yellow rattle look good and the seed pods really do rattle but it also helps your wildflower meadow establish by detering grasses and allowing your flowers to get established!
What about the egg supply though? Well we will go back to egg production one day, once we have built Fort Knox in the PondField, and in the meantime Jodie and Alison keep us well supplied, and the taste of fresh "proper" free range eggs is something else.