There is something back to front about the idyllic scene on a meadow south of Norwich. Hay is normally gathered in, but this freshly cut, sweet-smelling grass is being carefully forked across a field.
The hay, harvested from nearby roadside verges, is spread to scatter the seeds contained within it, part of an innovative scheme to restore natural flower-rich meadows and reverse losses. More than 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows have vanished since the 1930s.
Rather than using commercial wildflower seed mixes, the seed-rich hay is cut from nearby flower-rich roadside verges – which ironically are often the last remaining fragments of ancient meadows – and applied to new fields belonging to landowners keen to restore lost meadows.
The following year, seeds of rare flowers including sulphur clover, spiny rest harrow and burnet saxifrage, germinate in the new fields, creating “natural” wildflower meadows.
The restoration scheme, a partnership between Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), a charity run by farmers, uses hay taken from 112 roadside verges managed as nature reserves by Norfolk county council, which ensures the flower-rich edges are only cut later in the year after flowers have set seed.
“The roadside nature reserves across south Norfolk are particularly rich in quite unusual species,” said Helen Baczkowska of Norfolk Wildlife Trust. “Because of the decline in wildflower meadows, they only exist on these roadside nature reserves. This is how we can take these species and create some new meadows so they have a more secure future.”
The hay was this week spread on seven sites across south Norfolk, including on fields belonging to sibling farmers Rachael and Vic Long. The Longs have been taking the hay for 10 years to restore ancient meadows on their farm, which was once an intensively farmed arable business.
“It’s fantastic and also it’s been very interesting to learn about this place that we know so well and see it from a different angle,” said Rachael Long. “It looks glorious in June, the insects are buzzing, it’s very rich, and it’s very exciting when a new wildflower arrives, like an orchid.”
Henry Walker, farm conservation adviser at Norfolk FWAG, said: “There’s a sea-change in farmers, and a greater interest in restoring semi-natural habitats. The appetite is there for creating wildflower meadows or linear margins around arable fields and I hope more farmers will take up this scheme. This is a great source of local seed that will thrive on farmers’ soil types, rather than off-the-shelf mixes where five or six wildflower species are plastered across the countryside.”
The scheme has been funded by the Barbara Barlow trust, a charitable foundation, but farmers also receive environmental payments for the meadows from EU farm subsidies.
The Longs’ 100-hectare (250-acre) farm, which also contains a 28-hectare wood planted by their father, is in a “higher level stewardship” scheme, which rewards wildlife-friendly farming, but their agreement ends next year, with still no certainty over whether funding will continue after Brexit.
“The whole farm – the meadows and the woodland – is European money. That’s enabled us to do this,” Vic Long said. “Unless there is some foresight from the government I’m not quite sure where we will end up. I’m not hugely optimistic but we’ll see.”
According to Baczkowska, the seeds within the hay not only contain sedges and rare species not found in commercial wildflower seed mixes, they produce flowers that flower for longer periods. This is because commercial seed mixes are taken from plants grown to harvest in one day, so their flowering period is much shorter. The meadows seeded from hay are in flower for longer, helping insects thrive.
“These meadows don’t look like something created from a packet seed mix, it looks like an old meadow,” Baczkowska said. “And the benefits for the insects and invertebrates are so much better.”