Cloudforest One, Lahinch
Wildflower Meadow
Our trees are in the ground and growing happily. But we’re not done!
On Cloudforest One, we want to develop the remaining areas into biodiverse habitats that will support the local pollinators and other insect life.
One phase of our pollinator plan for Cloudforest One involves creating a wildflower meadow in the front field between our forest treeline and the hedgerow bordering the site. This area is overrun by a monoculture of creeping buttercup - which we have plenty of throughout the rest of our forest - so we’re going to clear the area down and give other wildflower species a chance!
IN PROGRESS
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IN PROGRESS 〰️
Be part of the project
If you’d like to donate towards the cost of establishing our wildflower meadow, please do!
Native Irish wildflower seed is costly, but well worth the investment. We’d like to create a wider diversity - this means sowing different seed mixes, and managing the meadow to control stronger plants like creeping buttercup creating a monoculture again.
We’ll send you a certificate confirming your sponsorship of our meadow rejuvenation too!
Our meadow story
August 2023
As part of the prep for our Planting Day, the sod was scrapped in this area to knock back the thick blanket of grass, creeping buttercup and reeds. We know they’ll be back as there’ll be plenty of seed in the underlying soil seed bank, but we hope this gives other wildflowers a fighting chance to germinate and get established.
We identified that part of the field was too boggy and wet to support many species of wildflowers - so we’re eyeballing that for a acidic wetland area instead!
September 2023
Because of the warm wet weather, days later the grass and buttercup seedlings were already starting to spring up again!
We want to encourage the existing seedbank and native wildflowers to germinate, so we’re not going too heavy on the weeding or ground prep. We want to protect our Lesser Celandine population, and we’re also collecting and scattering Knapweed and Yarrow seed from other areas of Cloudforest One.
However, to support our hives and make sure there is sufficient food so our honey bees aren’t competing with the wild bees and other pollinators, we decided to include some forage crops in the mix as well as local wildflowers.
We raked over sections of the meadow and sowed a perennial bee meadow mix containing Buckwheat, Crimson Clover, Phacelia, Red Clover, Sainfoin, White Clover, Fenugreek, Coriander, Lucerne, Fennel, Caraway, Sun Flower, Calendula, Cornflower, Dill, Corncockle (Kim’s favourite wildflower!), Bird’s Foot Trefoil, and Fennel Flower. We also added some Bokhara Clover to the mix because, well, we love it and so do the bees!