Best Practise for sowing wildflower areas
Areas rich in wildflowers can provide valuable habitats for insects and those which feed on them such as birds. In addition, pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and wasps use wildflowers as a food source and many flowering plants rely on them (and animals) to pollinate them, including food crops. Wildflowers around crops can also help reduce the numbers of pests as they can harbour natural enemies such as lacewings which eat aphids. They also provided seed food for farmland birds in autumn and winter. Flower rich margins were created in locations that were sunny, with low soil fertility (so they didn’t dominate fertile areas) next to hedges to provide a wider range of habitats for wildlife. The wildflower margins were 0.25 hectares and 4 metres wide in size, and a seed mix for flower rich margins was sown between March and May with a seed rate of 2 kg per hectare. The mix was an even mix of flower species with different flower shapes, scents sand colours with different flowering times. Margins were cut during mid-August to stop grasses dominating to a height of between 10-20 cm tall.
Farmer Clusters for Realising Agrobiodiversity Management across Ecosystems (FRAMEwork)
Ongoing | 2020-2025
- Main funding source
- Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- United Kingdom