Wednesday 5 July 2023

Lawn to meadow, meadow to forest

Lawns are so passé. My działka has been de-lawned and re-wilded. The plants on what used to be the lawn are now my height or taller. Stepping out into the garden, I enter a kingdom of wildflowers, attracting dozens of bees and a smaller number of butterflies. Leaves of green are busy synthesising sunlight and exhaling oxygen. Biodiversity is back. Everything is natural - seeded as it comes. I planted ten blackcurrant bushes in February; five have been harvested (Titania variety), the remaining five (Gofert variety) will be ripe in the next few days. The blackcurrants will be used to make nalewka, like Cassis - but stronger.

Below: thistles tower over me. There are at least four bees in this photo. In the background - my solar panels. [Next week marks the first anniversary of their connection to the grid, so I'll give a full economic and environmental breakdown of my installation.]


Below: a common brimstone butterfly (listkowiec cytrynek, Gonepteryx rhamni) 


Oxeye daisies in profusion. Somehow less attractive to the bees than the thistles at the moment.


Deeper into the działka, young forest is emerging; verdant and lush. Wild strawberries carpet the ground.


I have two patches of raspberry bushes; one lot is in fruit now, the other, at the far end of the działka bears fruit in November. The two cherry trees are full of ripe fruit - I've eaten all the low-hanging cherries, the rest require tree-climbing...


Welcome to Tomorrow's Garden Aesthetic.

Wildflower meadows are good for the environment; here's a paper from the Journal of Applied Ecology about how King's College Cambridge turned its lawns into meadows. 

Only downside that I can see is for allergy sufferers - plenty of pollens to irritate the nose in springtime.

This time three years ago:
Town and country in summer

This time four years ago:
Across the Pilica to Strzyżyna

This time five years ago:

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