Planting a wildflower meadow
Instead of a lawn, I planted a meadow and each summer it attracts swarms of butterflies and insects. Then, as the summer comes to a close, the seed heads feed the birds too. I've had a charm of goldfinches feeding here along with linnets and yellowhammers. My resident colony of tree sparrows also really enjoy it.
My wildflower meadow acts as a larder for my wild art subjects
A larder for the birds
I'm hoping this new 'larder' outside my living room window will feed this population over the winter and provide me with plenty of new painting models at the same time. Some of my best compositions, like the goldfinch feeding on a thistle head and the wren on a bracken frond below, are of birds feeding on seed heads.
Jenny Wren | Limited Edition Print | Buy Here
A magnet for insects
Meanwhile the butterflies in the meadow, including marbled whites, are also excellent art models. On one occasion I counted 40 marble whites in just 20 minutes! Most people's living rooms look out onto a nice neat lawn, but I look on to a meadow of wildflowers. I like to think it is not just a beautiful backdrop but also a working environment.
Sow a meadow in early spring
It took a bit of work to get it established and looking back it now seems a long time since the cold spring day I first sowed this mixture of seeds and even longer since I gathered the seeds from the banks in my gallery car park! I also spent a lot of time preparing the ground. The seeds were sown in what is actually a very thin layer of soil covering 400 tons of solid chalk which had been dug out when my new studio was built.
Among the many species that have taken are wild carrot, red clover, ox-eye daisies, horse shoe vetch, self heal, yarrow and greater knapweed.
Wildflower art backdrops
These flowers have also been useful as studies for so many backdrops in my paintings. Below I have posed a hare against harebells and, later in the summer, I chose mayweed for a backdrop.
Hare in Wildflowers | Limited Edition Print | Buy Here
Hare in Mayweed | Limited Edition Print | Buy Here
This fox and its cub also looked perfect posed against dandelions.
My hedgerows and shrubs are also native, wild varieties and they play host to a wide variety of birdlife, including a bumper brood of rare tree sparrows and the long tail tits, featured in the painting below.
Tree Sparrows | Fine Art Print | Buy Now
Long Tail Tits on Blackberry | Fine Art Print | Buy Now
1 comment
Well done Rob, great use of not so fertile land..Great for native wildflowers.
I am making great strides with my ten acre biodiversity project
10,000 native Irish deciduous trees
Wrap around the house circa 1 acre naturalised and set wildflower meadows ..native Irish grown seed.
Wildlife pond of 1/4 acre.
100 mixed tree orchard
Bed & Breakfast bees..13 hives recently swarmed looked by a friend who is a 3rd generation expert..with 35 bee sites of his own!!!
The meadows under the trees will fully naturalised over next few years.
Lawn full of buttercup, red& white clover
Mobile Sawmill to cut up trees which had to be felked due to Ash tieback..now used as sleepers, fencing posts, pergolas etc
When will ye visit.
Best Regards.
Pat b