Meadows create diverse ecosystems that are friendly to many species of insects and birds. Increasingly, flower meadows are replacing traditional lawns in many urban spaces. – they are tolerant of the consequences of the currently observed climate changes. The meadows are composed of various species of plants that are resistant to droughts or floods, and to intensive sun exposure. They retain water and facilitate its infiltration into the deeper layers of the soil. They are also conducive to the development of beneficial microorganisms.
They create diverse structures with long-lasting esthetic values and with seasonally changing forms.
Sowing a flower meadow, as well as maintaining it, is cheaper than maintaining a conventional lawn (during the year the cost incurred on flower meadow maintenance will be five times lower than on a conventional lawn).
Environmental benefits: mitigating climate change, lowering air temperature, rainwater retention, mitigating surface water runoff, purifying rainwater, creating ecological niches for urban fauna.
Social benefits: new spaces for recreation, beneficial effects on mental and physical health of local communities, increasing the esthetics of the place, education of local communities.
Economic benefits: increasing the value of the space concerned, reducing the costs associated with rainwater drainage and treatment.
They are part of creating green networks in the city:
– city orchards, community gardens.
Construction:
– They can be located in sunny or semi-shaded places, poor in nutrients. In urban spaces (public, semi-public, private) or between street lanes.
– Before sowing, the soil must be cleaned of grass and its rhizomes – they can choke the sprouting of newly sown plants. It is best to do this by mechanical stripping of the turf (plowing at a depth of 40 cm) and not with herbicides.
– The meadow flower mix for sowing should be properly selected (in terms of sunlight, existing substrate or soil moisture). Mixtures dominated by grass should be avoided (if grass seeds are already in the mixture, they should be low-foaming). We should also pay attention that the seeds of plants come from native species – this guarantees that they will adapt better to changes in the environment.
How to sow:
– The seed mix for the “flower meadow” should be mixed with sand. 5 liters of sand per 50 g of seeds per 30 m2 of surface. We sow on dry or moist soil, then roll after sowing.
After the first flowering of the meadow, when the seeds are sown by themselves, it should be mowed to a height of 10 cm. We leave the cut plants for about 3-10 days, so that the rest of the seeds have a chance to sow. The meadow should not be watered – when the plants dry, they should be removed.
– We mow the meadows twice during the growing season.
– Meadows can also be sown on small patches of land, in the space of already existing lawns, which must be strongly trimmed to a height of 20 – 50 mm.
Examples:
A flower meadow in the park of Versailles.
This meadow is characterized by great decorative value due to the presence of many species of annual flowers in the mixture.
A flower meadow in Solec, at Franciszka Salezego Jezierskiego Street, Warsaw.
The flower meadow was sown as part of the civic budget, next to an abandoned town tenement house. Currently, the tenement house has been renovated and the flower meadow replaced with a traditional lawn.
A flower meadow, Hel.
The flower meadow was sown as part of the civic budget in the central part of the settlement.
References and additional materials:
https://www.lakikwietne.pl/faq3
https://www.wroclaw.pl/budzet-obywatelski-wroclaw/files/attachments_2017/696/76d6dc61a19e23a156327e2a5744c32d.pdf
file:///C:/Users/Aga/Downloads/19-052_MidAtlantic_Meadow_guidelines_web.pdf