The Growth of the Urban Meadow

A statistic oft repeated these days is that more than half of all people on the planet now live in cities. In some respects this may be a good thing. It concentrates humanity, reducing our direct physical footprint on the planet, but this does not mean the natural world is safe from us. Far from it! The resources required to support modern cities are massive and global! Humans have shown scant regard for keeping the checks and balances that sustain planetary biodiversity, with negative feedback loops chipping away at the fragile balance that we are also part of. The challenge now facing most cities world-wide is that they were not designed from the outset to be zero-carbon or to be ecologically regenerative. They have simply evolved to accommodate the staggering tidal-flow of humanity seeking work and opportunities. Cities have become ever-denser and not enough emphasis is placed on the quality of life they foster. If however, we could re-design all of the cities that exist, applying modern environmental and ecological understanding, perhaps they would look and feel very different. Living within such cities, as individuals, perhaps we would feel encouraged to live more sustainably because we are part of something bigger … billions of us making small changes for the better – now that just may make a difference!

Credit - ‘The love post – In Urban Environments’ – article by Dayna East. A utopian view of the future.

Sadly this urban utopian dream is still some way off, but ecological changes are happening in many UK and European cities at a much smaller scale … which brings me to the topic of this blog, The growth of the Urban Meadow. Urban meadows take many different forms. I’m not referring here to occasional ‘bottom up’ guerilla veggie planting - even though this is often fun to see. I’m referring to changes to the way parks, school gardens, cemeteries, containers, vertical walls, hard-landscapes, flat roofs and even the areas around the bases of trees, are planted and maintained by local authorities. In some cases this simply means doing less – like leaving grass uncut! Yes, this does lead to a less manicured appearance, but what is wrong with that? Scruffy maybe the new neat!

By allowing the grass and wildflowers to grow in the avenue shown in the above photo, the central footpath feels calmer, cooler and more protected from the busy surroundings. Dogs love to play in the long grass and many birds can be seen feeding on the more abundant insect-life.

Up until last year, the tree-lined avenue in the above photo was always neatly cut, creating a wide green lawn over half a kilometre in length with a central gravel footpath and smaller connecting footpaths tying the avenue into the local smaller streets. It is very popular with locals. This year, the grass is only being cut a few metres to each side of the central footpath. The rest of the grass between the trees has been left to grow naturally and wild flowers are also appearing – including pink knapweed, white daisy fleabanes, blue vetch and sky-blue chicory. Wild horseradish is quite common too and there are sorrel leaves for the foragers to pick. Large boughs, broken off some of the trees by a violent storm 2 years ago, have been left insitu – more-or-less where they fell and are now surrounded by their own patches of wilderness - mini microclimates, with nettles and thistles thriving amongst the long grasses.

Pink knapweed, oxeye daisies, chamomile, clover and many more wildflowers are thriving, encouraging more spiders, insects, butterflies, bees, other pollinators – and birds too.

Simply leaving some areas of grass uncut is relatively straightforward but it does mean us getting used to areas of our parks looking ‘ignored’. Accepting this approach also means altering the notion that wildflowers are ‘weeds’ and therefore unwelcome. What is a ‘weed’ anyway? I’ve been growing wildflowers (weeds) in my gardens for over 40 years so I know their benefits. Choosing the right ones can mean resilient planting that adds additional colour and texture to any garden throughout spring and summer, while providing added food and security for our beleaguered biodiversity which really does need the native plants. In the urban landscape, this approach also creates talking points for children and in so doing, may even encourage the next generation of ecologists and biologist! For local authorities, it may reduce the need for maintenance - a cost saving – very important in these straightened times.

Vipers burgloss – loved by bees

In a local park, the council have gone one stage further by actually taking into account visual appearance – by applying a ‘designers eye’. Rather than simply letting the grass grow into an unmanicured heath, the grass has been cut to create stripes of long and short grass, like waves on the sea. They are not rigid stripes, but follow the contours of the ground, more or less running parallel to each other across the gentle slope. This takes a bit more work to create, but visually the effort is worthwhile and reinforces the fact that the area is actually looked after and is not simply an unkempt wilderness forgotten by the council. It also creates an attractive environment. I watched children and pets playing there. People were sitting there too on colourful blankets enveloped by the meadow strips. So it wasn’t just the density of biodiversity that was significantly higher!

Previously just a lawn, now left to grow showing partly natural and partly seeded flowers. If the flowers are left to grow to seed, they will provide even more flowers next year - all for free!

In most urban areas, apart from parks, opportunities for urban meadows tend to be more limited, but this is changing. In these situations, simply leaving nature to take most of the responsibility for what grows, may not be the best solution – probably just resulting in flowerbeds looking unkempt and unloved. This distinction became clearer when I found a number of urban meadow-beds planted artificially, mainly for biodiversity, surrounded by footpaths and busy roads. Previously these beds had been planted with woody shrubs. They were still green spaces, but not people or wildlife-friendly – at least not as much as they could be. This year they have been replanted with a mixture of native wild plants and also cottage-garden plants that can typically be bought from any garden centre. The plants have been selected for their varying size and texture as well as their striking flowers, providing fantastic colour for us to enjoy as well as nectar for visiting insects, bees and butterflies. They are at their best from early summer onwards – tall Verbascum, mid-height Echinacea, Achilleas of all colours, Nepeta, Salvia, Veronica, Liatris, Alchemilla mollis, to name a few (it is pleasing to note that most of these are included in SeeHow). Different flowerbeds had different combinations of plants showing that they had been deliberately designed, with a couple of smaller beds having taller perennials and taller grasses too. They all looked spectacular and, like the waves of cut grass described earlier, attracted birds, butterflies, bees … and people too!

We are still a long way from zero-carbon ecologically regenerative cities - as conceptualised in the first photograph but, from villages to cities, there are small changes to green spaces everywhere, which is hugely encouraging!

A local verge several hundred metres in length left to grow - pink and white rosa rugosa, various umbellifers; ragwort, willowherb, many other wildflowers, grasses and a few garden escapees too. Some woody shrubs have taken root such as sycamore, ash and Sambucus.

Our biodiversity desperately needs our help. Please support the growth of your local urban meadows!

The above Text and all Photographs (except where noted) are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow (07939 226417) for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.

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