Damp Meadow Species for Borders

Primary damp meadow herbs	Secondary meadow herbs to consider
Common bentgrass Crested dogstail Smaller catstail Hard fescue Trophy chewings fescue Smooth stalked meadowgrass Ladys Bedstraw Ragged Robin Ox-eye Daisy Meadow Buttercup Meadowsweet Ribwort Plantain Self Heal Common Sorrel Yellow Rattle	Agrimony Betony Birdsfoot trefoil Buttercup, meadow Common centuary Cowslip Cranesbill, meadow Cuckoo flower/ Lady’s smock Dyers Greenweed Field Scabious Goatsbeard Great Burnet Knapweed, common Pasque Flower Quaking Grass Rock Rose Salsify Snakeshead fritillary Sneezewort St. John’s Wort Vetch, common Majoram Meadow Vetchling Meadow Saxifrage Musk Mallow Wild Carrot Wild Thyme Yarrow

Margins, Hedges and Fences

Site of removal of large fig tree. 

 Site of previous Leylandii hedge along border of lawn. It has since been planted up with some perennial ornamentals but has become overgrown. I have ear- marked the border for damp meadow herbs in future.

 Further down the border, the plants thicken into bushes and an overgrown ornamental grass specimen. This has been left for conservation cover and to maintain visual variety in the garden.

The border runs up to the vegetable plot and provides a natural screen containing brambles, roses and other bushes. 

Mature Leylandii adjacent to the vegetable plot. As they are getting quite obtrusive and will probably undermine a neighbour's outbuilding, they will ultimately be removed. I intend to plant an indigenous conservation  hedge in its place, incoorporating hawthorn, beech, blackthorn and alder. They could be maintained by laying every 7- 10 years. Food plants such as blackcurrents, brambles, and elder would be encouraged.

Spring daffodils in the margins.

 The very back border of the garden was reinforced with materials I found whilst clearing the compost heap. It has so far remained stock proof, preventing egress of chickens and access by foxes, farm dogs or cats.

This area right at the back of the garden and pressing up against the farm stables is due to be up- planted with architectural herbs such as comfrey, mullein, or ferns. I will probably clear the area of debris and use some excess compost as a substrate into which to plant the herbs. 

Nettle Stand & Log Pile

It is a basic tenet of conservation that certain areas need to be given over to nature. In the Permaculture design, wild areas supply highways into and out of more intensively managed sectors by encouraging predatory insects and birds, self seeding flowers and other ‘blow ins’ which contribute to species diversity and resilience. At the back of the garden, adjacent to the orchard is a nettle stand which had an accompanying log pile from some previous clearance work. Nettle is particularly good for butterfly conservation. It did cross my mind, however, to bring the area into production for food; it has a generous supply of sunlight, and the fact nettles are growing suggests there is a good mineral composition to the soil. 

The soil, however, is full of small rubble and pebbles, and would be difficult to dig, or grow root crops. The sector is also next to a tall (7 ft) breeze block wall, which abuts on to the adjacent farm. Peeking over the wall reveals a disused stables with concrete floor, about half an acre of overgrown waste land, a rusting tractor, and a number of plastic 50 litre containers that appear to have had agricultural chemicals in at some point. Right next to the wall seems to be a storage/ loading bay which may have been used to load up tractors or booms with chemical sprays. As I cannot rule out the containers are from pesticides, and leaching has not occurred, I am disinclined to launch into cultivation of this portion of the garden, preferring to use it as a buffer against a possible contamination source. The sector is some distance from the house, and watering and intensive maintenance tasks would be problematic, applying some zonal thinking to the situation.

Wherever humans have settled, nettles appear. The oldest human latrines, tips, food stores and waste ground have nettles growing on them. They thrive on the nutrient rich waste of humans, and as a result purify the ground and redeem the soil. For now, letting the nettles do their work is satisfactory. If in future this area is to be cultivated, I would suggest shrubs and fruit bushes to accompany the orchard plants and circumvent any problems with digging soil.