Cornfield Flowers

Due to intensive agriculture and the wide use of herbicides, most of our traditional arable ' 'weeds' have disappeared. Flowers such as cornflower, corncockle and throw-wax have declined to the point of extinction. In order to counter balance this, though admittedly in a small way, it is useful to set aside a small area of the wildlife plot as a 'cornfield weed plot'.

Excavating the bog garden area gave rise to a large amount of surplus soil. This was used to create a mini bank which was then sown with a mixture of cornfield flowers such as poppies, corn marigold and corncockle in April 2001. The first years growth was dominated by corncockle and mayweed. The mayweed tends to out compete the other desirable arable flowers, so it was removed before it set seed.The area was then left until March 2002, when it was weeded and dug over to mimic the act of cultivation as occurs in arable fields. Hopefully, this year a new batch of arable 'weeds' will germinate from the seeds produced last year.