Category: Biodiversität

29/9/26

The flowers in the tree circles—which I wrote about sowing in my post from May 13—have taken root well. However, it’s difficult to determine which method was most successful. For one thing, there was a gap of over a month between sowing in the first and the last tree circle. As a result, most of the flowers in the first two tree circles had already finished blooming. Furthermore, it became apparent that the presence of certain plants (particularly noticeable with tansy, but also with the field thistle) suppressed the establishment of other flowers. Overall, the flower mix certainly increased biodiversity, but it wasn’t really representative of the types of flowers that are meant to enrich a pasture. Especially now as fall approaches, the cosmos have taken over—these are ornamental plants in our region and originate from the New World. They’re still lovely to look at, though.

Most of the flowers can be seen in the smallest tree circle I worked on right at the end of May. Here, the soil was dug up to a depth of two spades along the edge before the flower mix was sown. In the center, I also raked the tilled area to remove a large portion of the existing vegetation.

In one tree circle, I had dug up one section to a depth of two and another to a depth of one spade. Even though a direct comparison is possible here, there’s hardly any difference to be seen. In the section dug up to a depth of one spade, there’s a bit more grass and sorrel.

one spade deep on the left—two spades deep on the right

It seems that in the areas where I simply turned over the sod, thistles and other „weeds“ tend to grow a bit more frequently right among the planted flowers. Next year, I’ll be able to observe in which area the annual flowers are best able to self-seed and whether they can hold their own, at least to some extent, against the „weeds“ typical of that location.

Thistles, stinging nettles, and mugwort are spreading among the planted crops

When sowing the seeds, in some of the tilled areas I lightly raked the seeds into the soil and then scattered a few more on top, while in others I simply scattered the seeds and covered them with a little soil. I can't tell the difference between the two methods.

13/5/26

We want to increase biodiversity on our pasture. Johnny regularly sows grass and herb seeds with our Faunamaster seed drill. Since the turf is already quite dense, the young seedlings often cannot compete with the established plants. Above all, white and red clover have nevertheless established themselves well on our large pasture by now. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find most of the herbs from our seed mix again on the pasture.

That is why we sowed flower seeds in our tree rings in the pasture this year. Our goal is for the flowers growing there to seed themselves onto the adjacent meadow.

First, I turned the sod over to do this.

I dug up part of the beds two spade depths deep, and the other part only one spade deep. Below that, I loosened the soil with a broadfork. This way, I can observe how well the seeds establish themselves and how quickly the new plants are crowded out by the neighboring grasses.

Before sowing, I soaked the seeds in a molasses (or honey/sugar) water mixture (1:9) along with some purchased mycorrhizal fungi. Then I mixed the mass with some dry soil so the seeds could be distributed better. In some areas, I raked the seeds in lightly. In others, I scattered the seeds and covered them with a little soil. In some circles, I just scattered them without covering them. In the final circles, I also raked in some of our Johnson-Su compost, which we opened for the first time, before sowing.

Now I can observe which method worked best.

Inside the tree rings, Johnny opened up the turf with the tiller, and then I raked away the loose grass with the rake. There I simply scattered the rest of the flower seeds and hope that some of them will germinate and take root as well.