Natural Habitat Consultation

Create a wildflower meadow in your garden Grassland restoration Aftercare advice Wildlife gardening talks Encourage wildife into your garden

Natural Habitat Consultation
The aim of Meadowsweet is to offer help and advice to anyone that wants to create a wildflower meadow and encourage wildlife whether it is in a garden or a field, large or small.

The objective is to enhance biodiversity and improve habitat. Encourage nature, wildlife and all types of pollinators
Meadowsweet Aim image

I love to share my knowledge and and help to create wildlife and wildflower friendly spaces

My Profile image
My role in the world of organics and conservation started with buying veg for an organic box scheme back in 2000 and has grown from strength to strength from there.  I have continued learning and experiencing the pros and cons of cultivation, nourishing and nuturing soil, encouraging nature as well as growing and developing wildflowers and different habitats ever since.

The environment is a fascinating and vital part of our future. I would like to play a part in preserving it, helping people to understand, appreciate and enhance their environment.

My roles with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Neal's Yard Remedies (NYR) have helped me to share my knowledge and passion with staff, visitors, volunteers, general public and Wildlife Watch members (the junior section of Cornwall Wildlife Trust). Events that have included work days in the garden, guiding volunteers with practical tasks and teaching children through play has provided me with experience of customer focus. Working closely with the Soil Association to maintain the organic status of NYR land and the Woodland Trust to enable the planting of the Jubilee wood are just two examples of working with partners to achieve environmental goals.

As a lover of all things outdoors I am prepared, and do, work in all weather conditions. I am good at working alone as is often the case with my wildlife gardening business; Natural Gardens. I also enjoy working as part of a team.

Photograph kindly provided by:

I can help you with your project to create a wildlife friendly garden, a wildflower meadow and encourage all pollinators

The Idea

Whether it is sowing a wildflower meadow in your garden or restoring a field back to a hay meadow, the process is much the same.

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Your Project

I can recommend methods or help you throughout the process.

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Aftercare

Aftercare is VERY important. There is a necessity to maintain the meadow especially in the first few years.

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Pollinators

For those who want to enhance or introduce pollinator friendly ways to their methods of working or farming.

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Greena Moor Nature Reserve in North Cornwall, jointly owned by Cornwall Wildlife Trust & Plantlife was designated as a Coronation Meadow in 2014. Using seed from the adjoining Culm & Rush Pasture a new meadow was created within the reserve on a field that had been improved with fertilizers over the years. Annual floral surveys take place with mixed results, but gradually more species are taking hold.

Follow the link below for the whole story
Greena Moor Coronation Meadow


Coronation Meadow image
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Creating a wildlife friendly garden with as many different habitats as possible, yet keeping it use-able for the family and their friends

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First Spring

First Spring

First signs of spring show that the winter preparation of the wildlife garden has paid off

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 Meadowsweet provided a knowledgeable and professional service through the whole process. Elly conducted a thorough site visit to assess the current state of existing grassland and was on hand to offer advice throughout, from the ground preparation and seed purchasing, to the timing and practicalities of sowing. Her enthusiasm to improve habitats for wildlife is contagious and I look forward to working with her on future projects! 

Natalie Mitchell
East Cornwall Reserves Officer
    

 Elly visited to give us some advice on how to deal with a meadow that had been left untouched for many years. She identified many of the wildflowers and plants that were unknown to us and suggested how we could develop the field so that it remained beneficial for the birds and insects and other wild life while we co-existed with them. It was an invaluable visit and Elly followed it up by sending a list of wild flowers that we could introduce into the meadow and how we should maintain it to encourage diversity of plants. We would definitely recommend Elly as a true expert in her field! 

Helen & Richard Prince
St Issey, Cornwall
     

 We recently moved into a rural village after living in a town house for all our married life. We had never had a garden before and didn’t know where to start. We just knew which plants we liked (but we didn’t know their names!) I have quite a controlling personality and knew I couldn’t live with a messy / unruly garden but I also really wanted to encourage wildlife. Simon was looking forward to working in the garden and creating a lovely outside space but didn’t want to be a slave to it! We knew we needed some expert help and guidance so turned to Meadowsweet. Elly paid us a visit and we sat with her and told her what we liked and disliked in very basic terms – we wanted to grow vegetables easily, we wanted to encourage hedgehogs, insects and bees, we like wildflowers but couldn’t cope with long grass everywhere, we fancied the idea of a small pond but not a large one and so on. Elly was able to draw up a rough sketch of the garden identifying the optimum positions for the pond, vegetable bed etc as well as suggest wildlife friendly flowers, provide us with information on how to create and maintain a small pond, advise us on no-dig vegetable beds and so much more. It has really helped us to understand the garden, solidify our ideas and start creating a garden that works for us and Mother Nature. We would highly recommend Meadowsweet to anyone unsure about where to start with an outdoor space, regardless of whether you are aiming for a formal garden, a wildlife haven or something in between. 

Simon & Rebecca Staddon
Ruishton, Somerset
     
  • Irie Cottage, Penstraze, Chacewater, Truro, Cornwall
  • TR4 8PF