Our School Grounds: Providing Food - Meadows
Resources for Meadow Creation
There is a huge amount of information available on meadows and grasslands.
The Polli:Nation team have brought together some of the most comprehensive and useful resources to guide you through planning and creating your meadow features.
Where to start?
· How to Make a Community Meadow
This website, put together by Polli:Nation Partners, Buglife, provides an excellent resource taking you through the whole process of creating a meadow from start to finish. Important links;
o How to Create a Community Meadow
o Managing Your Community Meadow
Managing your meadow if a key Team Task
Further Information
· Save our Magnificent Meadows
The Heritage Lottery Funded Save Our Magnificent Meadows project led by Plantlife and supported by a large number of conservation organisations across the UK, is one of the leading grassland restoration projects in the country. This website is packed with information with regularly updated events and activities. Key Links;
o Advice and Guidance
In depth information about a range of creation and restoration techniques
o Plants of Wildflower Meadows ID Guide
A very easy to use information booklet highlighting the most common plants you will encounter in your meadow habitats, specifically linking them to soil type to help with meadow management.
· Creating and Managing Urban Meadows
This guide developed by Newcastle City Council, is an excellent overall resource with plenty of useful tips and helpful advice on timing of cuts and the positive and negative impacts of various management measures.
Species Specific Meadow Resources
· Managing Your Land for Bees
Bumblebee Conservation Trust are one of our Polli:Nation Partners and have created a series of factsheet specifically about managing land for bumblebee species.
Key links
o Grassland Restoration and Creation
o Managing wildflower meadows for bumblebees
· Managing Your Land for Butterflies
Butterfly Conservation are one of our Polli:Nation Partners and have numerous factsheets on how you can improve your land for butterflies. The most relevant resource is
o Seeding and Plug-planting for butterflies
Advice on improving the quality of your meadow by adding in specific butterfly larval food-plants to boost the pollinator food you are producing.
· Managing your grassland for invertebrates
Suffolk Wildlife Trust have produced a very useful summary of the various features you can introduce to your grassland that will greatly improve the suitability for invertebrates, including many of our pollinators.
This is a partnership project with: Learning through Landscapes, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, OPAL, University of Stirling, TCV and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust