Wild Flower Meadows

Rachael Mairey will take you on a guided tour of The Sustainability Centre’s beautifully vibrant buzzing meadows and teach you how to establish and manage your own meadow effectively. The Sustainability Centre offers a unique opportunity to glimpse meadows through time: from new meadows to longer-established meadows to mature chalk grassland.  You will be able to compare these and understand the differences between them. ​ Rachael will guide you through seed saving techniques and how to identify some of the country’s most beautiful flowers within this amazing habitat. You will get to sow a small selection of wildflower plug plants to take home and plant at a later date. THE COURSE WILL GIVE YOU Knowledge and skills to establish, enhance and restore meadows Effective meadow management methods Understanding of chalk grassland Wildflower identification skills Seed saving techniques Wildflower plug plants to take home and plant THIS COURSE IS SUITABLE FOR Anyone who is keen to create, manage and understand wildflower meadows. WHAT TO BRING/WEAR Suitable outdoor clothing Notepad and pencils/pens and camera Long trousers are recommended to provide protection from ticks Packed lunch or lunch can be purchased from the Beech Cafe ABOUT THE TUTOR Rachael Mairey has been creating and managing wildflower meadows at The Sustainability Centre for over a decade.  All meadow areas and projects you will see and experience on this course, Rachael has co-ordinated and worked on personally. She has a keen interest in, and love of, the natural world, recognising the importance of enhancing and preserving its biodiversity. She is seriously passionate about plants and has a specialist knowledge of the British Flora. Rachael worked for the Hiller Gardens for 5 years before embarking on an Environmental Science degree and Masters, specialising in Ecology and Biodiversity. She then worked for Plantlife and joined the Sustainability Centre in 2011.