Test Plots

Last week I went to YSP to scatter the seeds onto the 2 test meadow plots behind the Garden Gallery.

When I first proposed the 2 big meadows for the site back in July, it was suggested that we might do test plots so we could try it all out on a smaller scale and learn and modify anything before planting the 2 bigger meadows.

As it goes, for various reasons (which i will explain some other time) it's now become apparent that although YSP is 500 acres in size there isn't any areas that 2 x one acre meadows can go.

For a while i wondered what the point of test plots would be knowing we were never going to achieve the final vision. But with time to think (and some coaxing) I decided it was worth the effort if only to point out the absurdity of policy, funding and management of land and what effect that can have when trying, in this instance, to plant 2 meadows for bees. What you want and need is very different from what you can have.

The day of seeding the plots was beautiful and sunny. Claire, who works in the park, showed me the technique of how to scatter seeds (it's trickier than you'd think!) and Tom and me raked each plot when finished. Now we have to wait and see what comes up next year...