Wild flower and grass seed

Brush harvesting a Cotswold limestone grassland

Seed from floristically diverse native grasslands is obtained by brush harvesting high quality sites in the Thames Valley, Cotswolds and North Wessex Downs. It is harvested for specific native grassland restoration projects in the same area or in adjacent counties. Harvesting is weather dependent, and must be carried out in mid-late July.

The seed is supplied bagged, dried and cleaned by putting through a 7mm mesh for sowing with a Vicon Variespreader or similar in early September. It will contain some non-seed material (e.g. petals, leaf and stem fragments) that cannot be removed. 

Seed will is harvested to order. I will usually harvest what I know will be sown the same year. All harvesting is weather dependent.

Currently I am not registered for VAT. I am registered with Defra and details of sites that are harvested are lodged with Defra under its authorisation procedure for preservation mixtures. All consignments are labelled with my registration number and required information that enables auditing back to the seed donor site.

Please contact me in the spring if you are interested in purchasing wild-harvested seed (either lowland meadow or lowland calcareous grassland). Occasionally there may be a little spare seed available in September, once all commissioned orders have been fulfilled, but this cannot be guaranteed. Off-the-shelf wild-harvested seed mixes, and crop-grown seed, are also available from Emorsgate Seeds, Herbiseed and Flower Farms (see www.floralocale for contact details).

Click for more information about brush harvesting

Lowland meadow seed (processed)

Oxfordshire lowland meadow in July

The seed is suitable for loamy-clay/loam sites. Seed is harvested from meadows in named locations using a towed brush harvester. The species present in the seed mix will depend on what species are ripe at the time of harvesting, and the site(s) I harvest. There is usually a good range of fine-leaved native grasses, as well as familiar meadow wild flowers such as Common Sorrel, Cowslip, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Ox-eye Daisy, Yellow Rattle and Red Clover.

Price on application.

Chalk and limestone grassland seed

Locations in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds and North Wessex Downs are harvested. The seed is suitable for sites on chalky or limestone soils with an alkaline pH (8 or above). It is not suitable for sites where there is clayey drift over chalk where the soil is badly drained and/or acid (where a lowland meadow mix would be more suitable).

The donor sites are Upright Brome grasslands. Typical species represented in the seed mix (depending on the donor site) are Quaking Grass, Sanfoin, Salad Burnet, Meadow Oat-grass, Red Fescue, Red Clover, Kidney Vetch, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Cowslip and Yellow Rattle. Other species which flower later will be present in small quantities – sufficient to inoculate the receptor site. These may include Small Scabious, Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed, Rockrose and Dyers Greenweed.

Price on application.

Jane and Roger in one of their beautiful Cotswold fields, with seed harvested in 2006. This was subsequently used to sow a new limestone grassland near Cirencester, only about 10 miles away from the donor site.

Hand-collections

For special projects I will hand-harvest the seed of named species, e.g. late-flowering species that cannot be mechanically harvested. These can be used to inoculate created sites with species that would not otherwise arrive of their own accord. Examples include Autumn Gentian, Burnet Saxifrage, Marjoram, Wild Basil and Pyramidal Orchid for new chalk and limestone grasslands; Betony, Ladies Bedstraw and Devil’s-bit Scabious for lowland meadows. Hand-collections are labour intensive, but the only way of obtaining local origin seed of many species present in wild grasslands.

Price: Quoted according to the job; 
priced according to time (travel to site, collection, drying, etc) not quantity of seed.

Contract-harvesting

The 2007 team looking cheerful in a Buckinghamshire meadow,  despite the fact we shortly abandoned ship due to torrential rain, floods, etc.

Not all grasslands are suitable for brush harvesting and I cannot guarantee a specific yield for sites that I am unfamiliar with. Yield on individual sites can also vary from year to year. A very hot July meant that many grasslands were "over" by mid July in 2006, and covered in water in July 2007 during the wettest summer on record. In other years harvesting can carry on on sites such as Salisbury Plain up to the end of July. Other contractors are available who offer a contract harvesting service elsewhere in England (see supplier list on www.floralocale.org).

Farm Environment Plans for agri-environment

A well prepared Farm Environment Plan using advice from a qualified ecologist, is likely to give an application for a Higher Level Scheme a better chance of success. Assistance with plans and applications is available for farms within an hour of Newbury, Berkshire. I am a Full Member of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, with substantial knowledge of biodiversity habitats and priorities for lowland England. Please email me and I can call you to discuss options: suejeverett@hotmail.com.

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