Meadows can save money.

The world is running out of pollinators. A human response, at least in northern Europe, is to reintroduce meadows. Before mechanical cutting and chemical weed-control, lawns more closely resembled what we today may think of as wildflower meadows. Intermingled with grasses grew a range of flowering plants such as ox-eye daisy and camomile. They are now under threat from changing agricultural practices. They are not only missed by the pollinators, but also by some gardeners who are trying to establish flowering meadows within a more traditional setting. Having said that, there’s also another dimension to the increased use of meadows in urban areas. As managers of green infrastructure have discovered – meadows can save money.

Meadows can save money. - GArden Room Style
Meadow at Råda Säteri, Gothenburg, Sweden

Using the UK as an example, approximately two-thirds of urban green infrastrcuture is managed as closely mown amenity grass used primarily for recreation. This is a costly affair. Local authorities have in the past decade or so been faced by never ending budget cuts. Something had to give. Such as mowing lawns. Growing meadows is one of the ‘nature-based’ solutions that has surfaced as cost effective and also deliver environmental and social benefits.

Meadows can save money. - GArden Room Style
Meadow at Råda Säteri, Gothenburg, Sweden

What does the public think of this? There are plenty of opinions roughly falling into two different groups: those who like and those who do not like. At all. Not that their views seem to matter all that much. Meadows are on the rise. My own opinion is that meadows can look incredibly pretty, they can also look rather messy and unattractive. I laughed out loud when I read the following as this is exactly what they’ve done near me:

If you’re going to leave an area of long grass against a footpath make sure you cut a metre of maintained shorter grass against that footpath. People see that, “oh it must be intentional…they’ve cut round it”

Another useful, albeit basic, insight into meadow design in an urban setting is:

The longer the vegetation is the less people like it, so I suspect that in general people prefer a shorter perennial turf, maybe one that’s cut two or three times a year, that is kind of flower rich, that doesn’t look long and ragged and tatty by the end of the growing season.

Read the full report in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.