St Luke’s Church Great Crosby
Grounds Project

“to create a place of beauty and a haven for people and wildlife”

Perennial wildflower meadow: February - April 2009

Landlife is a national wildflower charity based here in Merseyside (www.landlife.org.uk). In June 2008 it ran a workshop on how to use unusual ‘substrates’ as a medium for growing wildflowers. Here was a possible answer to how to dispose of our concrete rubble!

We cleared brambles from an oval area of approx 50 square metres in the south-eastern corner of the church grounds. The rubble provided the base for our new garden, to a depth of 30-40cm.

We added 10 tonnes of ‘brick fines’ - concrete and bricks ground to a coarse sand (0-5mm). Landlife recommended that we plant wildflower plug plants and sow perennial wildflower seed, mixed with annual seed to give good colour in the first year.

Part of the area was planted and sown by local children during our Wildlife Activity Morning in March 2009, and finished off by members of St Luke’s school conservation club in early April. We had a spell of dry weather and, for nearly 3 months, there was very little growth, as can be seen from the photo taken during our outdoor service to celebrate Environment Sunday on 14 June. Then in early July it took off!

back to 7 Developments in 2009

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This page was last modified on 24 August 2009.