This is how you make a flower meadow at home – like the Slettebakken housing association in Bergen

You don’t have to own your own patch of garden to beat the bugs.

In the Slettebakken housing association, the blocks were located between grassy slopes. Now the people of Bergen live in the 425 homes right next to a burgeoning flower meadow. It turned out that the hill hid a seed bank.

Bets on species diversity

When initiator Ingeborg Strandberg had maternity leave with her youngest son in 2019, there was a lot of time to wander around the blocks at home in the housing association. The area in Bergen is built like many other residential areas in the post-war period, with large green areas around the blocks.

– I have read about how important the meadows are for natural diversity, pollinators, insects and in general. Here we have a great opportunity to make an effort for species diversity and insects.

She has acquired her knowledge of flower meadows herself – and by talking to skilled professionals.

Early on, she decided to use local plants and seeds rather than importing from abroad.

– We would rather maintain the species diversity found here, says Strandberg.

Ecological desert

– A plain, groomed lawn with only grass is an ecological desert, says associate professor Inger Auestad at the University of Western Norway.

She is an ecologist and botanist – and enthusiastic about flower meadows as well as gardens and landscaping.

If you want to succeed in creating a flower meadow, there are a few different things to think about, depending on where in the country you live.

– Some people have a vision that the only thing is to stop mowing the lawn. It’s an interesting experiment – but it doesn’t always turn into a flower meadow, says the botanist.

Patience test

In Bergen, the residents started with a test area of ​​a few square metres. They removed the grass before sowing meadow seed.

Strandberg learned from his mentors that the very best thing is to go out and find the flowers that belong in a local flower meadow yourself and take seeds from them. It is easier said than done, she states. Then you need to know what they look like when they have flowered and when they bear seeds.

Strandberg got uprooted from the lairs at Havråtunet. It is an old and well-preserved cluster farm half an hour’s drive from Bergen where people have lived for centuries. It is now a museum, but the old hay fields are still there. This is how she got a mixture of what was found in the meadows there. It was sown on the test area at Slettebakken in 2019.

– I am not super patient, says Strandberg.

The new flower meadow was a test of patience.

Easier job for the caretaker

In the summer of 2020, it looked a bit strange. The following winter she wondered if anything would sprout next spring. To be on the safe side, she sowed once in the spring of 2021. Strandberg read on and learned that very many meadow flowers take a couple of years before they come up. The hope for a colorful eye-catcher grew.

That is why it was not fitting that the temporary caretaker that summer blissfully unknowingly mowed down the area. Still, Strandberg did not lose heart. It was supposed to be a flower meadow.

The area was expanded in 2022. The caretaker was willing to leave the lawnmower standing.

It turned out that the slope already hid a wonderful flower meadow.

Old useful growth that blooms nicely

Groundnut is a species rich in tradition. Strandberg thinks it’s nice to have in the meadow.

The flower is white and may resemble the poisonous dog biscuit.

– If you follow the stem, you can poke out a small tuber, and that is the peanut, says Strandberg.

The children in the housing association can enjoy a treasure hunt for natural snacks with a taste that, according to Store norske lexikon, is reminiscent of almonds.

The plant is also found in France under the name jarnott. The name probably got there with the Vikings.

The peanut and other plants appear “from nowhere”, says Strandberg. It can probably be attributed to the housing association’s location – or more precisely what was there before the blocks were erected.

– Thought this was just a lawn

– Slettebakken has been a farm for a long time. I found out that Slettebakken farm existed in any case in the 17th century, says Strandberg.

Old maps show that their meadow belongs to the farm’s infield.

After the war there was a great need for housing. The blocks were built, and the pastures were eventually turned into lawns diligently mowed by the caretaker.

– We thought that this was just a lawn and that something had to be established. But here it has been grazed and mowed for several centuries, says Strandberg.

She has seen pictures of cows grazing between the blocks in the post-war era.

Mowing and grazing over generations has left the soil bare. It therefore has little nutrients for the plants. Precisely this makes for a good flower meadow, because vigorous grass does not get enough water and nutrients.

Pleasant for passers-by

Strandberg has become a keen communicator through the Facebook page “Blomstereng på Slettebakken”, which can be an inspiration to others.

She receives pleasant feedback from people who pass by. In addition, the meadow has become a gathering place: They have had mowing days and events. Like when the bumblebee association La Humla Suse gave people an insight into bumblebees and insects in the meadow.

They are a small group that look after the flower meadow. Fortunately, it doesn’t require that much, says Strandberg.

In the spring, they rake away some debris and branches, so that seeds can fall to the ground. Then it is mowed both in the spring and sometime later.

They mow with scythes. It is the best for the meadow.

Shred the soil and mow with a scythe

– It should preferably not be mowed with a lawnmower. It just becomes a mush that remains and fertilises, says Strandberg.

This is also the advice from Nibio, who writes:

“Flower meadow seeds should preferably be sown on relatively dry and lean soil. The flower meadow species also thrive on more nutrient-rich soil, but there the competition from grass species and weed plants is greater.

Ingeborg Strandberg’s dream is to be able to take up yet another old tradition by setting up hedges for the grass that is cut.

She thinks it is too wrong if the grass is only to be turned into compost. The solution has been to give away the grass after drying to someone who needs it. After all, in the cultural landscape, flower meadows are almost a side effect of the meadows being mowed to become animal feed or that it has been grazed there.

The expert’s advice

Here is botanist Inger Auestad’s advice for those of you who want a flower meadow at home:

– First of all, it is an advantage to plant a meadow on poor soil. If you have a dry slope with little soil in Eastern Norway, you can let the lawn grow, and it will never grow big. Big, fat grasses will not have such good conditions.

– Just throwing a bag of meadow seed on a well-fertilized lawn and not mowing it doesn’t work very well. Often the lawn grass will have good days for quite a long time.

Nevertheless, Auestad is clear that the flower meadows are hardy.

– If it dries out, that’s perfectly fine. Many meadow plants have a seed bank in the ground from which they can sprout. Dry summers are also part of the dynamics of the cultural fields.

She looks back on the exceptionally dry summer of 2018.

– The following year, in 2019, we experienced a fantastic flowering in flower meadows and roadsides in many places. The botanists believe that much of the large grass and large herbs were scorched away the previous summer. Other things came up when it finally got the chance.

Some meadows need to be mowed more often

Auestad tried the classic recipe himself. It is based on experiences from dry areas in southern Sweden. The tip was to mow the lawn once a year.

– It didn’t suit my garden, says Auestad.

There is too much rain in Sogndal. The water carries with it nutrients in the ground which give the grass good growing conditions. This means that the meadow has to be mowed more often so that the flowers get enough light.

– I believe in an early spring mowing and getting the raked away, opened up and giving the flowers good light. Then it can grow and bloom throughout the summer. When they have withered, you can hit again and like rake.

In the autumn, she recommends a third round of mowing and raking, so the plants get plenty of light next spring.

Auestad hopes more people will be inspired by the housing association in Bergen.

– If you change the care a bit, you can get something that is good for both most people and our wild neighbours.