On the ninth of this month I finally finished preparing the ground for our new native meadow. It had been an exhausting job. Determined to create the best soil conditions possible I'd spent several days digging a series of deep holes. Native meadows thrive best on soil that's very poor, so by doing this I was able to bury the nutrient-rich top soil deeply under thick layers of the poor yellow subsoil from below. Once done the area was then raked to a fine tilth, the stones removed, and the whole bed sowed thinly with a mix of native meadow wild-flowers and fine-leaved grasses. I was also able to replant a few primroses, field scabious and the kidney vetch we'd purchased last spring. Once netted against cat attack it was a matter of anxiously waiting for signs of germination. And it's started! Tiny stalks of green grass have begun to show. For the first year the meadow will be mainly a carpet of featureless grass I'm afraid. It's only from the second year on that the flowers will begin to show, but from then on it will get better and better as each year passes.