Mowing the flowering meadows for a blossoming campus

If the fields are not mowed, the flower meadows become overgrown and turn into grassland, leading to the loss of the flowers and slow-growing grasses. Species of grass and tall forbs are more reactive to manure and nitrogen deposition from the air and displace the flowers. The main purpose of mowing and disposing of the mowings is to deprive the soil and keep it nutrient poor, thus stimulating the number of flowers.

Separate mowing dates this year

The criterion for the first mowing date on the campus is the moment that the rattles in the nature garden near Lumen have seeded. Rattles inhibit grasses as they parasitise grass roots and 'steal' nutrients from them.

In previous years, the flower meadows were mowed at the same time as the banks of the watercourses. But for the banks, mowing after the rattles have seeded is often very late as the reeds will have already taken hold. That is why the mowing dates have been separated this year. The banks of the watercourses were already mowed at the beginning of June. This created space to mow the flower meadows as late as possible, giving more species the opportunity to seed.

The mowing of the flower meadows will be started in the week of 16 July, in consultation with the Tuincommissie van de natuurtuinen (the garden committee for nature gardens). The natural gardens will be mowed in the beginning of July.

Increasing the germination chances of flower seeds and caring for insects

This spring, all the flower meadows were also slightly loosened (a way to aerate the soil by removing a layer of felt comprised of dead mosses and grasses). The air and light that are introduced in the vegetation increase the flower seeds’ chances of germinating. Moreover, last year – during the autumn – a small part of the grassland was not mowed to give insects a place to hibernate. One of those places is the little flower meadow at the pond behind the Zodiac building. The diversity of species there is particularly great this year. Almost all species included in the mixture that was sown in the spring of 2016 can be seen. This autumn, other sections of grassland will be left unmown compared with last year to increase the biodiversity on the campus step by step.