Wildflower Seeds

The wet grassland habitat restoration/creation work going on here at Mudhouse Farm.

This was carried out by Devon Wildlife Trust in 2018 and has been so successful that this coming summer DWT are planning to harvest wildflower seeds from our creation field.

The target species this summer will be yellow rattle, which often goes through a real 'boom' period (consisting of a couple of years) early on in grassland restoration projects.

Harvesting is carried out using a 'brush harvester', which leaves the hay crop standing and simply takes a proportion of the ripe seeds. The seeds that are collected here will be used in grassland habitat restoration work elsewhere in Northern Devon, contributing to several projects to enhance sites, both for biodiversity and as natural flood mitigation measures.

Devon Wildlife Trust are a registered supplier of wildflower seeds, and all seeds are sourced as locally as possible for use at nearby sites. The work at Mudhouse Farm was carried out as part of the 'Culm Grassland Natural Flood Management project'. The project started in 2016 and to date has worked with landowners and commoners on over 230 sites, carrying out over 650 site visits.

Through the project DWT have helped restore over 380 hectares of Culm grassland and carried out habitat creation work on 78 hectares. The project is funded by Interreg 2 seas, the Environment agency and Devon County Council and runs until December 2020