Meadows in June
June 1 - June 30
A month long celebration of meadows at Forde Abbey.
Left uncut until July, swathes of natural meadow have proliferated in the gardens at Forde Abbey and become home to flowers such as green winged orchids, buttercups, common spotted orchids, knapweed and yellow rattle.
Keen to extend the footprint of these meadows, Joshua Sparkes, our head gardener, has embarked on a project to evolve the meadows further at Forde Abbey, which in turn will support a huge range of bio diversity and ecology for the garden, creating the perfect partnership between the ornamental side of the garden with an all together wilder side, filled with meadows, woodlands and other diverse grasslands.
Meadow workshop – 14th June
Joshua Sparkes has created meadows around the country, most notably at Sissinghurst Castle gardens, and has travelled around the world looking at different grasslands and meadows, looking both at their beauty for inspiration as well as ideas in management practices and techniques.
Keen to share all that he has learnt in meadow creation and maintenance, Joshua Sparkes will be leading a workshop in meadow making on the 14th June. Learn how to practically create and manage your own meadow, using both traditional and modern practices to establish wild flowers, including scything and hay ricks.
Book Tickets
Meadow tours – 29th & 30th June
Join Joshua Sparkes for a wander around the garden with discussion of the different approaches to meadow creation, using both modern and traditional working practices, as well as learning about up and coming wild flower projects at Forde Abbey. With a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of cake.
Saturday 29th June, 11am
Sunday 30th June, 2pm
Tickets will be £10 in addition to entry to the gardens. Please meet by the entrance to the shop at 10am on Saturday 29th June and at 2pm on Sunday 30th June.
The gardens are open daily from 10am – 4pm.
You can find out more information on how we are encouraging the proliferation of native Dorset meadow in the gardens, on the blog.
