It gets worse, the family event is a wedding and I was asked by the groom (the client’s son) on Monday to create a ‘wild flower meadow’ from scratch in time for the nuptials.
1 Like
Just be wary of snakes in long grass. My wife is a wedding florist at a nearby chateau, they are currently growing wild flower meadow to be used for a couple of the weddings, it is obviously popular right now.
I think some folks literally live on another planet 
One way to stop frivelous use of water would be to have charges on a sliding scale. Once you exceed a certain quota, the cost increases significantly. Think there may be fewer green lawn/meadow requests appearing that way:+1: Good luck with delivering!
3 Likes
And ticks 
I am no gardener but dont you need to seed in Feb/march?
1 Like
If the UK switched to a plant-based diet – and used regenerative farming to produce food on the arable land we have (not using artificial fertilisers or pesticides) – how much could we be self-sufficient in food, percentage-wise?
>
The calculations that partly address it have been done by the author and small-scale dairy farmer Simon Fairlie, updating the earlier work of the ecologist Kenneth Mellanby.We currently use 17.5m hectares of farmland in the UK… a vegan diet would demand a total of just 3m.
This would enable more than 14m hectares of the land now used for farming to be set aside for nature. Alternatively, on a vegan planet, Britain could feed 200 million people.
1 Like
And hay bugs (aoutats). August is their favourite month. People can have appalling reactions to their bites - one of our guests here did and it made the last days of his holiday wretched. No long grass now anywhere round where our guests are likely to be.
It’s way too late for this year, the ironic thing is when we met these clients last summer we suggested turning a third of their meadow over to wild flowers to break up the monotony of just grass but they said no.
There’s a very knowledgeable guy called Chris (can’t remember his surname) who has a very informative website Planete Passion about all things wildlife in France.
Years ago on another forum I remember him saying plant NATIVE wild flowers and NOT the packets of seeds that include cosmos that you can buy in garden centres. They do not support / encourage native insects. If you do persuade your client next year to rethink the wild flower scenario I recommend contacting Chris via his site (or facebook if that’s your thing) and asking what seeds he would recommend for your part of France.
I think of Chris every time I look at our field of dandelion flowers in spring. 
1 Like
Dandelion flowers, lovely dipped in tempura batter & lightly fried, clever plants every part is edible.
4 Likes
Dandelion clocks?
His name is Chris Luck and I often look at his site.
Most of our clients haven’t got a clue when it comes to gardening, we have another even dafter one who insists on levelling a planted bed providing privacy cover for his spa which shock, horror grows back!
1 Like
In evolutionary terms I’m not convinced that’s a display of cleverness, so much as a Darwinian attempt at self-elimination! 
They’ve developed a good survival strategy, their seeds travel massive distance with minimal effort & the most invasive species don’t really like them 
Last year we decided to plant our veg patch in Meadow flowers. Having bought one packet we realised it was not enough so bought what we thought was another identical package.
We had a wonderful display last year and decided to leave well alone and see what came up this year and this is the result.
Just a row of courgettes, white radish and cornishons/gerkins.
11 Likes
Euronews: Norway turns its back on gas and oil to become a renewable superpower.
1 Like
1 Like
Let’s hope it works as advertised.
1 Like
There is Norway and then there is a tiny island.
The Independent: Kwasi Kwarteng wants natural gas to be reclassified as ‘green’ energy source to entice investors.
Orwellian…
WAR IS PEACE - FREEDOM IS SLAVERY - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
1 Like