I have always had a hankering for some sort of wildflower meadow. OK, I live in NW10 and have a long, thin garden, but when I win the lottery (I have a ticket for this Saturday, so it’s a certainty), I will a field and turn it over to British native wildflowers, plus some yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) to keep the grass down.

And of course, as How to Make a Wildflower Meadow makes clear, it is now possible to create little patches of meadow, including on roofs and other unlikely places. In addition, there is no doubt they are beautiful to look at, notwithstanding that they require some hard work to succeed. In fact, there are very few wildflower meadows that require no human intervention. However, as with all gardening, the sense of well-being they can create can be immense. Therefore, this colourful guide is a good start for those who need practical advice to create their own meadow.

Note also that the biodiversity they create is a given, providing habitats for a range of animals, many of them insects. In that respect and importantly, if the bottom of the food chain turns up, the rest of the chain is sure to follow (birds, mammals and so on).

This guide has in excess of 30 case studies to take on (based on actual projects carried out by the author), depending on your circumstances. These include starting from scratch, wildflowers for wildlife, wildflower roofs, challenging sites, community projects, and enhanced meadows. The latter include ‘designer garden meadows’! For any of these to work, the wannabe wildflower meadow gardener needs to know the practicalities, so the author discusses choosing the right method, and planning, designing and preparation, installation, maintenance, enhancing a meadow and solving certain problems.

Apparently, James Hewetson-Brown used to be an arable farmer (I think there is an obvious link here), before he started experimenting with wildflower meadow. He now runs a business that provides the techniques and products to establish beautiful and biodiverse meadows in private and public gardens and spaces.

The guide also discusses the history of wildflower meadows and links this to why one might want to plant one in the first place. Therefore, altogether, this is a great book and well worth buying if you want a wildflower meadow, or like me, just dream of having one.

How to make a Wildflower Meadow: Tried-and-tested techniques for new garden landscapes, by James Hewetson-Brown, Filbert Press Ltd (2016), 256 pages (Hardback), ISBN: 978-0-9933892-3-8