The Meadow Garden

The Meadow Garden at Fursdon was originally planted in the 1820’s in memory of Harriet Fursdon but was not maintained so fell into disrepair.

In 2009, Catriona and David Fursdon started work on its restoration, excavating a pond, redefining the paths and establishing a meadowed area. This has been an ongoing project and work here is a combination of controlling weeds while trying to establish young plants to make an attractive woodland area.

As part of this, some of the laurels in the wooded area have been cleared in the hope of making way for some more interesting shrubs and trees and allowing the naturally growing wild foxgloves in this area to flourish.

Work has been ongoing in trying to establish wild flowers in the meadowed area near the pond. We continue to use yellow rattle seed (harvested from existing meadows) to suppress grass growth and have experimented with planting native wildflowers as plug plants into the grassy areas – including Meadow cranesbill and Devils-bit Scabious.

Unfortunately, in the last year, we have had repeated break-ins by cows and the pond has become blocked with silt, which has also affected the meadow area, which has become too wet. It has not been a source of pride!

And so – onwards and upwards (!) – a new programme of maintenance is underway.

2025/2026

In the winter of 2026, we had the pond dredged and some smaller trees that were planted too close together removed to create more light. The fence around the pond (broken by cows) has been removed and replaced with interesting shrubs and trees. We have also planted an additional 400 bulbs around the pond and tried (unsuccessfully) to drain the meadowed area which has become boggy with a new spring. It is all quite a labour of love – and with time and resources often directed elsewhere, a little bit neglected!

We hope to improve this area further over the coming winter 2026/27.