The floral splendour of the Ikituuri meadow
Have you noticed that in some TYS housing locations, lawn areas have been transformed into meadows? Meadows were established in spring 2024 near the Haliskylä, Ikituuri, Kuunsilta, and Nummenranta housing locations. The purpose is to support biodiversity and provide habitats for pollinators. You can find maps of the meadows’ locations at the end of this article.
“We got the idea to create meadows from our tenants. It’s always nice when we can make their wishes come true,” says TYS maintenance manager Toni Pohjavirta.
The placement of the meadows was planned together with TYS’s outdoor area partner, Infraroad Oy. The meadows were created in growing sites selected by a green area professional, with tenants’ living comfort taken into account.
Establishing meadows takes time and patience. When converting a lawn into a meadow, the first years are mostly about observing which plants naturally emerge from the soil. The plants that appear provide clues about, for example, the type of soil and its nutrient levels.
“The meadows in Ikituuri and Haliskylä grew well in both summers, but due to the long dry period this summer, the meadows in Nummenranta and Kuunsilta didn’t produce the expected abundance of flowers. Next year we’ll look into how the biodiversity of these two meadows could be supported so that they can fully bloom,” Pohjavirta explains.
The growing season of the meadows has now ended, and they will soon be mown down. The cut vegetation will be left to dry on the ground so that the seeds can fall into the soil. TYS hopes that flowers will not be picked from the meadows to take home, so that the meadows can continue to develop and become self-sustaining, without the need for additional sowing. Once the vegetation has dried, it will be raked away.
“If needed, supplementary seed sowing and other measures will be carried out next summer to support the meadows’ growth. No new meadows are currently planned, but the possibility of adding more is being considered,” Pohjavirta hints.
A lush meadow is a pollinator’s paradise
Flower meadows please the eyes of many, but they are of even greater value to pollinators and various endangered species. According to the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, the number of endangered species has increased in all major pollinator groups; nearly one in five bees and butterflies is endangered. The number of species increases, for example, when a lawn is converted into a meadow. Meadow creation benefits not only plants and pollinators but also birds, fungi, and soil microbes.
That’s why meadows are best admired from a short distance: walking in them or picking plants can harm the species living there. For this reason, signs have also been set up by the meadows to provide information about them to passersby and tenants.
Meadow areas in the map images:
