Farm left without crops for 15 years turns into wildflower-rich meadow

A five-acre piece of Norfolk (England county) farmland left to recover naturally has turned into a stunning wildflower meadow. It showed that nature acan rebuild lost habitats without the need for expensive commercial seed mixes. And that mother nature always finds a way.The former farming field, which was abandoned in 2005, was studied by researchers from University College London (UCL) for more than a decade. Apart from a traditional yearly hay cut, no other human action was taken on the land.Published in the journal Restoration Ecology, the study shows that grasslands rich in plant species can fully recover within just 10 to 15 years. The findings challenge current government-funded conservation policies, which often support actively planting commercial seeds, deep ploughing, and removing topsoil to create wild areas.A natural resurrection in Norfolk, EnglandThe UK has lost more than 90 per cent of its wildflower meadows since World War II.