As the bird nesting season gradually comes to an end, the seed harvesting season is only just beginning. Summer is the time when seeds ripen, so throughout June and July we carried out several harvests using the electric brush harvester (eBeetle). We began in mid-June on the embankment of Lake Ptuj, where we aimed to collect seed material for additional sowing in the Ormož Basins Nature Reserve. Unfortunately, a severe hailstorm just a few days earlier had knocked off most of the seeds, so the harvest was relatively poor. We then continued to Goričko, where we harvested a 0,7 ha meadow in Panovci to provide seeds for the nature park. The meadow is home to the Carthusian pink (Dianthus carthusianorum), among many other species.

Next, our work took us to Suha krajina, where a young couple in the Municipality of Žužemberk is restoring an overgrown area back into a meadow. Using the brush harvester, we collected seed material from just over 1 ha of dry grassland. The soil there is, at least in places, acidic enough to support the growth of wolf’s bane (Arnica montana). At the beginning of July, we moved to the higher-lying Menišija plateau. The seed material harvested from 1 ha of dry meadow will be donated to cattle farmers who supply milk to Ljubljanske mlekarne. They will use it to establish flower strips in or alongside their crop fields. We concluded our work in the Radovna valley, where we demonstrated the use of the brush harvester to farmers from the Triglav National Park area.