Creating a wildflower meadow

Having watched a lot of the Chelsea flower show in May, and after the last article I wrote, it seems timely to think about ways of creating a meadow in the garden.

But why do it? Bringing colour and a relaxed feel to the garden might be design reasons but you’ll also be creating a wildlife haven and a positive pollinator buzz!

There are many methods depending on factors like how quickly you want the effect, how much space you have, your garden aspect and of course, how much you have to spend. Here are a few ideas.

Keeping the lawn

It needn’t be expensive and letting the lawn grow is a simple idea, then wait to see what wild flowers come up …though experience shows this could be a lot of dandelions…

With this method the lawn grass can outcompete other things. A way to combat this is to sow yellow rattle seeds in late summer or autumn. Sprinkle them over the area of mown grass that you want to develop next year. As the yellow rattle grass is semi-parasitic it competes against the lawn grass. You could add bulbs like crocus, daffodils and snowdrops for spring and low growing native wildflowers like clover and daisies. Go further still and add groups of perennial wildflowers like yarrow (Achillea) by planting plugs from the garden centre or from pots you have grown from seed.

Planting a wildflower meadow from seed or meadow turf

To start a new wildflower meadow from a seed mix clear your area of lawn completely and rake it over to prepare a seed bed. Meadow seed mixes can be sown in spring or autumn (check the packet) and if you have an annual/perennial mix hopefully you’ll get annual flowers in year one and year two onwards the perennials start putting on a show. For even more immediate effect, but more costly, you can get specially grown meadow turf to lay as you would lawn turf in the area you have cleared. Your wildflower meadow will need some maintenance, for example there are different times of year to cut an established one and it will depend on what type you’ve got, so it’s wise to check what maintenance you’ll need to do before you start.

Whatever option you try, have some fun with it and a little patience too…

© 2023 Karen Roberts Garden Design