A growing trend among garden lovers is to establish a wildflower meadow featuring beautiful flowers and grasses bursting with colour. Not only will meadowing a part of your garden be an attractive feature, it will create a lively and interesting feeding and nesting area for many kinds of birds, small animals, and insects.

Such a concept might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially for gardeners who love their neatly trimmed lawns, but it is perfect for nature lovers and anyone who wants something different to enjoy in their outdoor spaces.

 

Preparing to Meadow Your Garden

Choose the area you want to meadow, which might be the entire lawn or a portion of it. Other options include old flower borders or disused vegetable patches, though bear in mind that a larger area is better for ensuring you get a good mix of as many flowers and grasses as possible. Make sure it is an area that gets plenty of sun, and don’t worry if it is sloping as a meadow will thrive just fine on such ground.

One simple way to introduce a little meadow to your garden is to stop mowing and sprinkle a generous helping of wildflower seeds. However, if you are prepared to put a little more work in then you can create a truly majestic meadow right in your backyard.

First you will want to prepare the ground by removing all the weeds and old lawn grass. For the best effect, it is a good idea to completely strip the lawn and topsoil and replace it with a fresh layer which will give your new grass and wildflowers the best chance of establishing themselves and growing healthily. This ain’t always necessary as wildflowers can grow in relatively unproductive soil, but you will need to gauge the soil yourself after stripping it to see what kind of condition it is in. Something like the Screened Economy Topsoil available through Springbridge will be enough if you do need a top-up.

 

Sowing Wildflower Seeds

The best time to sow your wildflower seeds is in autumn as the summer can be too hot for new seeds to establish themselves. Spring is okay too, though you will need to be more vigilant about regular watering through the oncoming summer.

Scatter the seed reasonably generously as you walk around the area being meadowed and aim to achieve an even coverage. Once the seeds are sown, give the area another walk around to ensure all the seeds are in contact with the soil. They do not need to be covered with another layer of soil, but they do to be touching the soil that is already there.

If your garden already sees a lot of bird activity, it could be wise to net the area to prevent the Wildflower Seed Mix from being eaten. You will then want to give the meadow a good watering and continue regularly until it has established, especially in very hot weather with little rain.


If you want to meadow a garden with a Wildflower Seed Mix containing over twenty types of flower, then contact Springbridge via our website or call today on 0845 370 1921 for more information.