Sowing wildflower seed to create a meadow
If you’ve been following along with this series on turning your lawn into a wildflower meadow, you’ll know that sowing wildflower seed isn’t essential when creating a wildflower meadow.
However, it can help to speed up the establishment of biodiversity. So I want to show you how it’s done.
Watch the video and read on for more details:
Why sowing wildflower seed can be a good idea?
Reducing the nutrient content of our soil increases the likelihood that wildflowers will establish. That’s because in nutritious soil, grasses outcompete wildflowers. But in low-nutrient soils, wildflowers have the edge.
So simply removing nutrients from the soil by cutting our grass in late July and removing the clippings (this removes nutrients) can lead to a biodiverse wildflower meadow over the period of a few years.
However, this can be a slow process…
Sowing wildflower seed can greatly speed up this process. And while wildflower seed costs money, it’s an easily affordable option for many.
It’s usually around 50p per m2 for a small garden meadow.
When to sow wildflower seed?
If you decide to sow wildflower seed into your meadow, the best time to do so is autumn (September – December).
This timing exposes the wildflower seed to cold and wet conditions over winter, which is essential if they are to germinate successfully in spring.
Some seeds (such as Yellow Rattle) are especially dependent on this cold period to germinate in spring. Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is of particular importance in wildflower meadows as it parasitises grass roots, which reduces the vigour of the grass and enables wildflowers to proliferate.
For this reason, my opinion is that sowing in spring makes little sense, unless you do not intend to sow Yellow Rattle, in which case it may be an option.
Let me know how you get on
I hope you find this video helpful. I’d love to hear how it affects your decision on whether to sow wildflower seed in your own lawn/meadow.
Please do let me know how you get on in the comments.
Happy wilding.
Joe
Joe Vary Dip. Hort (Wisley), MCIHort, CMTGG
I'm a gardener, educator, consultant, and planting designer. Learn with me 1-to-1, or join my mentoring group and community.
This Post Has 4 Comments
Thank you Joe this is very helpful as always. A quick question. Can I do this process in the Spring? But without Yellow Rattle if it needs winter to germinate? Thank you
Hi Clare, thanks for your message.
Yes you can do this in spring without Yellow Rattle.
If done in autumn, you might get a few things flowering in the first summer. But if you sow in spring, you won’t.
You may need to give it a cut in early to mid summer for the first year if you sow in spring to stop the grass swamping your newly germinating and young wildflowers.
It’s also not too late so sow this autumn (which is preferable).
Hope that helps 😊
Joe
Thank you Joe. Really helpful, simple and clear method of doing things for creating a meadow…..inspired me to do a (very mini) meadow in the front garden this autumn.
Thanks so much for your comment Karen. I’m so pleased the video inspired you to give a meadow a go 🌾🌼
Please let me know how you get on and keep me updated 😊
Good luck! You’ll get on fine.