Has anyone planted a wildflower meadow?

[cathyandclare]

We're re-doing our garden to get rid of the vast boarders, packed with ground elder, creeping buttercup and nettles! We've planning some more formal stuff, lawn and box near the house. But here's a biggish area to the side, with a few fruit trees and we were thinking of adding some more trees and aiming for a wildflower meadow-type look. There are lovely pics on pinterest, but every time I've planted wildflower seeds before it's been a bit of a fail.
Any top tips welcome!

I'm doing a few areas as a test. I'm just about to plant this seed in a two small areas I've cleared.

I want to do a really large area, but will do that next year. Just practising now.

We have used the Wildflower Lawns and Meadows Mix - it came up ok in a semi shaded part of the garden and under an apple tree. Except OH cut the daisies and the builders then proceeded to use the lawn to mix concrete on :/ So...I have had to re-sow this year on the patches. But I see the daisies coming up again. OH will need strict instructions on where to mow the lawn.

We had an accidental wild flower patch of garden when we first moved int - dug over some ground and then had a baby and didn't actually have any time to plant anything. Completely unexpectedly the whole area was filled with mostly red poppies and some other wild flowers as well. I tried recreating it the next year with a seed packet but of course that didn't work. So I sowed again this year but THIS time but some stuff of to deter the pigeons and other birds and this time we do have a lot of seedlings co int through - so fingers crossed but
I suspect the reason the second year didn't work was because of birds eating the seeds before they germinate...

Oh yeah we have loads of poppies last year and this - for the same reason no time to plant.a whole section of vegetable patch is poppies. The chamomile has taken up the bits the poppies haven't.

Hello again wildflower meadow people. I've now prepared the ground and have a 200 metres square area ready for seeding, and I'm in agonies of indecision about what seed to buy.

The pictorial meadows stuff looks fabulous but will come to nearly £500 , wildflower lawns and meadows is about half the price. I'm thinking of going for something perennial, hence the autumn sowing. @elasticfirecracker how did your meadow turn out?

@Venys did you use the woodland mix or the normal mix?

I heard one of the presenters on Gardeners World talking about his lack of success in the past with Wildflower Meadows. He suggested that you plant the flower seeds in the first year and the grass seeds at a later time. I expect the reason is the grass seeds in the mix are a bit more thuggish. I think it was Friday's programme.

Thanks, that's interesting. I think the Pictorial meadows ones don't have grasses in the mix...hmmm. I'll watch the prog on the iplayer, yet another excellent excuse to put off getting down to work

I've worked professionally on two WFM. If you do it correctly they are very high maintenance as a pp said. I've not read the thread so I hope I'm not repeating........but problems are;

Ground prep - kill existing grass / weed if present. Thin layer topsoil so seed can germinate

Establishing WFM - rabbits and deer will destroy it before it gets started unless it is fenced in

MaintainIng WFM - regular weeding of uninvited guests. At the end of each season you must strim/mow/scythe the WFM to the ground and carry away the spoil.

This is what the specialists do and recommend that owners do.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with scattering a bag of seeds in the long grass and enjoying the show. This is what I would do but if you want a proper WFM you have to consider what I have said. The guy I work with has a presence at the big shows and is seen from time to time in the colour supplements

Coming back to this thread to see how everyone's doing. I planted Pictorial Meadows woodland edge mix and got very excited when it was rampantly germinating only to find a field of fat hen weeds. I'm guessing the 'sterile compost' wasn't as sterile as I'd hoped! have cut it back and am hand weeding, which is backbreaking work, but underneath there seem to be lots of primrose, foxglove, cowslip, honesty, yarrow and forget me not foliage. Also quite a bit of wild camomile and wild sage flowering, which aren't one of the components but look pretty.

It's going to be hard work for a couple of years I think. The strimming and collecting the cuttings is a bore but I feel like I've committed to it now. It's not photo ready yet, it looks a mess, but hoping for better as the season progresses. It says that because there are lots of biennials in the mix, the first year is often disappointing.....

Was googling after another morning tackling the weeds in our 'meadow' and came up with my own thread!!!

I'm glad I did because @pithivier has answered my question. We've got dense plant growth in between the weeds but I think some interspersed grasses would make it airier and prettier. I'd also like more grass for the mown paths. My finger was hovering over the meadow mania grass mix to scatter, but I think I'll wait til next year when it's more established. This has been the hardest work garden project I have ever done. I bloody hope it works. I knew perennial meadows were hard- but we seems to have an inordinately high number of weeds despite a year of clearing and weeding the bare soil.

If I had my time again I'd grass the whole thing with a non-competitive grass and stick in plugs and bulbs. I've spent too much to give in now though!

Me back again, droning on to myself. I think between me and a helper we've hand pulled more than 20,000 weeds from my 'meadow' so far and still gazillions to go. I pull 500 a day and more on weekends.I suppose at the very least i'll be depleting the soil.

There seem to be more wildflowers ready to bloom now, so I'm hoping for great things next week- I may even take a picture! It won't be up Namechange standard, but it's looking a little more meadow-like now.

Year two of my meadow and it's all springing into life. It's shady so I planted woodland edge and it looks very dense and like a hedgerow. Lots of honesty, red campion and red and white daisies.

Planning on trimming it soon to get a lower growth. I would like to introduce some non- competitive grass for a lighter look- maybe later in the year.

There is a ground cover available which you cover in a layer of compost, then sow the seed into the compost. The ground cover prevents anything below taking over. A good supplier of wildflower seed is Euroflor. Any mix with grass in will eventually be grass.

Namechange, that is beautiful! Thank you for sharing your photo!

I work in a WFM. I don’t think anyone on the thread has mentioned “yellow rattle”. If you can get hold of some seeds, it’s really effective. It is expensive and notoriously hard to germinate. But...it will work by paralysing the roots of the grasses and allowing the wild flowers to get more light and water. It slows the grass growth down over time to almost eliminate it.

We have been working on the WFM for 8years and the areas first sown with yellow rattle are really pretty and not much grass. It is self seeding slowly throughout the meadow.

It’s hard work and labour intensive. We’ve used seeds and plug plants to get the variety of flowers. Plug plants work better, but are ££ and have a massive failure rate. You are trying to achieve in a short time what nature will do in 20-25 years.

It is worth it. I’m trying in my own garden, but it’s not easy. Poppies will only come up the first year when the soil has been turned and disturbed. Subsequent years the poppies will lie dormant. We have sown many many ties, but we haven’t had the poppies again, since the first year.

www.amazon.co.uk/Meadowland-private-life-English-field/dp/0552778990?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

John Lewis Stempel has and his book is amazing. It is actually really hard work but luckily he just had to rejuvenate his okd meadow - still backbreaking.

Cathyandclare, wow! Pretty! Have any tree roots given you trouble?

Wow it looks great! My wildflower area has bluebells, snowdrops, primroses, celandines...then everything gets smothered out by ground elder which I hadn't really registered was there until it took over. Now all my spare time is spent digging the bugger out - I have a small patch which I'm hoping will take off, and at least the ground elder gives great cover for the frogs in the pond. So much for my initial thoughts of just chucking down some wildflower seeds and leaving them to it!

This is mine. There are a load of stinging nettles in there but butterflies love them so I’m alright with that.

@cathyandclare how is your garden doing now? I’m starting out on my wild flower garden and enjoyed your update. Any wisdom from the last few years?!

It's going well, the red campion is a bit dominant at the moment and is higher than the aquilegia. Earlier in the spring the cowslips and primroses were amazing. It's much less hard work now too, just a bit of nettle/dock/thistle fighting and the cut and collect.

No real problem with annual weeds any more, although the first year was backbreaking. I think the top tip is making sure it's as weed free as possible before starting. Good luck, please share pics!

Pictures didn't post- I'll try again

Hello! I wanted to be the first person to chime in with the yellow rattle thing (so I get to feel like an expert) but I can see someone else has beaten me to it!
Monty was talking about this on gardeners world last year - I think he was hoping to establish wildflowers on his big mound 😬. We have chosen just to leave a section of grass to rewild on its own and it's actually fascinating; this is the second year and we now have speedwell, periwinkles, vetch, lovely tall wispy grasses and a random bluebell. We haven't planted any of this but the grass is already quite suppressed because it's partially under a big tree, which is great. My MIL who is a gardener says that this is a much easier and more efficient thing to do; the wildflowers that suit this environment will naturally arrive and thrive and you can plant plug plants among it all later on to achieve more of a proper look. The point of a wildflower meadow is that it's wild, after all!

Final attempt!