How to Create a Meadow

When planning a meadow area it is important to remember that wildflowers can only co-exist with less vigorous grasses and on soil that is not too fertile. Indeed, no fertilisers or lime must ever be used. The ideal meadow soil is thin with low fertility, although this is not to say you cannot create a meadow if your soil does not satisfy this criteria! As a meadow is an important wildlife haven it will be an vital "nature reserve" no matter how small it is in size - every little helps! Once established, your meadow will be busy with bees, butterflies, moths and birds and be full of glorious colour and scent.

Creating your Meadow from Seed

This, surprisingly, entails rather a lot of work! Any weeds in the proposed meadow need to be totally eradicated and re-growth prevented. This may well take a while to achieve - digging up the weeds and then waiting to see if more emerge and removing them. Herbicides can be used if you are not averse to using chemicals. If you do use these allow 6 weeks after spraying before preparing the seed bed.

Once you are sure the area is weed-free the earth then needs to be raked to a fine tilth in order to receive the seed. Broadcast the seed widely and then roll or trample it in, it is not necessary to rake it over. Keep the area well-watered to prevent seed drying out. Autumn is generally the best time to sow the seed although you can also sow to no detriment up to the end of May.

Year 1 - some wildflowers will grow faster than others and annual weeds will appear. Regular mowing is essential to keep these weeds at bay. Give it a mow every time it reaches 4 - 5 ins (10 - 15 cm) high.

Year 2 onwards - cut the meadow in late July/August, mowing when most of the wildflowers have set seed. Mow again in autumn and then again in early spring.

Whenever you mow it is important to remove all clippings so that soil fertility is not enhanced. If your soil is quite fertile then you may find that you need to cut more often and into early summer, which will mean your meadow will flower later, when you would then cut in autumn and one or two spring cuts.

Spring-flowering Meadow

Do the first cut in late June, a second in late July/early August and then another in autumn.

To speed up the flowering of your meadow or to make it look as though something is happening and it's not just bare soil (!), you could plant plugs and pot plants amongst the sowing. Another idea is to incorporate annual cornfield seed into the mix so that your meadow flowers in its first year. These cornfield annuals may self seed and a few could well appear the following year, adding a further injection of colour.

Cornfield Meadow Seed

Prepare the seed bed as above and sow the seed from autumn to early spring. A late-spring sowing will result in a later-flowering meadow. Once the wildflowers have died, rotavate back into the soil and some plants may emerge again next year, although you will probably have to top up with more seed the following spring because the flowering will not be nearly so prolific in the second year.

Shady Areas

If you are sowing a shaded meadow area, first of all ensure you have a seed mix for this area! Prepare the soil as described above and sow the seed from October to March, as described above.

Creating a Wildflower Meadow in Established Grassy Areas

Ensure your grass is not of the vigorous rye grass variety. Before planting, cut the grass short. Lay out randomly where you want your plants to grow. Either plugs or pot plants can be used - pot plants have the advantage of being more established and probably flowering their first year of planting. However plugs are cheaper but smaller and take longer to get established. Once the flowers are planted you then adopt the same mowing regimes described above for years 1 and 2.

Another method of creating a meadow in an established grassy area is to grub out bare patches, sprinkle on some seed and then trample it in. When growing or sowing wildflowers in established grass it is a good idea to grub out bare patches and sow Yellow Rattle seeds. yellow Rattle is a grass parasite and will help to keep the rass under control and so prevent the wildflowers from being overwhelmed by the grass.

If you feel inclined to take a photo or two of your meadow, we would be very interested to see the result and details of any wildlife you have attracted!

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