Sowing wildflower meadows from seed

September and October are without a doubt the best months for creating a wild flower meadow from seed.  After all, it's when most seeds are distributed naturally...wherever I wander I see seedheads in various stages of development, wild berries are ripening and on the ground, there are a few tiny seedlings just beginning to show themselves.

In early autumn the soil is still lovely and warm, it's nice and moist and conditions are perfect for setting seed.  Some wild flower seeds need to have a frost or two on them before they'll germinate....so for species such as yellow rattle or cowslip, it's no good having the seed packets languishing in a drawer until spring.

How to grow wild flowers from seed

I have a sneaking suspicion (actually I'm sure) that when I began my experiment to compare wildflower seeds with Meadowmat, I didn't allow enough time to prepare the ground properly.  It's absolutely vital that every single perennial weed is removed before sowing a wildflower meadow.  I chose to dig out the docks and the bindweed that had sneaked into the patch, but I think I should really have swallowed my pride and my anti-herbicide policy and resorted to using a systemic weedkiller.  It might have saved me a lot of kneeling and weeding. 

With deep rooted weeds and grasses out of the way, the ground can be prepared as though you were going to lay Meadowmat

Then instead of unrolling Meadowmat - simply sprinkle on wildflower meadow seed at a rate of 5 grams per square metre..careful! If you spread it on too thickly you'll find that when the plants do grow, they'll out-compete each other.

Keep the soil moist, and the birds at bay; watch out for cats, who love to dig in freshly prepared soil, and wait for mother nature to do the rest.

Which is best? wildflowers from seed or Meadowmat?

If you have patience and perseverence, growing a wildflower meadow from seed is a cost effective way of supporting butterflies and bees in your garden.  If you're less patient - try installing Meadowmat OR better still, combine the two techniques.  Have areas of Meadowmat for instant maturity and seed in between them to help keep costs down.

Meadowmat vs wild flower seeds 1 year on

Goodness! A whole year has passed since I installed 6m2 of Meadowmat at the bottom of my garden and sowed £10 worth of wildflower seeds at the other end of my plot. At the time, and for most of last summer, I rather favoured Meadowmat wild flower matting for biodiversity, for speed of establishment and for its weed suppressant properties.  So, after 12 months of growing, changing and observing which of the two plots is performing the best?

yellow rattle and red campion blooming in Meadowmat late May 2012

Biodiversity:  Meadowmat wins hands down.  The seeded plot is probably the most colourful at the moment, but that's because it is predominantly red and white campions and they are flowering their hearts out at the moment.  There is some yarrow in there, a stray dandelion (not from the seed packet..it's an imposter that escaped one of my many weeding sessions), there are a couple of plantains and a scarlet pimpernel.  On the other hand, the Meadowmat boasts red campion, ribwort plantain, sorrell, common vetch and yellow rattle in flower at the moment, with clover and oxeye daisy in bud and wild carrot, yarrow, grasses et al looking verdant and healthy and getting ready to flower later in the year.

wild flower patch grown from seed

Speed of Establishment:  1 year on, there isn't much difference in the percentage plant coverage although Meadowmat is probably thicker in the bottom and it's definitely secreting more minibeasts....spiders, flies, ladybirds etc. I think also, because they haven't been cut back or mown, the plants in the seeded area are bigger than the ones in Meadowmat.

Weed suppressing: so far I've not had to pull any weeds out of my Meadowmat patch but oh dear, last year I spent ages and ages on my knees removing thistles, groundsel, bindweed and all sorts of undesirables from the seeded area.

Overall;  Do you know, I think it was worth spending the extra money on Meadowmat compared to seeds..but that's just me.  With 2 grandchildren to entertain, 3 dogs to walk, a house to clean, a husband to cook, clean, shop and iron for - oh, and a job, I'm happy to dip into my pocket to save myself a bit of time (within limits of course), AND my Meadowmat generated 2 binbags worth of hay for Lily and Luna the guinea pigs plus a few bags of fresh greens for the tortoises. On the other hand, I do find weeding quite theraputic and the extra £50 could have bought enough petrol to keep the lawnmower and rotovator running for a year...

Meadowmat wild flower meadow FAQ's

Here are some of the questions about Meadowmat that my colleagues from Q Lawns are asked on a regular basis:

When can I expect flowers from my Meadowmat?

Our flowering schedule for Meadowmat indicates roughly which blooms you might see on a monthly basis once your Meadowmat has established. Depending on the time of year it is installed, your Meadowmat may take up to 12 months to reach its full glory. As a rough guide, Meadowmat installed between October and March will usually flower in its first summer.  If it is installed between April and October, you may only have a few flowers throughout the summer because the plants will be busy building up their root systems email us for a copy of our flowering schedule

My garden soil is rich in nutrients, is it suitable for Meadowmat?

Meadowmat performs better in nutrient-poor soil.  Where there is a lot of plant food in the ground we find that the 4 species of native grass in the seedmix grow strongly and out-compete the flowering plants.  If you do want to install Meadowmat on to well fed soil, we would advise you mow regularly and remove all cuttings all year round for the first year.  It will mean that you miss out on flowers for one season but over time it will pay dividends.

What is the best time of year to install Meadowmat?

Meadowmat can be installed all year round…unless the production fields are frozen too hard for us to harvest.

Will my Meadowmat look the same every year?

Probably not; Most of the species in Meadowmat are perennials and will grow back year after year but the beauty of Meadowmat is that the balance of species changes depending on weather conditions, the way it is managed and what seeds etc brought in by the wind and by visiting birds. Like any natural living thing, Meadowmat will evolve and change over time.

Can I add plug plants to increase biodiversity?

You, most definitely can enrich your wild flower area with plug plants and/or annual seeds. 

Are the species in Meadowmat suitable for my garden?

The Natural History Museum has an online list of UK postcodes and the native plants that grow wild in each area.  Most of the species in Meadowmat grow in most UK postcodes and so yes, as long as your garden is nice and sunny, Meadowmat will be happy growing there.

What is your delivery lead time?

If you order online or direct from either Q Lawns or Turfland, Meadowmat can normally be delivered to you within three working days

What is the best way to start a wild flower meadow?

When I was studying marketing, I was taught that "best" means different things to different people.  For example, it might mean "highest quality" or "fastest" or "cheapest" and so when customers phone Q Lawns and ask what would be the best way for them to bring wild flowers into their garden, I can only tell them what I have found out by comparing seeding to using Meadowmat.

Last April, I planted two wild flower areas in my garden.  In the first, I used seed bought from the garden centre for a total of about £10.00.  For the second I used six square metres of Meadowmat - retail value about £68 including VAT. 

Was the Meadowmat worth the extra money?
For me personally, YES.  Why? because I'm a busy person and I like reliable results with the minimum of hassle.


 Check out these two pictures, taken this afternoon (March 1st).

perennial wild flowers grown from seed almost 1 year ago.  No flowers so far, poor species mix and poor germination

Meadowmat installed almost 1 year ago, most of these plants flowered last summer, excellent ground cover

What you can't see from the photographs is the difference in the amount of work that each area has created.  Both areas were watered regularly for the first 3 weeks or so, once the Meadowmat had rooted in I stopped irrigating it but as it was a dry spring/summer, the seeds were watered probably twice a week.  This year, we are already being threatened with hose-pipe bans. Meadowmat should be fine....most water companies allow you to water newly laid turf....not so, seeds.

Weeds....I HATE weeding with a vengeance and I have to say, that I haven't had to remove a single plant from the Meadowmat patch, it seemed to supress the plants that would normally have popped up by themselves.  Not so the seeded area.  I'll concede that there weren't any native grasses sown into the seeded patch and that may have made a slight difference to the amount of groundcover that grew, nevertheless, all that lovely water served to germinate just about every weed seed there could ever have been in that patch.  Maybe I should have left it to its own devices, just to see what happened, but I didn't.  I must have spent a total of over 20 hours on my knees in that small patch, pulling out all manner of things that I recognised as weed (if I wasn't sure, I let it be, just in case it was something I wanted to grow).  And what did I get in return for all my TLC in the seed patch?  Precisely NO flowers but some lovely Yarrow and Plantain leaves for the tortoises. 

white campion in my meadowmat

If I were paying a gardener to nurture the seeded patch, It would have cost me far more than the Meadowmat, and if I were a bee.....I'd have given one area a wide berth and enjoyed the wild carrot, clover, vetch, hay rattle, birds foot trefoil, white campion, yarrow and plantain that bloomed so merrily in the Meadowmat patch before it was cut down, dried and fed to the guinea pigs as hay (which would have cost me about a fiver from the pet shop).

It's for everyone to make up their own mind about whether to use wild flower mat or whether to try seeding.  I know which I prefer.  This video says it all.