When to plant a wildflower meadow

wild flowers in spring

Traditional wildflower meadows look their absolute best in late spring and early summer but unlike cultivated plants or turf, we can't go into the garden centre, buy a meadow in flower, bring it home and plant it.

Creating a really good, species rich meadow that will look amazing and benefit wildlife requires patience - and plenty of it.

I installed a small area of Meadowmat wild flower matting quite soon after Q Lawn' launched the product.....around April 2011.  In that first summer, I was pleased with the number of flowers I had and the attention it recieved from insects, particularly bumblebees, but I had been hoping for a more spectacular floral display.  This summer, my patience was rewarded with a lovely show of flowers that lasted from May until the end of July.  Sadly, horrible weather all summer meant not too many butterflies and bees came to visit but I did see my first ever Hawker dragonfly....it was HUGE (and rather ugly).

The little area of meadow I started from seed at the same time as installing my Meadowmat also did well this year.....see....I just needed more patience.....but I'm not convinced that the plants I enjoyed so much this year actually came out of that seed packet.  They're all indiginous to my garden and I spent 26 years pulling out dead nettles, campions and mallow before I saw the light.



birdsfoot trefoil seed head

Mother Nature likes to sow wildflower seeds from late summer through to autumn.  Now as a gardeny type of person, I'm used to sowing seeds in spring...probably in the greenhouse...and then having them flower (or fruit) that same summer and I think that maybe I've got into bad habits by doing that. 

Horticulturists and plant breeders are incredibly clever, they've managed to tweak plants so that they do what we want them to do, when we want them to do it. Not so wild flowers.  Wild flowers do their own thing.  They set seeds when the weather tells them to, and those seeds germinate when the time is right for them...not necessarily for us.  That's why, when sowing a wildflower meadow from seed, it's best to do it now....in autumn.  You may have to wait until spring for some of the species to germinate....you may have to wait until spring 2015...some seeds are fickle.  But patience will pay off.

lay wildflower matting for speedy meadow establishment

 

If you're like me....impatient...lay some wild flower matting.  Most of the seeds are already germinated and you're effectively buying 12 months worth of time.  It can be installed at any time of year, but for best results I'd be inclined to install it in autumn so that the roots can get really well established into your soil then, come the spring, all the plant needs to do is grow and flower.

 

So when is best to plant a wildflower meadow? 

Using Meadowmat, it can be whenever suits you but for best results think autumn/winter and if you want the greatest possible number of flowers in the first summer, definitely lay Meadowmat before mid April.    Seed from perennial wild flowers can also be sown at any time of year but as these plants haven't been improved by plant breeders, it's best to copy nature and sow them in september/october or maybe november if the soil is still workable. 

Meadowmat wildflower turf                                 Meadowmat wildflower meadow seeds

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.

The Beauty of Yarrow

Yarrow, botanical name Achillea millefolium, is a stunning native plant that is useful in the hedgerow, the meadow and indeed the herbaceous border. The value of yarrow is not just in its beautiful flower heads and the way it attracts bees and butterflies, but, believe it or not, for it's healing powers.

Yarrow, shown here in the foreground has divided leaves
and flat white (or pink) flower heads

How to recognise Yarrow

Yarrow has flat heads of many white or pink flowers and blooms throughout the summer and often well into the autumn.  It thrives throughout the UK and you'll find it in rough grassland, road verges and hedgerows.  The leaves are distinctive - they have many many lacy fronds...hence the name millefolium which translates as thousand leaves.

If the leaves are crushed, they smell a bit like crysanthemums.

We've included Yarrow in the seed mix for Meadowmat because it tolerates mowing well, flowers happily for most of the summer and provides a valuable source of nectar throughout the summer. 

Uses for Yarrow

Our Production Manager, Robert, is famous in the office for eating almost anything...even my cooking but I wonder if he realises that yarrow is edible.....It can either be eaten raw in a salad or boiled for 10 minutes before being fried in butter.  I might let Robert try that before I indulge.

The "Achillea" part of yarrow's latin name is a reference to the classical hero Achilles who apparantly used yarrow to staunch bleeding on the battle fields of Troy and I'm led to believe it can also be used as a herbal remedy for problems with circulation.  Hmmm, I might have to give it a try this winter to see if it can help me avoid chilblains.  

Yarrow tea, is said to be a traditional remedy for the common cold.  Just infuse some fresh or dried yarrow leaves in boiling water for a few minutes then remove them from the water and serve the hot drink with a slice of lemon or lime.

Jennifer and Jemima, my buff orpington hens

But this is the yarrow application I'm most keen to try and I have two little helpers all lined up to assist with the experiment.  Rumour has it, that if you place a few pieces of yarrow in the chicken shed, it will help to keep fleas and mites at bay.  So tonight, before Jennifer and Jemima go to bed, I'll be cutting some yarrow stems from my Meadowmat patch and slipping them into the nest boxes.  Watch this space and I'll let you know if it works or not.

Why I'm glad to be gardening with wildflowers

Right now I'm struggling with mixed feelings of frustration, cabin fever and disappointment, having injured my neck and been unable to do any gardening for the last 6 weeks or so. I'm also supposed to be preparing two presentations for our "Gardening for Wildlife" workshop on 12th July.  So this afternoon I dodged the rain showers and wandered in my garden for half an hour or so seeking inspiration and hoping to lift my mood.

Chickens fed, mood lifted and strawberries gathered I'm back indoors with a huge cup of assam tea, ready to make a start.

One thing I couldn't help but notice in the garden while I was making a mental list of jobs to delegate to my husband, was that many of the "posh" plants out there are looking rather dishevelled after all this rain.  Roses are drooping, delphiniums that didn't get staked are flat on the ground, ornamental poppies are all battered and soggy looking but the native plants are defying the weather and looking quite chipper.

Oxeye daisy looks great despite the weather

On the wild side though, oxeye daisies just turn their heads to the sky and laugh at the rain, likewise the scabious.  The mullein outside my window is a fine upstanding plant and the clover in my lawn is thriving.  In my meadow, the weight of the rain has pushed some of the grasses over slightly but that only gives the sparkling white yarrow a chance to show off.......it all looks great.  So that's why I like gardening with wild flowers....they seem to tolerate a bit of neglect and they really don't mind British weather.

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...

Preparing the ground for wild flowers

A common question for the Meadowmat team is "how do I prepare the soil for wild flower matting?"

There are books and websites out there offering all sorts of conflicting advice, especially on making sure that the topsoil has a low nutrient content. One lady suggests digging the topsoil up and taking it away, somebody else advises growing a greedy vegetable crop before trying to establish wild flowers. 

So what is the right way to get ready to start a wild flower meadow?

Well, the whole idea of Meadowmat is that it's low maintenance.  I installed some Meadowmat this time last year on to a piece of garden that had been used to grow vegetables (runner beans actually) the summer before. In its first summer, there were a few flowers, but the most successful plant species was by far grass.

grass is important in a wildflower meadow
but don't let it overpower the flowers

Grass is the rough diamond in a wild flower meadow.  It's essential for providing food and shelter for many creatures, but it needs to be kept in check otherwise it will bully all the flowering plants out of existance.  In other words, it's a good thing provided it's kept under control. 

How do you stop grass getting too rampant? A combination of three ways; restricting food supply, cutting it back if it gets too strong; and growing yellow rattle in the meadow.

In my own meadow-ette (it's very tiny), I did have a few yellow rattle plants last year, so I harvested the seeds and sowed them back into the sward in the autumn.  This year I have lots of young yellow rattle plants and much less grass than last year.  I also made a point of keeping the sward quite closely mown from the time I took a hay cut (late July) all through the summer, autumn and winter; only letting it grow again from the end of march onwards.  That probably meant I sacrificed a few flowers last summer, but it also means I'll have a much better floral display this year.

So how to prepare the soil then?  Unless it's really high in nutrients, you can take a reasonably relaxed approach.  Take away all existing vegetation - roots and all - so that it can't rot down to make more plant food and consider taking away a layer of topsoil if you can.  Avoid fertiliser at all costs and once your meadow is growing strongly, use careful management, and a lot of patience, to keep the grasses from getting too vigorous.  Make the most of yellow rattle, which is a parasite of grass and helps to suppress it's growth.  Gather seed in the summer, keep it cool and dry and in autumn, mow the sward as short as 5cm, so that you can press the yellow rattle seed onto the soil ready for it to grow again next year.

Oh- and watch our installation video to see how to get a good tilth to install your Meadowmat on to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzBPpCa6v2g

Number 14 in Angela's top 20 wild flowers: red campion

red campion grown from seed

At last! The small area of wild flowers that I started from seed this time last year has produced its first bloom.  The most beautiful red campion I've ever seen. Red campion of course, also features in the seed mix for Meadowmat and there is definitely a campion-esque plant running up to flower in my Meadowmat patch...but it may turn out to be white or bladder campion.

The latin name for red campion is Silene dioica.  Apparantly it's named after Silenus, the merry drunken woodland god from greek mythology.  He's a merry fatman with a horse's tail who when captured by mortals can reveal important secrets.  The second part of the plant name is dioica, which means "two houses" and refers to the fact that each red campion plant has flowers of only one sex - in other words, you need at least two plants to make seed.  Good job I've got plenty then!

According to my Readers Digest book of wild flowers, this little beauty will flower right through to October....perfect then for supplying pollen and nectar to the bees and butterflies that I hope will visit my garden IF the sun ever comes out.

red campion hanging its head in the rain

red campion growing wild in woodland somewhere in North Norfolk

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