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.

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

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