Wild Flower Meadow

Wild Flower Meadow

This week Nollie has been helping us to lay out the seeds for a wild flower meadow at Broadspear in the lawn in front of the walled garden. I have wanted to do a wild flower meadow here since the moment we moved in back in August of last year. We’ve created a walkway so that we can enjoy walking in the meadow next summer, and also so that we don’t stamp on them! The reason for creating the meadow, besides the obvious beauty of the wild flowers, is to make a haven for butterflies and bees to flourish. Our bee hives are just beside the meadow so I’m equally excited to see how the wild flowers will change the taste of the honey. Now is the best time to start sowing the seeds for a meadow before the frost sets in, they should germinate and establish quickly and we should see them begin to appear in Spring. So if you are thinking of creating your own wild flower meadow get going this weekend as it will take a few weeks to prepare the ground.

HERE ARE A FEW TIPS THAT WE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY…

Choose an area where the soil isn’t very fertile – you don’t want too much grass or weeds growing.

Choose seeds that match your soil – our seed mix includes cowslips, wild carrot, meadow buttercups, red clover, common sorrel, poppies, cornflowers and many more
Add yellow rattle to your seed mix, an annual flower that has a special ability to reduce the vigour of the grasses.
Mow the area as much as you can - Dig the soil and get rid of any weeds
Next start sowing! You will need 5g of seed per square metre of meadow. - Next gently walk across it so that the seeds are in contact with the soil.
Keep it well watered until it has established but with the rain we are getting here in England, we have no need to do that!
And lastly watch Don Monty create his meadow on Gardeners World he is the king!