Garden Design - a Wildflower Meadow
A wildflower meadow can cover a 10 hectare field or be a small corner of your back garden. Either way it can look great. Some will flower from early June right through to September. Individually the flowers and seed heads are insignificant but collectively they can look stunning - rippling like the sea when the wind blows.
Wildflower meadows often occur in nutrient poor soils and exposed areas so can be very tolerant to neglect. They require little or no fertiliser or watering but will need to be cut once a year at the correct time depending on the meadow type, to ensure a crop for the next year.
Once wildflower meadows were a common feature of the British countryside when hay was cropped in late summer for feeding animals through the winter. Modern farming methods where grass is regularly fed and is cut for silage up to three times a year has resulted in the decline of birds, mammals and insects that inhabit traditional meadows.
- Costs: a bag of seeds can be all you need although to seed a large area can be costly.
- Maintenance: low - with bursts of activity
- Advantages: great for the environment, low maintenance, looks stunning in the summer months and produces a hay crop! Attracts, butterflies, birds and mammals
- Disadvantages: some only last a small amount of time and can look like an unkempt lawn the rest of the time. The original grass can choke the wildflower seeds if not properly managed in the first season.