Going wild for a flower meadow?

Ever since the London 2012 Olympic Games we’ve all been keen on wild flowers thanks to the displays created for the event. The good news is this trend isn’t going away, so if you’ve thought of creating your own beautiful wildlife haven then next month (July) is the time to start preparing the ground for autumn seed sowing.
 
Here are our tips for creating a field of wildflowers or just a small patch if you haven’t the space for something as glamorous as a meadow.

• Meadow flowers like their soil to be thin and of low quality so they don’t have to compete with too many grasses.
• Sadly you can’t just scatter wildflower seeds on an established patch of grass as they won’t be able to establish, so you do need to clear some earth for the sowing.
• You can though, if your lawn hasn’t been exposed to chemicals and fertilisers or the grass isn’t of a vigorous type like rye, leave part of it un-mown so that any existing wildflowers get a chance to grow.
• You can strip off the turf on your lawn, remove all the weeds including the roots and rake the soil so that it is fine and sow your wildflower mix.
• If you’re not sure what to sow, check out what wildflowers appear naturally in your garden already and in the fields and hedgerows around you. If you want a spring flowering one then go for a mix including cowslips and buttercups, or for a summer flowering one try campions and oxeye daisies.
• In your first year it is also a good idea to include some annuals such as cornflowers, poppies and corn marigolds, as these will help protect the perennials as they develop.
• Once you have scattered the seeds roll or trample them in and water the patch.
• Luckily once it starts to develop there is very little you need to do to look after your meadow, but you will have to mow regularly during year one to keep weeds at bay. After this you only have to mow once a year possibly in the autumn once the plants start to die down and their seeds are happily snuggled into the earth ready to shoot up in the following spring.
• Once your area is established, if it is big enough to necessitate, mow a path through the middle so you can walk through your patch and enjoy all the flowers, bees, birds and butterflies, and other wildlife, from close up.