Creating a wild flower meadow in your garden, however small, has become incredibly popular in the last year or so. It has been especially good for the wildlife in your garden giving a source of food and shelter to insects, birds and even small mammals.

The first thing to remember when planning where to have your wild flower area is that poor nutrition is best so go against all your normal garden instincts and do not improve the soil. No compost no fertiliser and choose the worst performing part of the garden, although they still need sun you can get variety’s for part shade. Its for this reason that you also collect all cuttings when maintaining the area to prevent them rotting down and adding nutrients back into the ground.

Prepare the ground by removing all other vegetation and large rocks. Don’t bring in any top soil to replace any you may have had to remove. If you choose to use a weed killer on the area you will have to wait a while before installing a wild flowers as don’t forget these will be affected by the use of a weed killer.

Once the area is clear you can install your chosen product. There are a number of different ways you can install wild flowers and each have the pro’s and con’s.

Seed

Seed is the cheapest method of growing wild flower lawns and there are a baffling array of different mixes to suit every situation. Once you get it to germinate then it will be full of annuals and the perennials will take a year or so to flower

They do have a down side though. Germination can be sporadic and sometimes it just wont take at all no matter how much you water and tend it.

seed companies:

http://www.meadowmania.co.uk/wild-flower-meadow/wild-flower-seed-mixes.htm

Seed Carpets

These are roll out seed mats that can have a better germination rate than just sowing seed. They have a good distribution rate and the birds cant eat it as easily.

The down side is the ones I have seen are bright blue but you do cover it in growing medium so don’t be put off you shouldn’t see the blue.

https://www.facebook.com/terraseedbeemat

They can be bought online from a number of retailers.

Wild flower plant mats

These rolls of plants are an instant impact product taking only a few weeks to really take off. As with seed the annuals come first and the perennials follow but without the germination problems.

The down side is they are very heavy so you will need someone strong to lay them and only order when your ready to lay them as they can begin to perish quickly.

The company I have dealt with the most is

http://www.qlawns.co.uk/meadowmat-wild-flower-turf/

The picture below are from a large instillation we completed with the Q lawns meadow mat.

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