Save Our Insects - Create A Meadow

Nature is such a wonderful thing; it is something we can enjoy every day. Wouldn’t it be great to have your own meadow in your back garden, full of stunning wild flowers? Well it is easy to achieve and well worth the effort put in to create it.  Here are a few good tips to help you accomplish a beautiful meadow to be loved by all.

Remove a layer of topsoil from your chosen site. This will also help remove weeds. The roots of perennial weeds such as docks and nettles should be dug out completely. Create a fine seedbed in the subsoil and lightly sow the seed (mixing with barley meal, silver sand or sawdust helps to spread the seed evenly and helps you to see where you've been).

The best time to sow seed is March to April or August to September. You can buy good quality flower and grass seed mixes at your local garden centre. It would be best to avoid very vigorous grasses such as rye-grass, as these will quickly out compete the slower growing wild flowers; which is not what you are trying to achieve. Fine grasses such as bents and fescues are far more beneficial to your meadow. Try to sow wild flower species that are found in your area. Seeds should always be from local sources. If seeds are very fine, you may need to mix the seed with damp sand to help it spread more uniformly. When watering use fine spray hose.

Once the seeds have germinated mow every 6-8 weeks with the mower blades on the highest setting; this will help encourage root growth and will also prevent the grasses from overpowering the wildflowers. In the second year have a mowing regime appropriate to the flowering time of the meadow.

There are two ways to manage a meadow and this will depend on when most of the plants flower. Spring flowering meadows are not mowed until after midsummer, they are then kept short into the autumn, whereas Summer flowering meadows are mowed in the spring up until about June, they will then be left to flower until late autumn. Mowing should be continued once most of the seed is ripe. It is best to leave the hay on the ground for a few days as this will help shed the seed back into the.  This may be a little unsightly, but it will provide you with a stunning meadow the following year.

You could add some native wild flowers to your beds and borders. Not only will this add a wonderful enchantment to your garden, but it will attract so many of our stunning insects helping them to flourish.