You can grow a mini meadow, however small your garden
What is a garden wildflower meadow?
A garden wildflower meadow is an area of grass and wildflowers allowed to grow naturally. The flowers are the ones you find growing wild in the countryside not the cultivated annuals and perennials found in most gardens.
You may wonder whether it is worth trying to make a wildflower meadow, especially if your garden in very small. Perhaps you have a tiny lawn and not much growing space. Maybe you have a paved back yard with no garden at all.
But if you have an interest in the environment and want to help British wildlife, then planting wildflowers in your garden is a step in the right direction.
The smallest patch of flowers and uncut grass will provide shelter and food for a great variety of wildlife.
Many insects, such as ladybirds and spiders will make it their home. The grasses and flowers will be a source of food, bedding and nesting material for them, and for many birds and small animals. It will also provide cover and protection for frogs and toads.
In the spring and summer there will be an abundance of pollen and nectar for bees and butterflies which will not only support continued growth, but also have the added benefit of providing a source of pleasure for you, the gardener.
So how should we go about creating a wildflower meadow?
First choose a suitable place. This will depend on how much space you have available. It needs to somewhere open and sunny. It could be an existing flower border, or part of the lawn. Obviously the greater the area you can give over to wild flowers, the better.
You will get the best results if you can properly prepare the soil and spend some time nurturing and maintaining the garden as you would for any other plants. The RSPB have provided an excellent guide for this. It will require some digging and soil preparation, but it will be worth it.
Once the area has been prepared, the sowing can begin. There are many mixes of wild flowers available, so it will be a matter of choice. The soil must be kept well watered until the seedlings are established. After that the garden will benefit from a little maintenance, such as clearing dead growth in the first year. Then just an annual mowing or haymaking late in the summer, with maybe a bit more mowing and weeding during the autumn and winter. It shouldn’t take a great deal of effort to make sure it thrives.
Maybe you only have a small area of lawn and narrow borders.
It is still worth putting a bit of garden over to grasses and wild flowers even if you have only a small outdoor space.
Again, pick an spot, preferably where the flowers will get plenty of sun. To be really worthwhile an area at least an metre square is advisable, but make it as large as you can. If you are transforming a border, follow the suggestions in the RSPB guide for planting.
Alternatively you can transform an existing area of lawn. Overseed a section with a wildflower seed mix or use plug plants for more immediate results. Or you can replace an area of grass with turf containing wildflowers. If none of these options are possible, then you could just leave some edge sections of the lawn to grow wild. Make sure it is well watered. Then just stop mowing!
What if you have only a paved patio.
It might be possible to remove a few slabs and sow a wildflower mix in the exposed soil. If the soil is very poor or sand has been used as a base for the slabs, it will probably need enriching with some peat free compost. If the slabs have been laid on concrete and it is impossible to remove them, then sprinkle a few seeds around in the hope thay might take root in the spaces between slabs. Many plants will grow in the most hostile seeming areas.
Pots and Containers
If nothing else is available we can return to our old standby of pots and containers. Outdoor pots can be planted with bee and butterfly friendly plants.
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