Wild flower Meadow

secman

Has anyone here had any success with setting one out.
I have an area about 150sq meters, its actually the top of a raised percolation bed. As its a percolation area , the soil it quite dry and sandy. It was impossible to grow grass on it, extremely patchy.
Firstly I ran an aerator across the top and took loads of growth off it, and raked the soil over.
I bought several boxes of wild flower seed from Lidle or Aldi (can't remember which one ) and had also bought several packets too. I mixed them all in a container and sowed them about 10 days ago. I have been waiting eagerly since the rain arrived and not sure if it has taken yet !

Yours

Secman

Traonach

Here's an excellent site for information and buying irish wildflowers seeds. You can get wildflower seed mixes for all soil types including your dry and sandy soil.
http://www.wildflowers.ie/
They sell native Irish seed mixes. Unfortunately the Lidyl/AldI seed mix will not be guaranteed irish strains of wildflowers. You were a bit late sowing your seeds so unfortunately they will unlikey develop:(. However you can try next year (early spring).

Competition from grasses and weeds already present in the ground can be a problem. You can either put weedkiller to kill them or remove 5 to 6 inches of topsoil. I removed all the topsoil on my patch because I have ponds in my garden. Weedkiller is lethal to ponds.

Here's a picture of my Irish wildflower patch bordered by a native irish hedge of course:D. I planted it 3 years ago. It will take another year to reach full maturity. It will develop more colour later in the season. I cut it once a year in March.

The tall looking plants are teasel which will provide great colour and attract plenty of goldfinch to feed on them in the winter.

Nonmonotonic

The Brits are big into this. Even Prince Charles is getting in on the act.

This is his front garden in Highgrove.



They will even give out free seeds.

What nature intended..

DON'T USE WEEDKILLER. I believe Charlie cuts his meadow with a horse drawn cutter (he would!).

Rinker

I'd concur with the previous posters recommendation. If you can get native wildflower seed to suit your soil that's great. However if you've really good soil then you may be better off going to www.pictorialmeadows.com for your seed. I've used them and the results were spectacular from year one. Although its not native its just as beneficial to wildlife because of the prolonged flowering period.