Creating A Wildflower Meadow In Your Garden

Wildflower meadows are experiencing a huge growth in popularity as everyone from inner city and suburban gardeners to professional landscape architects seek to realise the benefits they bring to an outdoor space.

Not only do they attract a much greater level of biodiversity than a standard lawn – in particular vitally important pollinators – they also add a much welcome splash of colour to a space, brightening up everything from a small domestic garden to huge swathes of countryside.

But what exactly constitutes a wildflower meadow and what is the best way of achieving one?

These are questions we’re asked on a regular basis, so we will be answering them across two articles which look at different ways of creating one. In this first article, we focus on the margins of your garden and how they can be transformed into a beautiful space for you and for those vital pollinators.

What Is A Wildflower Meadow?

So, the best place to start is to determine what a wildflower meadow actually is. Generally, it is an area of permanent grassland that often includes multiple species of grass, as well as a variety of wildflowers, herbs, and perennials. However, sometimes, a wildflower meadow can just consist of wildflowers without any grasses among them.

Whichever it is, because there are a number of different species that make up the wildflower meadow, they flourish at different times of the year, meaning they stay colourful for longer and attract more insects and pollinators over the course of time.

However, often when people talk about wildflower meadows, what they’re actually referring to is recreating the effect of a wildflower meadow in their garden, either in the margins of the space or as part of their lawn. This is where we can help as creating a beautiful, sustainable, wildflower space that increases biodiversity is a large part of what we do.

Why Create A Wildflower Garden?

If you’re reading this article, the chances are you’ve already decided to create a wildflower meadow effect in your garden. But just in case you haven’t yet fully committed, there are lots of reasons why you should do that.

First of all, you would be doing vital conservation work. Over the years, England has lost 97% of its natural meadows, which are species rich with different varieties of flowers, grasses, mosses, perennials, herbs, and other plants, to agriculture, development and other forms of land use. By recreating this in your garden, you’re helping to bring back this important habitat. So, the more you can turn over your outdoor space to wildflower meadow, the more good you will do for the planet.

Related to this is the issue of biodiversity. Anyone with an interest in gardening and the outdoors generally will be only too aware of the loss of species over the years in the UK and beyond. There are many reasons for this, from various agricultural chemicals to the changing climate, but the biggest factor of all is changing land use.

According to government statistics, flying insects have declined by 60% over the past 20 years and among those, the pollinating insects that are so vital to life here on earth.

By encouraging a wildflower element into your garden, you are providing a place for these insects to live and doing a small bit to slow the decline. Also, you’re providing food for other declining species such as songbirds. Many songbirds rely on insects for protein, so the more insects there are, the more birds you will attract.

We’re all under pressure to do as much as we can for the environment. Creating a wildflower meadow is a great way to help repair the damage.

Finally, one of the best reasons to introduce the wildflower meadow effect into your garden is simply because it is colourful and beautiful. It is reminiscent of the best nature has to offer, will attract an array of insects, birds, and mammals that you can spend time watching, and will simply be a pleasure to sit.

Different Types Of Wildflower Garden

Once you’ve decided to create a wildflower effect in your garden, the next decision will be how extensive you want it to be, as this will influence how you achieve it.

A lot of people start by setting aside a particularly area such as the margins around their lawn or in a single place, say at the end of the garden, to create the effect.

Other people go further than this and actually create a wildflower meadow effect across their entire lawn. However, this requires a different approach which we will look at in part two of this article.

Whichever you choose, there is one important thing to bear in mind. Contrary to popular belief, simply sowing wildflower seeds is unlikely to produce the effect you want because it is very difficult to get individual seeds to propagate, meaning your wildflower lawn is likely to be patchy at best, or non-existent at worst.

So, how do we overcome this issue?

Creating A Wildflower Meadow Effect In The Margins Of Your Garden

If you want to start your wildflower adventure by creating the effect in the marginal areas of your garden, then you need to maximise the density of wildflowers in these spaces for full effect. After all, the margins of your garden tend to be, by definition, smaller, so flower density is one of the most important things to consider.

To achieve this, we recommend a wildflower-only approach. That is, no grass varieties in with the mix, as that would dilute the effect and reduce the density of wildflowers in your garden.

So, what is the easiest way to achieve this?

In our view, the quickest and most trouble-free way to achieve this is by laying a wildflower turf. Wildflower turf consists of wildflowers only, so brings a spectacular explosion of colour, not to mention a big increase in plant biodiversity, to a small area.

The great thing about wildflower turfs is that they are easy to lay and all the hard work in terms of sowing and propagating the seeds has been done. All this is needed for your wildflower meadow to flourish is sufficient watering.

Turfs can also be easily cut into different shapes, which means if the margins of your garden are uneven, shaped around your lawn or broken up by borders, paths or other features, the turf can easily be made to fit.

Once it is established, the turf is best left to grow long and unkempt as this produces the colours that attracts the most pollinators.

The flowers will grow back with each successive year as long as water the area sufficiently.

Always Choose Plastic Free

If you want to create a wildflower meadow effect, then going down the turf route really will make your life easier. But not all turfs are created equal. Some turfs are grown on a plastic mesh that once laid, starts degrading into microplastics that pollute the soil and can even get into local watercourses.

Obviously, this is not good, especially if you’re creating a wildflower meadow to help repair the environment. So, always ensure you choose a plastic free turf.

Our wildflower turf is grown on a natural media and is 100% plastic free. To find out more about it, click here or call us on (01904) 448675.