While in a garden centre yesterday looking for grass seed, I came across a seed for planting a "meadow" in your back garden. It contained seeds of lots of wild flowers, and being a wildlife enthusiast it intrigued me. I quite like the idea of having a small patch of wild meadow in my garden!
My question is, would this attract anymore wildlife than is already in the garden? I would imagine that insects, especially bees, would like it.
The Meadow would most deffinatly attract more insects, the more flowering plants in a vicinity the better for foraging Bees. I'm redesigning the back garden to accomadate a Meadow. I'm going to collect seeds locally rather than buy the Meadow mix(though mix just as good), some good Yellow rattle Meadows near me. Can't wait to get it flowering, and i hope you decide to do the Meadow
Hey Richard, yes a wildlife meadow will be a very good thing for wildlife, I have one at the end of my garden & every year it is full of insects - I have corn flower, corn marigold, greater knapweed, ox-eye daisy, buttercup to name but a few - it took about 5 years to get extablished so don't be disheartened if nothing comes up this year when you plant it. We've just bought a bigger house & have a very large plot of grassland & am planning an even larger wildlife meadow there too! (also a small orchard with english apple trees & wild cherry - the birds will go mad over that!)
We have a small portion at the end of our garden that we allow to grow wild. It has eight pine trees a silver birch and a horse chestnut tree it also grows a lot of stinging nettles and plenty of other wild flowers such as pink campion , herb robert, celandine,speedwell and dandelions and thistles. During the summer it is a hive of activity..butterflies love nettles lots of different beetles, snails, ladybirds also like nettles,and because of all the different insects it attracts a lot of birds such as tree creepers,woodpeckers, various kinds of tit, green finches, gold finches, chaffinch,along with the regulars such as sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, starlings,collard doves and wood pigeon. The under growth is ideal for hedgehogs and i dare say plenty of mice too. So i would thoroughtly recommend it Richard.
A Wild meadow area in your garden is a great idea but you need to be careful with wildflower seed mixes if you don't want to waste your money.
I can't speak for all wildflower mix producers but often they contain plants with varying requirements, particularly (cornfield) annual species which require some kind of disturbance at the end of the season which is not beneficial to some of the perennials found in the same packet. Soil type and shade are also important factors. It is worth seeing what wildflowers grow locally already as these are likely to match your soil type and have locally associated wildlife (particularly invertebrates).
Also it can be hard to get native species to do well from seed directly sown in the ground in a garden situation.
My advice would be to buy (or collect in the field if you can get permission) either single species seed mixes and grow them on in seed trays (this is also a good way to learn wildflower recognition at all stages of development) and then plant out or buy more established wildflower plugs or rootrainers. You can get these by mail order - I think BTCV produce a list of suppliers - at work I use YSJ seeds in Somerset.
Some species are better at competing with grass in a new meadow. Try things like ox-eye daisy, black knapweed and bird's-foot trefoil. When they are established introduce other things.
It also partly depends on how much space you have. I had a small patch in my old garden but this required quite a bit of maintenance to prevent things being swamped by rank grass. It was amazing how much wildlife this tiny patch supported.
Nettles are easy but I would plant them in a flower pot to prevent them spreading excessively.
In my new garden I am going to try a mix of native and wildlife friendly non-natives but planted in a more formal bed setting.
Good luck and happy growing.
SCR
If you do want to buy proper seed packages then buy them off John Chambers - I've found this link which tell you what to do, gives John Chambers address for a catologue & even a brilliant link which tells you what grows natively in your postcode area, so you know what to plant!
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles120...meadow.asp
That's some great advice you've had there. It is definitely worth a go because if you get it right, it will be very worth it as the local wildlife will love it.
Please let us know how it goes, and which seed you end up using as having a meadow area in the garden sounds like a great idea. I can imagine watching the butterflies and bees in the summer months would be brilliant!
I've set aside a large part of my garden to encourage wildflowers and plants. I've bought a wildflower seed mix to sprinkle around in it too but I'll also be using the link Skylark posted to find out which wildflowers grow in my local area
You can achieve a similar thing by just letting an area grow naturally, and then you can be sure that the animals will have time to find it. But buying a wildflower seed is the best way to do it quickly. Definitely check with Skylark's link which plants grow in your area too!
I would also agree with South Coast Ranger. I was all set to have a wildflower meadow a couple of years ago to attract insects, and in particular butterflies. I bought a mixed seed bag and spent ages getting them all planted carefully at the right depth and spaced out as suggested etc. I got very very little growing and was rather disappointed to say the least. It may well have been some lack of knowledge but as far as i could tell I did things correctly. Unfortunately we left the area and never found out whether they came up the year after. We have now moved house and I am gonna try again. This time with more preparation and more selective choice of plants. Hopefully second time lucky........
It sounds like you willget more luck with planting your own wildflowers to make a meadow rather than using a ready made bag. I'm sure there are some good nad bad ready made ones too though, so has anyone ad any success with a certain type?