If you want to plant a wildflower meadow then award winning Garden Ninja shows you the easiest way to encourage wildlife to your garden with a meadow. No matter what size garden, I show you how to create a wildflower meadow with minimal fuss!
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Presented by Garden Ninja, Manchesters Garden Designer and blogger Lee Burkhill. He’s an RHS Award-winning Chelsea garden designer and expert panellist on BBC Radio Manchester’s Saturday morning garden phone in.
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Today’s wildlife design guides going to be all about how to sow your own perennial wildflower meadow. So come on let’s get cracking!
So it comes to planting up a wildflower meadow there are a few options that you’re going to be faced with. Now the first option is the annual
wildflower meadow this means that every year needs to be seeded for new growth each year at the end of the season the plants are the flowers will die back. So you’re really relying on self seeding.
The second option is a herbaceous perennial wildflower meadow and although it may not have every color under the rainbow in it it’s far easier both to establish and to look after. Once you’ve got it established there’s very little that you need to do other than sit back and enjoy it! So come on let me show you more.
So the first set of plants I’m going to show you of these. Elecampane also known as in Inula helenium which are related to other Heleniums. Now these plants are beautiful and they send up these huge yellow ragged daisy-like flowers they do get quite tall so they will add a load of drama to a meadow.
So the next plant is this Leucanthemum vulgare, the oxeye Daisy and if you ask someone to draw a meadow you probably found that they drew these! They have white daisy like flowers they grow to
about 80 centimetres to a meter.
So the next plant is this beauty and it’s a mallow. Malva sylvestris it always reminds me of sweet shops because it’s quite tall but it has these sweet shop pinks and light purple flowers on it.
So down here we’ve got Blue Hyssop. Hyssopus officinalis and I’m adding this into the mix now it’s a semi evergreen herbaceous.
So the next plant is this one which is Polemonium caeruleum, otherwise known as Jacob’s Ladder. Now this is another blue plant and it sends up these little leaves that look like a ladder which is where it gets its name from.
The next plant is Yarrow. Achillea millefolium but you’ll know from my exploding atom garden and I absolutely love this species. Now it can take over in lawns so do you take care but it will give you an incredible show of these umbellifers flowers throughout the summer.
I’m also going to be using Chicory in my meadow mix. The reason for that is it’s got these really attractive looking salad
like leaves.
Now this is Toadflax. Linaria vulgaris and it’s a parasitic plant and what that means is it will leach nutrients off
surrounding grasses
Now all of these plants have been grown in my greenhouse it’s not particularly big it’s not very fancy but it does show that no matter what size garden you’ve got you could grow all of these yourself
and I found it’s far better to grow these from seed because it’s cheaper but when it comes to planting them out which I’m going to show you next you can really carefully consider the position of these plants which ultimately means you are going to have a far nicer wildflower meadow so come on let’s go!
I’m going to use a really sharp trowel lifts the turf off where the plants are going to go so that they’ve got a fighting chance and then plop them in. I’ve already mowed this so it’s already out quite a low setting you don’t want the grass to be competing too much with these plants so no and a really short setting and then when you pop them in make sure you remove their little circle of turf that you’re going to be replacing them with. So I’m going to be putting in around 400 plants into this space if you’ve got a smaller garden that’s not a problem either you simply scale down the amount of plants.
Now these are going to take a number of months before they get established and it’s going to be next year until you start to see that look at the wildflower meadow with all the flowers but it’s well worth the time and investment. I’m going to make sure that I trim around these plants to make sure the grass doesn’t out-compete them until
they’re established you also need to make sure like with any new plant that you keep them well watered.
41 Comments
😁😁😁👍🏻
I have a 100 ft patch of uncultivated soil that I would like to turn into a wild meadow. It has been weeded, the soil turned and raked. It has no Lawn or other species on it. How do I know if it has is a rich soil or a poor soil, and what is the difference?
Also, if I plant an Annual Wild Flower meadow, now, then will I see the results before the summer?
And, is now a good time to simply scatter the seeds over the soil and allow nature to do its thing ?
Love the wild flowers! Thank you so much for your video! Greetings from the Netherlands! 🙂🌱🌿🏵️🌺🥀🌻🌷
I come, I see a dog in a wheel barrow, I subscribe.
This fills my heart with happiness, i love meadows and am looking forward to getting my hands dirty in the garden, i must admit it really saddens me to see how many block paving driveways and hedges torn up, yes simple and clean cut but no help to nature… thanks for the info glad to come across your channel 💙🧡💛👍x
Great video as always can you use a lawn sweeper to clear away cuttings after you have completed your last cut
Fantastic video and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I have left an area approximately 3×5 meters in my south facing garden in London uncut for the last 3 weeks. You say to plant some wildflower plants I should cut the grass quite short first. Then cut out a piece of lawn each time I plant one. This I can do. I would like perennials so will choose varieties you suggest. Can this be done in April? Unfortunately I won’t be growing from seed . I will have to purchase young plants from a garden centre. I am an absolute novice so any advice would be appreciated
Thanks
Terry 👍
Cracking videos … inspirational, down to earth and you even include Barry in your designs/plans…You ought to be on tv! A truly gifted gardener. I’m applying to be your gran! 🤣😂
Fantastic vid! informative and fun. Thank you… helped my decision making 😉
In London, foxes dig them up 🙁
I live in the country and my family owns part of a field, but we rent it out to a local farm to plant corn on. By the field tho is a big area where the raspberry bushes have taken over. It gets lots of sun, so I’m turning that into my wildflower meadow! I just finished pulling up raspberry bushes and honeysuckle trees! It’s hard work but I think it’ll be worth it!! I’m thinking of taking some of the flat rocks from a pile beside our field and using them to create a border.
This is really useful, and informative about meadow planting, what comes across os how passionate you are about plants. It's inspiring – thank you!
This video is therapy. I am thinking about starting a wildflower meadow in my back yard in the next year or two and this seems like a helpful channel. Thank you for sharing!
Nice video……thank you!…..very genuine…
you could become a pretty gurl
its ok to build a wild flower meadow, but maintaining the meadow, not allowing it to be grown over. I've seen loads set up and most ruined from lack of maintenance. Shame really cos they are nice
I want to see all the birds and bees happy
Superb ……….Thanks
I live in a small house but have a long narrow front lawn that I want to change into a small meadow. The thing is I don't have a greenhouse nor the space to grow lots of the plants beforehand. Is it possible to grow the meadow by planting the seeds directly into the soil? Thanks
Thanks!
What breed is your dog ? Great video by the way
This was a great video thanks. I'm going to give this a go.
Did you have a follow up video for this? 🙂
Thank you this is great and I realsie quite a few of the flowering pklants you recommend I know which is alwasy encouraging. Can I ask are there any wildflower seed packs that you would recommend?
You will have problems planting into grass no matter how well cut back
https://youtu.be/qosK_5HJ3QM
Where can I buy these plants? (Cheshire)
Thank You so much for your Videos, this is what i will do this Season. Greetings from Berlin/Germany.
Can I got these plant,s seed
Hi Ninja. Great video thank you. What size meadow have you planted with your 400 seeds please? I am trying to gauge seeds per m2. Thanks.
Would love to plant a wildflower garden. Any tips for a yard built on glacial till? The only thing that thrives is Sow Thistle 😥
How did you decide the amount of plants needed?
Thank you for this lovely video. I have been creating annual meadows for a couple of years, looking to incorporate some perennials in there also. Great information. Thank you again for sharing. Really enjoyed it.
I never knew that about toad flax! Thank you~ could you share the greenhouse you have? I am struggling with finding a 4 seasons with the snow in my area
Yours looks lovely and sturdy
Why plant individual plants rather that remove the grass and put wildflower seed down?
Lee, I've never gardened before and I want to turn my lawn into a wildflower meadow. You've absolutely given me the confidence to do it. Thank you.
🌼🐝🌻I’m Back for another update of your beautiful garden. It’s amazing to see the changes in your plants over time. I love watching my garden grow a little each day, that is my favorite part of gardening. I am making garden videos too on my own channel. It’s so fun to have the growth documented over the season. I still have so much to learn in this area. I hope we can learn more from each other!
This video is fantastic, exactly what I've been looking for, thank you so much! I just have a question about timings… is there a particular time of year when I should plant out the wildflowers out into the lawn? And if I'm growing from seed, do I have to sow the seeds to grow seedlings at a particular time of year? Thanks so much
Patterdale?
What is a daisy?