Create a Stunning Wildflower Meadow in Your Backyard

Posted on 15/10/2020

How to Create a Beautiful Meadow In Your Backyard

If you’ve ever been out walking and been struck by the awe-inspiring beauty of a wild meadow, adorned with flowers of all colours, sizes, and scents, you may be wondering how you can capture this magic in your own backyard. If so, you’ll be pleased to know that it can be done, quite easily in fact - and in truth, it’s a great thing to do. Wildflower meadows are one of the most diverse habitats for native wildlife, and due to the serious decline of genuinely wild meadows, many of these species are struggling to find a new place to live.

It’s also the ideal garden design for gardeners and landscapers looking for a fairly low maintenance gardening project. Because of the nature of a wildflower meadow design, you have to do relatively little in the way of garden maintenance, so if you don’t have much time for garden care, you’ll love this approach - just sow your seeds and let ‘em grow.

So if you want to create a wildlife-rich, visually stunning meadow in your garden, here are our top tips on getting started:


1. Check out your soil nutrients - normally most garden landscapers would be looking for a nutrient-rich garden; this is because you want something to grow grass and high maintenance flowers. But with a wildflower meadow, you want the complete opposite - you want nutrient-poor soil, as this prevents grass from growing too eagerly, and lets your wildflowers take root instead. If you’re not sure how to check the nutrient content of your soil it may be worth hiring a professional gardening company to do it for you. They can also advise on what to do if your soil is too rich, for example laying pre-designed wildflower turf. Gardening services can also advise you on other aspects of your plan, which is helpful especially if you’re new to it all.


2. Prepare your lawn - once you’ve checked your lawn and soil, do some lawn maintenance during the summer to prepare it for the sowing of seeds later in the year. Lawn care is important here, as grass that is too long will stop your wildflowers from going properly.


3. Plant your seeds - you can pick up pre-mixed bags of wildflower seeds from any good gardening store, and the best time to plant them is in the autumn. It’s best to create small, defined holes and fill them with compost before planting the seeds as this will help them take root more quickly. Once planted, give them a good watering.


4. Watch them grow - it’s best to avoid any lawn mowing after planting as you risk disrupting the growth of your newly planted seeds. But other than this, once they’re planted you can pretty much just let them do their thing - as highlighted above, this is the best thing about wildflowers: they can be trusted to grow themselves without too much fuss from you. And before you know it you’ll have a gorgeous array of bright, cheerful flowers across your garden, as well as an inviting home for your local wildlife. Wildflowers do benefit from a regular watering though, so be sure to keep that watering can at the ready to keep them always looking their best.


Setting up a wildflower garden isn’t hard at all, and can create such a calming and beautiful scene in your backyard that it’s well worth doing - plus it’s so simple to do, and very low maintenance. So it’s perfect for those of us who are less green-fingered and just want to enjoy some flowers.