The Vanderveen House

Tips from accidental real estate investors

  • Start Here
    • About Us
    • Policies and Contact
  • Fix and Flip Houses
    • 1st House: Run down bungalow
    • 2nd House: New build
    • Flip House
    • 3rd house: Outdated split level
  • Buy and hold properties
    • 4th house: New build raised bungalow
    • Construction schedule & budget worksheet
    • Rental House
    • Cabin in the Woods
  • DIY Projects
    • Craft Ideas
    • Furniture Makeovers
    • Woodworking
    • Outdoor Ideas
    • Gardening
Home » DIY Projects » Gardening » How to grow a wildflower garden

Gardening

How to grow a wildflower garden

Do you want to know how to grow a wildflower garden? If you remember from the spring I had plans to grow a wildflower meadow this summer in the front corner of our property. Today I’m going to share with you my experiences with my first year growing a wildflower meadow, what I learned, and what I will do next year to continue getting colorful blooms year after year!

Planning The wildflower garden

My plans for the garden were to do a mix of perennial and annual flowers. These flowers included Alaska Shasta Daisy, Hidcote Blue Lavender, Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea, and some wildflower seed mixtures (cottage garden and butterfly mix). I received all the these seeds from Vesey’s seeds, a Canadian seed company located in Prince Edward Island.

wildflowers seeds for a meadow

Planting the wildflower Meadow

Around the end of May Tony prepared the soil for me. The kids and I planted the flowers that I had started indoors in the winter, and dispersed the rest of the seed over the soil. The plan was to have a grass path down the center, with lavender to the right of the path, daisies at the front and back of the garden, and the rest of the flowers just random throughout.


How to grow a Wildflower garden

A few weeks after planting, this is what the meadow looked like (including one extra petunia leftover from my cedar planters).

Planting a wildflower meadow


I planted some grass seed down the path, and you can see that starting to come up. I watered the garden maybe twice, just until the seedlings started to come up. We’ve also had a very wet spring and summer, so I didn’t feel there was a need to water much more than that.

By the end of the summer my wildflower garden looked like this…

How to grow a wildflower meadow

Not very impressive, I know. But then when you look a little closer you can see all the different flowers that have actually come up.

How to grow a wildflower meadow in eastern ontario

A lot of the annual flowers came up very well. There are a lot of zinnia, cosmos, candytuft, and my favorite are the pink poppies. Each day I’m excited to check on the garden to see which new flowers are blooming, because flowers make me happy.

wildflower meadow in eastern ontario

There are also a lot of weeds. I didn’t want this to be a big project and something I’d have to take care of constantly. I weeded several times throughout the summer, usually just when the weeds got taller than the flowers. My hope is that in a year or two (or three?) when the flowers get bigger and stronger, they will eventually choke out the weeds.

Growing a wildflower meadow - first year

The lavender unfortunately didn’t make it. I’m not sure if it was because the soil was a bit poor, or if we got so much rain and they drowned, or maybe it was because Tony ran over them with the lawnmower…but either way, I may have to plant more next year.

There’s quite a few Shasta daisy plants, but they didn’t bloom this year. And about three plants of the Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea made it through the summer, so I’m excited to see them bloom next year.

What I learned and plans for next year

  • Next year I will throw some more seeds in the meadow to continue adding more color and variety. I let the kids sow most of the seed so the flowers ended up being concentrated at the back. Next year I’ll start planting at the front first to get a move even coverage.
  • Planting was delayed because of the weather, and I’m sure it also stunted a lot of the growth. Nothing can be done about that, other than to deal with what mother nature gives.
  • I’m going to plant seeds over the path down the centre. I don’t think it adds much purpose, especially after Tony cleaned up all the long weeds around the whole garden. And plus, there’s always the risk of mowing over flowers.
  • Growing a wildflower meadow takes patience. I was expecting a little more color this year, but I need to realize it takes time. This is only the first year. Each year after this the flowers will get bigger and stronger and more blooms.

My experiences growing a wildflower meadow

Here is a slideshow of some of the flowers that came up this year in my wildflower meadow! Which one is your favorite?

Zinnia
Shasta Daisy
I don’t know what this is! Does anyone know?

Zinnia
Blanket flower
Cosmo

Cosmo and candytuft
Cosmo
Pink poppy

Zinnia bouquet
My experiences growing a wildflower meadow
Pink poppy and candytuft
Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea

Find out what this wildflower garden looks like now! It’s very different and is a continual work in progress.

 


11 Comments

Previous Post: « Tour Our Home: Open Concept Raised Bungalow
Next Post: Before and After: DIY Curbside French Provincial Dresser Makeover »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan says

    September 7, 2017 at 1:19 pm

    What is it about lavender that it is so difficult to grow. I planted an entire flat of seeds and started them indoors – nothing 🙁 will try again next year.

    Reply
    • jessvanderveen@gmail.com says

      September 7, 2017 at 1:51 pm

      Yes I planted the whole pack too! I didn’t realize they were so difficult to grow

      Reply
  2. birdsandberry says

    September 7, 2017 at 4:22 pm

    It grew so well! I love the zinnia bouquet!

    Reply
  3. Lesley Metcalfe says

    September 8, 2017 at 1:39 pm

    You’re growing such lovely wildflowers! Do you know/follow Cynthia Zamaria? She has a flower farm and I think you would love her content if you don’t know her already. 🙂

    Here’s her site: https://www.cynthiazamaria.com/

    Reply
    • jessvanderveen@gmail.com says

      September 8, 2017 at 8:51 pm

      I’m going to go check her out now!

      Reply
  4. Lidia says

    September 11, 2017 at 3:30 pm

    I need a yard!!!!!!!!!! LOL! (Or I’ll come over and enjoy yours!) 😉

    Reply
    • jessvanderveen@gmail.com says

      September 11, 2017 at 9:18 pm

      Yes!! I have plenty of yard for everyone

      Reply
  5. atkokosplace says

    January 25, 2018 at 8:50 pm

    I was just talking about doing this this year. Your wild flowers are gorgeous. Very inspirational. Thank you!!!!

    Reply
    • jessvanderveen@gmail.com says

      January 25, 2018 at 9:34 pm

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  6. Ladywell says

    February 22, 2019 at 11:40 am

    Jessica, I believe the pink flower is a Primrose. The wildflowers are beautiful.

    Reply
    • Jessica Vanderveen says

      March 9, 2019 at 7:37 am

      Thank you!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome! We are Tony and Jessica Vanderveen, and are accidental real estate investors in Ontario. Find out how you too can create long term wealth, while maintaining your work life balance. Find out more...

Looking for something?

Categories

  • Buy and hold real estate investing properties
    • 4th House: Raised Bungalow Build
    • Cabin Vacation Rental
    • Rental House
  • DIY Projects
    • Craft Ideas
    • Furniture Makeovers
    • Gardening
    • Outdoor Ideas
    • Woodworking
  • Fix and Flip Houses
    • First House
    • Flip House
    • Second House
    • Third House
  • Real Estate Investing Tips

Explore the Archives

Footer

You might also like

birch branch candler holder

How to make a DIY candle holder from a birch branch

how to make rustic farmhouse christmas string art

How to make Christmas string art

Rustic Wood Mirror by L. DeVries Designs

Shared boys bedroom makeover

Built-in beds for a shared boys bedroom: One Room Challenge Week 1

whitewash pine ceiling

How to whitewash a pine ceiling

Copyright © 2023 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT