How To Plant A Wildflower Meadow

Remember back in February when I wrote about how I was going to grow a wildflower meadow this summer? Well we finally got around to planting it. There’s an area at the front of our property that was full of weeds and small shrubs. It seemed like a natural location for a wildflower meadow. It’s an open area so it gets plenty of sunlight. It is also a bit of a lower area so I’m hoping the soil will be moist and I won’t have to water too often, but also still drain naturally to the ditch. To plant our wildflower meadow garden I used information from Vesey’s seeds as a guide. I will bring you through the steps for how to plant a wildflower meadow, including starting the seed indoors, preparing the soil, and sowing the seed.

The Seed

The seed I chose for my garden included Alaska Shasta Daisy, Hidcote Blue Lavender, Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea, Bird and Butterfly Mix, and Cottage Garden Wildflower Mix, all of which were given to me by Vesey’s seeds. I wanted the garden to be full of white, pink and purple blooms for the most part, but with some yellow and orange as well. To give the seeds a head start I planted a lot of them indoors around the end of March.

I used seed trays filled with potting soil and just lightly covered the seeds with soil. Then I put the trays in a sunny spot about eight weeks before I planned to plant them outside. I usually like to wait until the end of May to plant outside, but we’ve had a cool wet spring and were delayed a few weeks.

Soil Preparation

Tony tilled the soil for me with the tractor and the cultivator attachment. He started out by cultivating a small area. It turns out I never really communicated to him just how big I wanted to make the garden.

The ground has been so wet though that he could never find a good time to finish cultivating because the tractor kept getting stuck. However we finally had a few days in a row that were dry, and he was able to finish preparing the soil. Cultivation gets rid of the old roots and will give the seeds better opportunity to grow.

Sow the Seed

First we planted the seedlings that were started in March. I spray painted a path down the center of the garden so I would know where not to plant. The path is as wide as our lawn mower; once we get grass growing in the path we can just mow it. I planted an area on the left of the path with Echinacea, a row on the right side of the path with Lavender, and Shasta daisies at the front and back of the garden.

Next we mixed the remaining wildflower seeds with sand and broadcast the mixture evenly over the rest of the soil. The sand is so you can see where you throw the seed, as well as to decrease the seed density.

Now we just have to water (or wait for the next day of rain) and watch the flowers grow! It doesn’t look like much now, but I’m hoping for lots of beautiful flowers by the end of the summer. I’ll let you know the progress in a few months!