EP241- Create A Wilflower Meadow This September!

How to grow your own wildflower meadow course:
https://checkout.teachable.com/secure/1574174/checkout/order_qfcnsy41

Ever wondered how to transform your garden into a thriving sanctuary for both plants and wildlife? In this episode, we unlock the secrets to creating a stunning wildflower meadow that not only brightens your landscape but also supports local ecosystems. I'll share my personal journey, from the vibrant colors of the first year's blooms to the more natural, wildlife-friendly aesthetics that follow. Learn why September is the perfect time to start your meadow and understand the crucial differences between a floral meadow and a native wildflower meadow, each offering unique benefits and challenges.

We'll also explore various techniques to establish your meadow, featuring the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan's "no mow, let it grow" strategy. Discover the role of yellow rattle in fostering plant diversity and the best methods for preparing a weed-free seed bed. Unveil the dynamic beauty of a year-round meadow, with a succession of flowers from spring to late summer, and the importance of annual cutting and strategic planting. Tune in for expert tips and insights to cultivate a meadow that enhances both your garden's beauty and its ecological health.

Chapters

• 0:14 Wildflower Meadows
• 10:49 Establishing a Wildflower Meadow
• 16:35 Creating a Year-Round Wildflower Meadow

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 241 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode we're looking at I suppose the topic that I've probably covered, probably covered it most or certainly covered a lot on the podcast, but it's one that the questions just keep coming on it all the time, and it's in relation to wildflower meadows. And the reason I'm covering it now is off the back of a question from a couple of weeks ago as to when is the best time, and the best time is to sow a wildflower meadow is, without a doubt, september. That's your best month, so I'm going to cover it. You know sort of the main points in relation to you know a wildflower meadow and chat a bit about my one, which I know I've mentioned several times on the podcast before. But we'll chat a little bit about that and it'll sort of give a feel for you know, I suppose, the reasons why I put in a wildflower meadow and how that has maybe changed over the over the over the years since I put it in. So, yeah, as I say, september, the best, the best time to do it.

Speaker 1: 1:20

And I suppose before, before we kind of get into it, it's it's important to understand what an actual wildflower meadow is. So you know, when you see in the, you know I see it everywhere. You see it in the pound shops, you'll see it in the garden centers. You'll see this floral, high floral meadow that people sell as wildflowers. And it's important to be clear on what it is that you're buying at the start and what it is that you're looking for at the start. So most people come to this with a look in their mind and that is that full color, lots of multicolored flowers in it. Generally speaking, you know just a mass of flower flower, and there's two ways to achieve that. Number one is with a floral meadow, and a floral meadow is cultivated flowers. So that can be things like cosmos and your cornflower, which I know is native in ireland, but it would be. You know heavily that the mix would be heavily dominated towards the likes of cornflowers, poppies, you know things that are high flower, a lot of annual type. You know type seeds and you get a really. You sow them in typically it's all those in springtime, then you get a really big flush of flower in in year one and then after that, if it's, you know, if it's a mix that has some perennials in it it will last, but it typically doesn't last very long. So something like that, with cultivated flowers in it, you'll get a big flush of flower in year one. Year two look totally different. You'll have some flower from from perennials, but by year two, three, it'll be weakening all the time and certainly by year four you'll be redoing it.

Speaker 1: 3:04

If it's a floral meadow which has a combination of annuals and perennials in it. Sometimes you can buy an annual floral meadow and that will be high color and you'll need to sow it every year in the springtime and they they're really beautiful, like there's. There's such substantial amount of color in that you get, you know, huge flower and they're really beautiful and it is a, you know it's a. It's a very good way to add high color to your garden, but again, it's a short term one. For me, what I chose when, when I saw my meadow, was it was a native Irish provenance, irish sourced Irish grown seed and all native native plants, and I suppose again, I would have come to it with the main objective being reducing the mowing and having something that looks, looks good at the front and was a benefit to pollinators. That was particularly my, my thinking, and you would have heard me saying this several times on the podcast but my perspective and my you know my reasons for for choosing that at the start, where you know, as I say, high color, reducing mowing. But now the biggest joy and benefit is from the fact that it's a complete haven for for wildlife and particularly birds, and that has been the biggest win, something that I obviously I knew that there would be benefit, but it has been a phenomenally huge benefit.

Speaker 1: 4:35

And the difference, I suppose, with a meadow like this is that it is a long term project. So it flowers. You know, have all your annuals flowering. Year one I sowed it in May. This is its third year, so it would have been sowed, you know all your annuals flowering. In year one. I sold it in may. This is its third year, so it would have been sold, you know, three years ago, 36 months ago or a little bit more now. And in year one it was high color, a lot of annuals in it, a lot of cornflower and so on. And then by year two was heavily dominated by ragged robin oxide. Da Year 3, which is this year, again, ragged Robin Oxide, daisy Meadow, buttercup and so on.

Speaker 1: 5:09

And later in the year it changes and, as I look out today, in terms of aesthetic it is not a nice-looking meadow. It looks untidy, it looks like it's. Yeah, it's not something that people would like. Recently we had a your family occasion and we had some part of it here on the weekend and there was one or two comments about how messy it looked and it does, and I think that's something that you need to understand.

Speaker 1: 5:43

You know when you're, when you're starting this, that it doesn't look high color all year round. A native meadow and even even a floral meadow. You're going to get a real good floral meadow. You're going to get maybe four months out of it that it's going to look really well and then it can look a bit shabby then the rest of the year. A native Irish meadow. You're going to have periods of interest from march right through to september until you cut it, but it isn't. It's going to look that real high color, that picture postcard type. Look for probably two months. You know that's kind of your time scale. During those two months it'll change and then for the rest of the year it's going to look. It's going to look a little bit untidy, but from my point of view, my perspective now has totally changed. So I actually don't really mind the look of it.

Speaker 1: 6:37

I need to cut it now, in September, for the benefit of the meadow itself, you know, in order to allow some of the other perennials to keep coming through as they have and and so on, and I need to take the cuttings away, which is a little bit of a job. But the the biggest thing at the moment is the amount of birds. It's phenomenal. So this morning I put I was pulling out wheelie bins and as I came around the corner from the front, there was a group of at an, at an, at an estimate I would say, 40 ish goldfinches that rose off the meadow and if you sit inside and you look out, you will see them.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Like the, the meadow was kind of bouncing up and down because they're hopping from seed head to seed head and these seed heads are, you know they're. They're on small plants, so they jump onto it. The plant bends down like a fishing rod and then they pick, pick, pick, pick and then they move to the next one. So you're constantly seeing this kind of up and down movement across the top of the meadow. So that for me, is the biggest thing. I've had bull finches in the garden for the first time since the meadow went in and and it has become basically an ecosystem all to itself. So if you're looking for high color, 12 month round, beautiful picture meadow, that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist in nature, it doesn't exist in, you know, in the, in the seeds that you sow or in any mix that you'll buy. So you need to be aware of that, so that it is going to look slightly untidy in some people's eyes at certain times of the year, but your benefits are different.

Speaker 1: 8:15

So some of you will remember back to one of the really early episodes of the podcast with Sandro Cofola, and Sandro is he is the wildflower expert in ireland. He's just, he knows everything about it. His company produced the seed. A lot of it is hand-picked. They sort through seed, they grow seed, they contract grow seed, they teach other people how to do it, they supply, you know, county councils, landscapers and the whole lot and all of those meadows become ecosystems wherever they're sold. And you know sandro in that episode he he speaks about and it was. It's the second most popular episode ever of the podcast, continues to be listened to so often and it's the one that a lot of people will come back and say I listened to that and it really cuts through all deniers and really, you know, identifies what you need to know in relation to creating a white flower meadow.

Speaker 1: 9:11

But in that episode, sandra talks about that fact that it doesn't have color in the wintertime and his thing on it was what do you mean? It doesn't have color and you have the bull finches, the gold finches and and all that feeding in it. So it's, as I say, it's not the high color all year round, but there's definitely interest for a lot of the year around. So that's that's the big thing and that's something to be aware of. So they're your options flower meadow or wildflower meadow. As I say, I chose a native wildflower meadow, got the seeds from Sandro and it has been a real, real addition to the garden. I'll talk about some of the other reasons in a minute.

Speaker 1: 9:56

I created a course on how to create a wildflower meadow with Sandro and that's available now to buy. It's 47 euros euro. It's phenomenally good, if I do say so. It's great content. So it talks about all of those things. You know what to expect from a meadow how to sow a meadow. There's a q a with sandra asking the regular questions and it just it outlines everything you need to know about creating a native irish wildflower meadow, and it really is. You know, I suppose, even if you're you know if you're considering creating a meadow in order for you to have it to get as good a meadow as is possible, it's well worth. It's well worth investing in. So it's 47 euro for lifetime access and I'll put the link in the in the show notes of this episode anyway.

Speaker 1: 10:49

But the the the big thing with it at this, like there's several ways of creating a meadow. So the all-earned pollinator plan doesn't recommend that you actually sow a meadow. It recommends using the no more let it grow formula, which which basically means you designate an area, you stop mowing it if you're already mowing it for a lawn, or if you're, you know, streaming it or whatever. You just let it go and over time you see what develops out of it, and that's a really good way of doing it. If you're in, you know, if you're somewhere where there is a lot of plants that would become meadow plants already there. But if you've been keeping a lawn and maintaining a lawn the way that most people do, in that they're not allowing weeds to develop in it, then you more than likely have been using something to keep outdoors so that you only end up with grass, and then, if you use that formula of just stopping mowing and letting it grow, what you end up with is grass. The area tends to be high nutrition then, so that means that the grass grows strongly, it seeds, and really in a scenario like that, it's very, very hard to establish anything that would resemble a meadow. Now, if you have an area that is a lawn that is kind of unkept and you have all these little, you know, likes of achilles and all these little plants that are there, but the tops are getting cut off them on a weekly basis as you mow and they're already there and you haven't been doing anything to take those out, then by stopping they could actually come forward and sometimes you can establish a really good meadow that way. But in most cases here in Ireland anyway, you're not going to be able to do that, because most people maintain a lawn in, you know, in the traditional way of keeping everything out of it except the grass. So that's one way of of establishing others.

Speaker 1: 12:41

Then talk about using, and it's it's at this time of the year that you can get yellow rattle and yellow rattle is known as the meadow maker, and it's at this time of the year that you can get yellow rattle and yellow rattle is known as the meadowmaker and it's a phenomenally good plant. So what it does? It's semi-parasitic, it attaches itself to the root of grasses, reduces the grasses, weakens them so much that other plants can come forward. Yellow rattle needs to be sowed at this time of the year, needs a period of cold to germinate, and then it's an annual. It sets its seed again and it just continues to seed and grow and weaken the grass and then eventually, over time, you form a meadow in that way and that's why it's called the meadow maker and it's a really good way of doing it.

Speaker 1: 13:22

The only caveat to that is that it has absolutely no effect on scutch grass. So if you have scutch grass in the area, you use yellow rattle. That'll reduce the. You know some of the other grasses and the scutch will just take over. So you just need to be aware of that. If the scutch there doesn't have any effect on scutch, it's.

Speaker 1: 13:40

It's used a lot in. You know old, established or you know big, big houses where they're looking to establish meadows because there's a lot of softer grasses and it's really effective at reducing all of those, and eventually you start to get a meadow coming through over time and particularly in those type of meadows, you'll often see the presence of orchids and all that starting to come through. So it is a really good thing, but just be sure that you're aware of its benefits but also possibly its limitations when it comes to things like scotch grass. So that's you know another way of establishing, but the most effective way of establishing is is to create a weed-free, completely weed-free seed bed, as you would, you know, if you were sowing a lawn for the first time, and there's loads of ways of doing that. But that's how you go about it. You create a fine tilt, the same as you would with sowing a lawn, and then in September you set your wildflower seed on it, and that is by far the most effective way of creating a really strong wildflower meadow.

Speaker 1: 14:43

So the meadow I have it's a huge mix of of flowers in it and different periods of interest. So for me and in my meadow, I have a good few bulbs planted into it, particularly things like crocuses, native bluebells, I have some daffodils recently tried, or last year tried some camassias in it small amount of them. They did really well and they were really long lasting and interesting. So there's going to be more of those out of this this autumn and that's another reason why I need to do a heavy cut on mine in the coming weeks. So commasia really really, really well in it and that gives great looks.

Speaker 1: 15:24

So what you end up with is end up with your snowdrop crocuses, bluebells, daffodils, narcissi they're they're flowering early. Along with those you'll have things like cow slip. That's multiplying quite a lot and first year there was very few of them outside. First year there was none of those. Year two there was a few, but they were very small. Year three, which was this spring, a lot of them so, but still still a little bit small. But those clumps are going to be getting bigger all the time. They're going to be setting seed and over time there's going to be more and more cow slip coming into that and it's going to look really good at that time of year and that's your sort of first period of interest and in terms of, you know, pollinators if that's your aim, the bluebells really good for for pollinators. So you're getting that early. You know that early flower for the, for the bees, if they come out, there wasn't a huge amount from around this year and even on on the late meadow there's there's actually not that many, again down to lack of sunlight levels this year, lack of heat. There definitely has been a, I would say, a lot less of them this year, without a doubt, and I see reports of that all across the country.

Speaker 1: 16:35

So that's that's sort of your first block of color, and then the meadow changes and and and every so often a flower will dominate for a period of time and a look will dominate for a period of time and then it'll change. So for example, the oxeye daisy and the ragged robin day and the meadow buttercup. So oxeye daisy, obviously white, they were quite dominant through may and up into june. They're still some of it now, but they're very dominant in that early period. So you have a lovely white color and then the ragged robin is a bit shorter and it sort of underpins it or it's on, it's a little bit below it. So you have that pink and white contrast and that looks really good at that time of the year.

Speaker 1: 17:18

Yarrow then comes through and then we have a lot of yellows, so sort of, through mid-summer you have a lot of yellows, things like meta, better cup, as I mentioned. Through may and june, john's wort. Then you have I'm all I mentioned the primula early in the time, bird's foot, trefoil that comes a little bit later. Yellow rattle, hawk bits they're all yellow colored flowers and they all come true at various periods. You have red flowers then, as a red, pink flowers. So I mentioned a ragged robin last year, not so much this year. I had poppies.

Speaker 1: 17:52

There's a few in it but not a lot, and they they tend to die out as they would in a floral meadow mixture because they're not, they're not hardy enough to establish there. Napweed is a big one now. That's absolutely adored by pollinators. There's, you know, there's a huge amount of that now. A lot of the flowers are. So there's a kind of a mix. Half the flowers have gone over, half them are in full flower still, but there's a huge amount of pollinator activity on that. Things like purple loosestrife that's a really beautiful flower on its own things like eye bright red, campion, red clover, and there's kind of these layers within the meadow and they're all you know. They're all flowering there now.

Speaker 1: 18:31

So that's going to get you, you know, between the bulbs kicking off the start of the year right through to sort of september time, where I cut the meadow completely, I have to take away all the you know, all the cuttings off of trying to reduce the, the fertility in that area. Take off all those cuttings and then the meadow will grow again. Some things actually might pop up and flower. You know, depending on how we get on through October, there might be a little bit pops through at that stage. But again, you, your meadow for the, for the winter time, will be green, but there won't be much else going on. But that's kind of normal. It's the time of year, what they expect at that time of year. You're not, you're not going to get huge color from, from natural sort of settings, and then you come into the spring and the whole thing starts again.

Speaker 1: 19:16

The benefit of this, of course, is that it's a it's a long-term project. It's not something that, like the other meadow, that you're going to get a year out of for two years or have and have to continue doing it. This is basically an ecosystem that you've created in your garden, takes a small bit of management year to year, taking out things like docks if they, if they arrived in it or things like thistles in it, so that you don't want them getting established in there. And then you get, you know, this yearly benefit to pollinators, to biodiversity and especially birds. They really go mad for it. So the side benefits of that, as I've mentioned again before on the podcast, is things like the blue tits are in there and because there's so many blue tits in the garden, then not seeing any caterpillar damage on brassicas at all, because there is, you know, just a more biodiversity within the garden anyway. So that's a huge advantage and, and you know, it's definitely a side benefit of having the meadow. So that's kind of the outline of it In terms of what needs to be done with the meadow.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Then it's just a case of yearly cutting. Really it's a case of ensuring that you allow more and more of these perennial flowers to come true, and sometimes it can take three, four, five years before some of these true perennials, these long-term perennials, will come true and they're going to be really special when they do come true. Some of the sort of shorter-lived perennials, likes of Oxide Daisy, they will probably fade out a little bit. They won't fully die out, but there'll be less of them as time goes on, and then some of the other ones that come through. I see things like wild carrot in it. This year they've they've sort of come through quite strong and they really reduce the fertility in the ground and that's the purpose of them in the meadow and it's just. It's a really, really beautiful thing to see that life in that, in that meadow. As I say, it's not the you know, for 12 months of the year, it's not that picture perfect, postcard type wildflower meadow, but the benefit is far beyond the aesthetic of it. It's it's um, you know, it really is a fantastic look to have all year round.

Speaker 1: 21:30

So two things, two things. It's the perfect time of year to sow. It's going into september. September is the best month to establish, particularly a native, a native meadow, and obviously then, being in september, october, bull planting time. So it gives you that opportunity to do the two things at the same time. So sow your meadow and planting some bulbs into it, and now you're starting to create for next. Now you're starting to create for next year. You're starting to create color from very, very early in the year and something that will be flowering right through on next summer up until you cut it. You know, in early September next year now some meadows, depending on what mix you get some meadows, you might actually do a cut on it in sort of mid-summer, you know, early July time, and doing a cut at that stage will result in a second kind of flush of flowers on certain varieties later in the season, the meadow.

Speaker 1: 22:22

I have the best time to cut. It is just happens to be September. So, again, it just depends on on what it is that you're doing. If you are considering growing a meadow, as I say Sandro, you tell him what sort of ground you have, where you're based even, and are considering growing a meadow, as I say sandro, you tell him what sort of ground you have, where you're based even, and he'll sort of give you a mix that's tailored for that. So it really is. You know it's the best way of doing it and you know the course. The course, as I say, it's from start to finish. It just gives you everything that you're going to need.

Speaker 1: 22:51

So talks about what we just spoke about the difference between the two meadows, how to establish it. We look in kind of depth at the various ways of doing that, how you can do it, how you can establish a meadow. We show you how to actually sow it. So we sow a meadow, we rake over a meadow. We show you how to do all of that. We show you the next steps, what to expect as you're starting to get germination. We look at some of the individual flowers within a meadow and the purpose of them within it. And you know, we talk about all of those things. Then we do a q a and we show you, you know, sandra, growing or sowing and sorting and cleaning some of the seeds in in his, you know, in his seed houses. So it's, it's a really really good youthful course.

Speaker 1: 23:37

If you're you're considering a meadow for this autumn and I'll leave the, as I say, I'll leave the link to that in the show notes. Other courses from master my garden so created master my garden school, other courses will be added. Next one I'm working on is a container gardening course. So that's uh, covering everything to do with kind of container gardening. So that's kind of three, three courses then and going into next year, hopefully add more.

Speaker 1: 24:00

And next week's episode on the podcast is a really good one. It's not actually recorded yet but it's scheduled for early next week, so won't say too much about in case anything goes wrong, but it's sure to be a good one. It's a really interesting one, something I've been trying to line up for a while as well, so that'll be good. But remember, if you are interested in creating a wildflower garden, wildflower meadow, then september is the best month to do it, and now is the time to start planning it and working towards that. The timing is perfect. So get going now at it. Get your seed, get your ground ready, get sowing. It doesn't have to be a big area and you will. You will see the benefit for for years and years to come.

Speaker 1: 24:42

We're going to cover an episode coming up as well that's solely dedicated towards bulbs. Requests from a listener. This week is in relation to forcing bulbs, and I'll cover that in the next week or two as well. And yeah, so a couple of good episodes coming up and lots to look forward to over the coming weeks. The weather is starting to get a little bit settled. I was able to grow more grass yesterday for the first time. Tomatoes are coming in in abundance now, so there's lots of positives around the weather at last this year. So hasn't, you know, hasn't been too much rain here, even though we've had heavy showers, there's been nice dry days, nice bit of warmth and hopefully we're going to have, you know, sort of an Indian summer as we go through into September. So, yeah, certainly, certainly something to look forward to. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening. Until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.