Wildflower Meadow Instead Of Lawn | Slide Mouse
The term meadow refers to uncultivated areas featuring herbaceous plants and soils that aren t wet year round.
Wildflower meadow instead of lawn. Establishing a wildflower meadow isn t difficult. A wildflower meadow on the other hand needs no fertilizing little or no supplemental water and just a once a year mowing. By replacing all or part of your lawn with native vegetation that provides food and cover you can create a refuge to attract variety of wildlife. Seeds need soil contact to germinate.
Replacing some or all of your lawn with a wildflower meadow is a great alternative. Download pdf save for later print purchase print. If you do want a meadow instead of just low growing wildflower ground cover the new book lawns into meadows by owen wormster walks you through the transformation process. Converting a lawn to a meadow stop feeding and weedkilling the turf in the first year continue mowing weekly to weaken the grass some wild species will establish and thrive raise others from seed introducing them as one to two year old pot grown plants planted into holes in the turf many.
But look closer and you can see the leaves of cowslips some with flower heads common vetch betony self heal birdsfoot trefoil field scabious oxeye daisies common and greater knapweed and tiny yellow rattle seedlings. Wildflower lawns are more than just flowers. It s early spring and my mini wildflower meadow looks much like the other lawns in this suburban neighbourhood. Wildlife friendly alternatives to lawn.
Grass preparation is fairly easy. Probably easier kill of the complete lawn and seed with a wild grass and flower mix. Although meadow lawn turf offers countless advantages over a traditional lawn it doesn t have the green manicured appearance that most people are accustomed to. The earth will thank you though your neighbors may raise an eyebrow or two.
It does however take some planning and preparation. Not sure what type of grass that is currently growing in your lawn. The wild lawn wild flower meadow area needs to be cut short before planting making sure to remove the cut grass to your compost heap. Plant a diversity of grasses in your wildflower lawn.
And neither can you toss wildflower seeds on top of grass lawn and think you ll be swimming in flowers. While grasslands are defined as having more than 50 grass cover meadows have more than 50 forb cover. Mow the existing grass. You also need to decide if you want a meadow filled with annual wildflowers or perennial wildflowers and grasses.
They also consist of grasses 50 80 grass cover in a wildflower meadow but not the most common lawn grasses below.