We’re starting to prep for new wildflowers in the spring of 2020, and I thought I’d give a rundown of the dates and steps we’ve been taking.

March:
We had a warmer than average March and were able to get out, enjoy the weather, and mow down the existing growth of the wildflowers we left standing over the winter. We also started a few of our annuals indoors for the front flower beds, mainly some purple zinnias. We really enjoyed them last year, and decided to add them to the front flowers to complement the purple coneflowers. Here’s what they looked like in August 2019.

April brought some colder temperatures again, which slowed down our outdoor activities. By early May, we were nearly back on track for normal weather. After a late season snowstorm in early May, the weather finally broke around May 15. While it was cold, we took the time to separate our seeds that we had collected last fall. We’ll be posting videos with details of that later, but here’s a look at how they were stored in the garage through the winter to dry. I like to store them in paper bags to keep them from molding.

Here’s a look at the yard and wildflowers in early April, just after mowing the stalks in. Very minimal growth starting, except in the dog spots!

Finally, on May 19 I got around to spraying some new areas of the meadow with Roundup to kill the grass. I get the generic 41% concentrated glyphosate at Tractor Supply for ~$10/quart, then dilute into the hand sprayer. It covers plenty of area for 1 year for my size meadow. I’ve found that I like to kill off the existing grass and wait about 2 weeks before planting the new seeds. I should be able to get some new areas started in early June. Stay tuned!