We had an existing grassland meadow behind the house that we wanted to convert to a wildflower meadow. I’m trying 2 ways to get flowers established. 1 – Mow down the grass, turn the ground over with a shovel, and transplant an existing flower and 2) Kill a large area of grass (approximately 10’x10′) with Roundup and then plant seeds. In either case, the grass is firmly established and wants to out-compete the flowers, so this will be challenging.
These first couple pictures are June 2016, where I transplanted some seeds I started indoors earlier in the spring. I cleared small spots with the weedeater, then turned the ground with a shovel, and planted the flowers. They seemed to take off OK, but not spectacularly.
Here’s a look at how these returned in 2017. Some came back, others look like they were annuals and didn’t re-seed.
The next attempt was in June 2017, where I cleared some areas with roundup:
I let the areas die for about a week, then roughed up the ground a bit with a garden rake. I then hand broadcast some wildflower seed into these areas. I used about 1/2 pound of a seed mix. I think it may have been a bit heavy, but I’m hoping to get a thick flower stand to help it compete with the grasses. I’ll post more photos of these areas through the summer.
