Establishing a wildflower Meadow

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.

 

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Clearing and planting small areas
Clearing and planting small areas

Here’s a look at how these returned in 2017.  Some came back, others look like they were annuals and didn’t re-seed.

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The next attempt was in June 2017, where I cleared some areas with roundup:

Areas cleared with roundup for wildflower planting
Areas cleared with roundup for wildflower planting

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.

5 thoughts on “Establishing a wildflower Meadow”

  1. Hello! I also have a wildflower spot I’m going on the second year now, and Im trying to decide if most coming back are flowers or weeds! In your first picture there is a plant that I have growing and I wondered if you could tell me what it is? It’s the top right of the first picture, no blooms on it above the pink plant and to the left of the little white blooms. If you could identify that for me I would be so grateful, your flowers are all beautiful!

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