Step 3. Sowing your flower meadow

[Music] so we've now completed our ground prep and we're ready to sew our seeds and this stage is really important there are many mixtures to choose from all of which can be sown in the spring anytime from march to june but some are actually best sewn in the autumn in september or october so we'll be choosing a mixture for autumn sowing and we've selected a mixture which we think will work particularly well here we wanted something it's a slight slope so nothing too tall full of not just annuals but we have perennial and biennial species and something very suited to this soil type which is dry clay soil this is our tapestry mixture 29 perennial and annual species they're ready mixed with a husk so you don't have to do anything by way of adding sand or sawdust you're ready to go empty the contents into a suitable receptacle a mixing bowl like this is absolutely fine mix this up very thoroughly so it's let's say it's ready mixed but you will find that the small seeds settle so now we're going to sow our seeds and we sow at a rate of approximately seven grams a square meter what does seven grams look like well you don't need to worry too much about it's a it's a small handful using these stones from earlier we're just going over the area and marking out at approximate meter square areas so that we can see exactly where we're going to be sowing the seed try to distribute this seven grams of seeds not a great deal of material so be careful not to dump it all in one area and then just gradually work your way across best not to do this on a windy day until the air is covered you can see the husk against the soil so it helps to be able to see where you're going so we're now completing the job by treading the seeds into the soil all you really need to do at this stage press in for a larger area you might use a lawn roller treading in does just as well might take a little bit longer so we've prepared this area by removing as much of the grass the thatch and the debris as we can and you can see in the barrow there just how much has come out of this patch and it's important to stress it because we're really looking to remove about 50 percent of the grass so that we expose the soil and we can sow the seeds the mixture we're using here it's a pure seed mixture containing native perennials with some added cornfield annuals as well for a little bit of extra color next year we're also going to add some yellow rattleseed yellow rattle is really a bit of a prerequisite for this type of sowing it's a hemi parasitic plant that will help control the grasses while the wildflowers get their feet down just a small amount actually we'll just put a couple of grams in from this pack and then mix all this up this is pure seed unlike some of our other mixtures here we need to add some sharp sand to give us some volume so we can distribute the seeds accurately don't worry too much about the ratio whatever works for you i'm working in this area which is about six square meters on the basis that i want a good handful of sand for each square meter so i will just add six good handfuls the seeds are all at the bottom of this bowl so make sure always give it a very very thorough mix to make sure that you've got a good distribution of seed here we go nice big handful scattered over about a square meter the sand is useful because it helps you to see where you're going the last step is to tread the seeds into the ground making sure they're in good contact with the exposed soil and that's really the job the job done bear in mind with these native perennial mixtures you need a bit of patience it's a grassy bank with wildflowers which will develop over the coming years but we have added the cornfield annuals which will give us an immediate display from the beginning of next summer so we're at the end of a good day's work job finished ground prepared seeds sewn very little now to do other than in the absence of any rain a little watering in the next few days if possible the only other thing to be aware of any emerging weeds need to be dealt with as early as possible we'll then have the emerging plants coming in the spring with the first flower in early summer right the way through for three or four months into the autumn [Music] you

Channel: Meadow in my Garden

Views: 3,690

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Id: OKWNWMVdvZg

Length: 5min 30sec (330 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 15 2022