A meadow of wildflowers can be a beautiful addition to your garden. But before you go ahead and plant one, you need to know how to prepare the ground for a wildflower meadow.

There’s more to getting the ground ready than you might think. In this post, we’re going to share out step-by-step guide on how to prepare the ground for a wildflower meadow. Whether you have chosen the instant effect with wildflower turfing or seeding, the preparation is the same. Preparation should start six weeks before you plan to lay the turf or seeding to ensure the best results.

Prepare the ground for a wildflower garden

1. Step 1: Spraying / Uplifting
2. Step 2: Rotavate / Breakup Soil
3. Step 3: Check back for weeds
4. Step 4: Rake over
5. Step 5: Order your wildflower seed or turf

Step 1: Spraying/ Uplifting

Depending on what is already in your area you wish to have a wildflower meadow, you will need to spray off any weeds or grass or uplift them. Ensuring they have been removed, will prevent the weeds or grass from growing and overwhelming your wildflower.

If you are choosing to spray off the weeds or grass ensure you buy a strong all types of weed killer. This will likely take a couple of attempts to ensure it is all dead. Weeds and grass are surprisingly stubborn and often manage to survive initial spraying.

There are two ways you can uplift the weeds or grass from the garden. The first is probably only really doable if you have a small area to prepare. You will only need a good spade, simply dig the spade into the ground, to cut the grass or weeds into easy liftable sized pieces. Then slide the spade under the edge to lift it away from the ground. If this sounds like a lot of hard work for you, then maybe hire a turf cutter, they can be found at most machinery hire shops. These will simply but and lift at the same time without the elbow grease of the spade.

Step 2: Rotavate/ Breakup soil

Just like when laying turf or seeds for traditional turfing. You will need to break up the soil. This can be done either with a rotavator or with a fork, turning over the top 10cm of soil. Wildflowers are known for favouring poorer soils. Generally, most soils will be fine, however, if you are worried you can remove the top layer of soil.

The removal of the top layer of soil will take away the area where most of the nutrients are. This is because the top layer of all soils contains the most organic matter of all the layers of soil.

Step 3: Check back for weeds

We know what you are thinking, “I have already done this!”. Around 2-6 weeks later it’s important to remove all the weeds that have returned. Hopefully, there aren’t as many this time and you can just do this with a hoe or by hand.

Step 4: Rake over

Now you want to ensure your grounds are nice and flat. If you seed or turf a bumpy area you will end up with an uneven wildflower meadow. This can cause damage to both your meadow and mower when cutting. When seeding you want the area to be firm for the seeds to lay on.

Step 5: Order your wildflower seeds or turf

Probably the most exciting part now. Once the grounds have been prepared correctly it is time to order your wildflower. It is really important to order the right type for your garden, as choosing the wrong kind can mean minimal growth which nobody is looking for in a wildflower meadow. To know which type of wildflower seed or turf is best for your garden give our team a call.

Prepared and ready to go

We hope that our guide on how to prepare the ground for a wildflower meadow has helped. You’ll be readying the ground, planting your seeds and watching your wildflowers grow in no time. Should you need any more assistance please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.