Are you tired of maintaining your lawn and paying the associated costs with maintaining a lush carpet of green? There is another option. You can shrink the lawn and transform it into a vibrant wildflower meadow?
We did a meadow in Kent a while back that has become pretty famous. Pictures of the meadow we installed in Kent, CT has appeared in multiple articles, in multiple languages around the world. Because of that project, we receive a lot of calls from people who like the idea of exchanging lawn and more flowers and wildlife. With talking with over the years, I’d say that the biggest misconception people have with installing a meadow is they think the process is as easy as spreading some seed. I wish it was that easy! Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of time and money to establish a meadow. The easiest and best site conditions is typically found with new construction. Bare ground is a good starting point.
Below, I will be discussing creating a meadow from seed. You can also create a meadow by using physical plants, typically from plugs. I will add a picture of a landscape we did in Washington, CT where more than 8000 plugs were planted.
First, the location is important. Wildflower meadows do best in full sun so finding a site that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight is the first step. Second, you need to get the area to bare ground. In thin areas, you might be able to kill everything and continue to kill any new growth for an entire growing season before seeding but in most cases, stripping the existing vegetation to bare ground is advised. Killing the existing vegetation can be accomplished with organic or inorganic herbicides, through solarizing which is the process of covering the entire area with plastic or, if the area is small, covering the site with cardboard and then mulch. We typically manage our sites with herbicides. I believe this is the most environmentally friendly approach and the most cost effective. For thick turf areas, you can strip the vegetation with the use of a rototiller or Rotodairon. It’s important to understand, once you’ve gotten the space to bare ground, you can’t disturb the soil throughout the rest of the process. Every time soil is disturbed, more weed seeds will be exposed and the longer the prep will take. Turning the soil over once, right at the beginning of the vegetation management process is fine. At this point, you want to manage any new growth for an entire growing season. Technically, you can seed at the end of that garden season as a dormant seeding but because of our fluky winters of inconsistent temperatures, I prefer to seed in the spring. You definitely don’t want the seed to germinate in the winter and then a freeze occurring right after. The reason it is suggested that you manage the bare ground for so long is, you want to eliminate all plants that can outcompete the seed. The longer there isn’t pressure from more aggressive plants, the more sustainable will be. When the site has been properly prepped, it’s time to seed. Wildflower seed is small so we cut it with play sand, mixing in a cement mixer at a rate of one part seed to 7 parts sand. Once the area is seeded, nature will take its course. A lot of people say you should water. It wouldn’t hurt but I mostly rely on our native plants, which have evolved over centuries, to know what to do. The meadows we’ve installed involved an acre or two. so we let nature take over. Once seeded, we hay the entire are with a shredded salt hay or another hay free of weed seeds. A perennial meadow will take 2 seasons to flower so we prefer to add an annual component to our seed mix to get some flowers the first season.
Establishing a wildflower meadow takes time and patience. Once your meadow matures, Sit back and watch as your wildflower meadow blooms with color and attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies. It’s a beautiful addition to any landscape.
A plug planting in Washington, CT
May in a Kent, CT meadow
A meadow in Kent, CT in late summer
