Plant the Perfect Wildflower Garden This Spring

Nothing shows your love of Nature more than a wildflower patch in your garden, no matter how small it is! And spring is a great time to sow one, and it will pay you back tenfold with lots of flowers, but also pollinators, like bees and butterflies. Ok, there’s a selfish reason too, because they will pollinate your trees and vegetables too. But there’s also that sense of pride in contributing to wildlife and the environment.

Or maybe you just have some unused land and you don’t know what to do with it? Grow wild flowers and you won’t regret it!

And there’s no reason why you shouldn’t sow a wildflower patch (or a whole meadow if you have lots of land) in spring, because it is very easy, and very, very cheap indeed. Curious?

The Great Benefits of Growing a Wildflower Patch in Your Garden

Of course, the main benefit you get from a wildflower patch is the joy of watching a little corner of a wild meadow in your garden, with flowers coming all through the season! But there are others…

• Wildflowers are great for pollinators; a patch will attract loads to your garden, and they will pollinate your fruiting trees and vegetables as well.
• They also attract beneficial insects, like beetles and ladybirds. They will help you with your gardening and keep pests at bay!
• Wildflowers need very little care, and in the mixes you buy, you get varieties that keep your garden blooming from mid or late spring to fall!
• Wildflowers improve the soil, adding organic matter to it when they die, and preventing soil erosion and compacting.
• Wildflowers are great for biodiversity.
• Wildflowers are often self-seeding, so you may have a permanent garden with little work.

Finally, I think that wildflowers are great for mental health; looking at them mis so relaxing.

Ah, a final thought… If you have children, a wildflower patch is great to teach them about Nature, the ecosystem etc.!

When Can You Sow a Wildflower Patch in Your Garden?

You have two main time windows when you can sow a wildflower patch in your garden, the whole of spring and early to mid fall. However, the first is best, and if you have heavy clay as soil, it will be hard to save the seeds over winter…

So, the very best time is spring, from Marc (even late February in warm climates) to May! Let’s see how to start one then…

1: Choose the Best Spot for Your Wildflower Patch

Placing your wildflower patch in the right spot in your garden is key to its success. But it’s not difficult:

• Choose a position in full Sun; most annuals need it, and there are quite a few in wildflower mixes.
• Choose a sheltered position, without strong winds; pollinators like bees and butterflies do not like them, of course.
• Place it as close as possible to other plants you want pollinated, maybe your vegetable patch? Even bang in the middle of it!

That’s it. And now it’s time to prepare it…

2: Protect Your Wildflower Patch from Weeds

First of all, you need to prepare the soil where you will grow your wild flowers. And the main issue is “competition”: weeds! “Hold on,” you may say, “these are local spontaneous grasses and flowers too!” True, but they are not the ones you chose for your wildflower patch, and they can be invasive.

So, here is how you can stop them:

• First of all, weed your wildflower patch, by hand, uprooting them all (don’t use herbicides! They will kill your seeds too!)
• Ideally, if you have time and you plan ahead, you should cover the area of your wildflower patch with overlapping cardboard, or a black plastic sheet for 3 to 6 months. This way, you will literally stop most of the weeds’ seeds.
• However, if you don’t have all that time, you can simply cover the area with cardboard (or a black plastic sheet) for 1 to 2 weeks before sowing. This will stop weeds from germinating while your wildflower seeds are in the soil.

This way, when the new little plants start growing, you will know that they are mainly your wildflowers, and not weeds. There will be some, but not enough to overwhelm your chosen varieties.

So, wait for two weeks or so and then…

3: Prepare the Soil for Your Wildflower Patch

Now it’s time to prepare the bed where you will sow your wildflowers; I know you will see gardeners that suggest you do it before you cover it; but this will impoverish your soil. If you have weeded it well, you can do it before you plant the seeds.

• Till the soil, about 2 to 4 inches of the topsoil (5.0 to 10 cm) to loosen it. Don’t go any deeper or you may bring up the seeds of the weeds! Now, if you are a no-till person, you can use a broad fork; however, remember that you won’t need a spade ever again if you let your patch self-seed and naturalize.
• Add about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of coarse gardening sand to improve drainage; if your soil is heavy clay, use gypsum instead.
• Do not add any compost or fertilizer to your patch! This may sound strange, but wildflowers grow in poor soil, and if you add nutrients, these will actually help the weeds instead!
• With a rake, even out the surface, so it is loose but flat.
• The ideal pH is between 6.0 and 7.5. Do amend it with sulfur (to make it acidic) or lime (to make it alkaline) if it’s far off this range.
• Now, if your soil is really poor, you can use a half dosage of a low nitrogen fertilizer with NPK 5-10-10.

Now you are ready to start sowing! In three steps.

4: Mix Your Wildflower Seeds with an Earth Carrier

Wildflower seeds are often very small, or, at least, you will have many tiny ones in the mix. But you want to spread them evenly on your patch. So how can you do it?

Simple, in a bowl or container, mix the wildflower seeds with an earth carrier, like sand, which is everybody’s favorite for this job. Anything that has a different color from your soil will do though.

You should have much more sand than seeds, as this will make it easy to spread them evenly (10 to 1 or more, but no need to be precise).

Mix them very well and then…

5: Scatter the Carrier and the Wildflower Seeds on Your Patch

Now it’s time to sow! Scatter the seeds and sand (or carrier mix) over your wildflower patch as evenly as you can. I suggest you do it lengthways and then widthways, which will give you a more uniform cover.

Don’t worry if there are some small gaps, your wildflowers will soon fill them in. And this is the “peak” of your job, but it’s not finished.

6: Lightly Compact the Soil of Your Wildflower Patch and Water

What you want to achieve is that your wildflower seeds are in full contact with the soil, so you will have to compact it but only lightly, you don’t want a tough top layer. The best way to do it is with a garden roller.

Some gardeners walk on it gently, but maybe you could use a bin or a similar round container instead if you don’t have a roller. Alternatively, use wood planks; place them on the soil and spread your weight on them, so the soil does not compact too much.

Next, water the soil evenly, use a sprinkler whether you do it with a watering can, a hose or any other means. You don’t want to move the tiny seeds!

And we are almost there.

7: You Have Sown Your Wildflower Patch. What to Expect and Do Next?

The only thing you will need to do from now on is to keep the soil humid but never wet, always using a sprinkler till your wildflowers have sprouted and they are strong.

You won’t recognize weeds early on; wait till your wildflowers have grown and till you can actually identify specific weed varieties before you remove any.

And then, what can you expect? You won’t see the whole wildflower bed filling with green blades, I am sorry, and this is for a simple reason. Annuals germinate very fast, and you will soon see them come out of the ground. However, wildflower seed mixes contain lots of perennials as well, and these varieties will take longer.

So, again, if you see some “grasses” growing weeks after the others, don’t assume that they are weeds! No point in sowing perennial wildflowers to uproot them later on…

Enjoy Your Wildflower Patch!

Sowing and growing a wildflower patch is not exactly like a flower bed or border, there are some differences, but now you know them, you are ready to start it. And, honestly, it’s so easy and cheap that if you have some space for it, it would be mad not to keep one, for all its benefits and its beauty. So, enjoy!