Planting Tips

• Ideally use plug plants that are six months to a year old.
• Make sure the roots of the plug plant can be seen at the bottom of the pot before planting out. 
• Before planting, strim/cut the area and remove the cuttings. Another option is to dig out a small patch of turf with a spade, turn it upside down and return it to the hole. This exposes the soil and kills the grass.
• Dig a hole the same size and depth as the plug.
• Invert the pot and gently tap and squeeze it to remove the plant and insert it into the dugout hole.
• Put the soil back around the plant and firm well with your hands or a foot.
• Water in the plug plant.
• Mark the location of the plant plug with a garden cane or similar. This will allow you to easily find the plant again for watering and checking progress.
• For more than one plug: plant in clumps of 2-5 plants per sq m.
• Seed is also best sown in the autumn as the ground is damp and they will have little competition from other plants/weeds.

Managing Your Garden/Meadow

Your garden/meadow won’t need a lot of care and attention once it’s established. A bit of regular maintenance should be all that’s required. This includes:

• Regularly removing thistles, docks, tree seedlings and any grasses that look like they are taking over the patch
• You may want to ‘top-up’ your meadow in its first years of life, sowing more seeds to fill any bare patches
• From September until the grass stops growing:
  • Mow the meadow regularly to a height of 2-4cm, otherwise the seedlings will be shaded out.
• In early spring:
  • Start mowing but stop in mid April to allow the wildflowers to grow (bearing in mind that many species take a couple of years before they flower).
• Late Aug to mid-September:
  • Mow the meadow once to a height of 5cm. Leave the cuttings for a day or two to allow any wildflower seeds to be shed and then rake the cuttings off and compost them. By mowing later in the season you’ll be giving late-flowering plants the chance to set seed – and providing pollinators with an extended supply of nectar and pollen rich plants.
  • As an alternative to cutting in late summer you can leave the patch over winter before cutting in early spring. Your meadow’s dead stems will provide excellent insect hibernation spaces over winter
• In the second and subsequent years, mow whenever the vegetation grows to 10-15cm tall but don’t cut it shorter than 5cm and stop mowing between mid-April and mid-July (or September). Always rake the cuttings off, but after the summer cut leave the clippings for a day or two before raking them off. Never add fertiliser, as this will help the grasses to out-compete the wildflowers.
• After a few years, once the wildflowers are fairly established, following the summer-cut you could try leaving part of the meadow uncut until early spring, so that birds can feed on the seed heads and insects can hibernate in the long grass.