Wildflower meadow (again)

I spent a good deal of time last summer and autumn collecting (and buying) wildflower seed which I used mostly by scattering on part of the lawn and some for sowing into trays for planting plugs into the lawn.

The idea is good - my lawn is huge! It takes 4 hours to cut with a ride-on mower and before that, one day to remove mole hills and use a petrol mower for the fiddly bits. After all that, another day to trim edges etc etc. It then takes me a few days to recover before the whole cycle starts again! By converting some of the lawn to wildflower meadow, I get to relax and enjoy the garden a bit more.

BUT!
I've now read enough to know that unless I'm prepared to dig up the lawn (which I'm not), seed is useless. IF my plug plants survive the wretched rabbits enough to flower (many were planted last autumn so they wouldn't taste too yummy for the rabbits) will the seed they drop result in flowering plants the following year? I don't think I can go in for plug planting every year.
Other folk around here seem to have ox-eye growing in their uncut-during-the-summer lawns - that's what I want too!
HELP!

 

Elec fence off the wild flower area, Use 2' length of roof batten with elec fence rings screwed in and wire set at 3" from the ground and a second at 4".

You can get all the stuff from a farmers merchant, use a battery pack to power it.

Given time and more importantly the right soil conditions you will get there. Some of my customers have fantastic wildflower meadows.

When you do cut it(end of August) I always use a brush cutter and blade and basicly windrow it up like hay so all the seed come out.

 

And to get the seeds off to a good start I scatter Cow muck that I've mixed the seeds in to.
Much the same way farmers plant clover seeds really, but they feed the seeds to the cows and let them scatter it themselves.

 

Hmm - not sure I can afford electric fencing, but I guess I could try pricing it up. Also not sure if it would look okay. There'd be no problem getting some cow muck, other than how to jump over the hedge and into the field next door.

Do I assume that the answer to my question:
"will the seed they drop result in flowering plants the following year? I don't think I can go in for plug planting every year"
is ...Yes.....but only if I get rid of the rabbits?

 

I've got rabbits coming on to my wild grassed areas and all they eat is the grass not the plants. My neighbours veg suffers the most!

 

Unless the cows are eating unn fertilized pasture then I doubt the cow muck will contain mutch other than dandelion and clover but I could be wrong.

Even fencing a very large area I shouldnt have thought an elec fence would work out at more than �£150 inc the battery staion. Youll likely be saving this mutch in petrol costs if the existing lawn takes four hours to cut!

 

What would an electric fence like this do to cats, pheasants, badgers, foxes and er... rats! A few too many of the latter around. We're just about as rural as you can get and mostly surrounded by farms and fields.

 

Foxes and badgers and rabbits it will keep out, cats will jump it and phesants probably fly over.

Keeping badgers and foxes out will be a good thing as itll save them diging it up looking for worms!

 

Pro...I mentioned in my post that I added wild flower seed to the muck...Any weeds seeds already in it have to be hand pulled...but that's gardening for you!
:D

 

:D miss read it :D

Actually for large scale meadow conversion ie the new agricultural grants scheme, they over winter cattle on the ground feeding them wildflower hay (at nearly twice the price of normal stuff).

 

The most common mistake when trying to create a wildflower meadow is having too much grass. You should not be sowing much more than 4-5 grams of non competative grass species per sq metre. Lawn grass is VERY competitive and will simply smother out all but the strongest wildflowers.
If you are planting perennial wildflower plugs, providing the rabbits don't completely destroy them before they get established, they should come back every year as lond as they continue to have enough space and light to grow. Annuals of course will need replenishing yearly. If you let annuals mature enough to shed seed, this seed will probably only germinate if the ground is disturbed in autumn or spring. So give the area a good raking or scarify to open it up a little. NEVER, NEVER apply fertiliser to an area containing wildflowers as the grasses will take over and choke out most other plants.
Remember, wildflower meadows were formed over centuries of animal management. Grazing on pastures during the day and being moved to enclosures at night. This practice over time very slowly reduced the natural nutrients in the pastures, resulting in grass being less competitive and allowing wildflowers the chance to establish. Modern fertiliser practices reverse this process in an instant.

 

Thanks Grass Seen Man. I'm not sowing - I'm trying to start off with plugs plants as I want to keep the lawn AND it's just too big to dig!
Someone told me today that rabbits don't touch ox-eye, rattle, or knapweed and that as long as I don't mow until October, the seed should have been released and should start up the following year.
I did rake as much as possible last autumn.
From what I was told by this man today, I can say goodbye to my wild poppies!!! Shame....the bunnies don't touch the bog-standard poppies that grow everywhere around here!
Any idea where I can buy knapweed seed from?

 

I honestly think you will continue to struggle with lawn grasses as they are too strong by their very nature and will just constantly smother out your wildflowers. Perhaps you can create small areas by spaying off patches of grass and planting you plugs into the cleared spaces.
Hay/Yellow Rattle will help you a little as it is a prolific self seeder and a parasite that lives off grass. This severely weakens the grass plants and allows other nearby wildflowers to flourish. Though again, if you start with too much grass in time you will end up with little more than a field of Hay/Yellow Rattle.
I'm sorry to be so negative about this

 

Hmm - I do understand what you're saying but I need to consider that I may not keep the house for very long. What would a potential buyer want....a wildflower meadow? Yes, in flower only.