colourful field of wildflowers - planting wildflowers in your garden

Wildflowers offer an attractive alternative to traditional lawns and gardens. Planting our wildflower seeds in your garden will enhance its beauty and more importantly, they're the perfect plants for bees and butterflies.

When’s the best time to plant wildflower seeds?

The best time of year to plant wildflower seeds is in the spring, ideally March/April time. If you miss the window of opportunity in the spring, the second-best time is the autumn, around September/October.

The process of planting wildflowers is surprisingly simple. Once the planting is completed, the maintenance is also very easy as wildflowers are independent. Which makes wildflowers an easy choice for low maintenance natural gardens.

1) PREPARE THE SPACE

Wildflowers won’t grow well in areas with thick grass or weed growth. Make sure conditions are suitable for wildflower growth by clearing the area of all weeds (including grass),and ensure that the soil is nice and crumbly.

Wildflowers actually grow better in lawns with low nutrition, as highly fertile soil encourages the growth of other plants like weeds and grass which compete with wildflowers.

2) SOW THE SEEDS

With wildflowers this is a pretty easy process, just grab a handful and sprinkle them on the soil by hand. Depending on what seeds you’re using, it’s generally recommended to used between 1g-4g per square metre. Read the label of the seed packet you’re using and do as they instruct.

3) DON’T BURY THE SEEDS TOO DEEPLY

Now's the time to settle the seeds; you can do so by giving them a quick rake to give them a light coving of soil. Wildflowers need warmth, light, and water to grow, and burying them too deeply will make it difficult for them. 

4) WATER WELL

At this point, give the seeds a generous covering of water to make sure they're hydrated and settled. 

5) DON’T ADD ENRICHMENT OR FERTILISER

As briefly mentioned above, wildflower seeds can do well in soil with little nutrition. Although you might think that adding fertiliser will help the wildflowers to grow, it will actually encourage the growth of other plants such as grass and weeds that will directly compete with wildflowers for the space. 

6) BE PATIENT

Depending on what seeds you’ve sown, their growth rate may vary. Some species, for example, require frost to break dormancy so, depending on what time you’ve sown the seeds, you may have to wait for next year to see the rewards of your hard work. Although it might be frustrating to have to wait, the results will be well worth it when you finally see the wide array of colours bringing new life into your garden. 

*

We have created unique wildflower seed mixes to give you plenty of options. If you like to attract bees and butterflies into your garden we recommend our Beautiful Wild Bee Mix, or for a more varied mixture that will grown and change annually opt for something like our Old English Meadow Mix.

We also have a number of wildflowers for different soil types for example Acid Soil Wildflower Mix. Also well as Sandy Soil Wildflower Mixture.

Did you know we have a new garden range! Have a look at our new gardening products - Garden Shop.                                                               

Kent & Stowe Fork & Trowel

This perfectly sized Garden Life Stainless Steel Hand Fork & Trowel is the lighter and more compact version of our full size. It is also great for tighter spaces and beds and borders gardening.

Click the link to see our full range of wildflowers there is something for every garden!