Sowing wildflower seeds into grass

Sowing wildflower seeds into grass is a simple and effective way of sprucing up a neglected area of land and helping to reinstate a natural habitat for wildlife. It’s easy to do and low maintenance, however you do need to make that you carry out the all-important groundwork beforehand, ensuring that your project is as effective as possible. 

The most important thing when sowing wildflower seeds into grass is scarifying the ground before sowing in order to open up patches of soil into which the seed can be sown. You can do this by ripping out grass and removing any dead grass or weeds. The grass needs to be cut very short and harrowed, ideally aiming for at least 50% bare soil. 

The interesting thing about wildflower seeds is that they actually grow better on poor soil. It’s not that they won’t grow on fertile soil, but rather species such as grasses, docks and nettles will thrive better on the fertility and dominate the area. 

Once the ground is cleared and prepared, you must sow an appropriate amount of wildflower seed, around 1.5 grams to the square metre is a good ration to follow. Pre-mixed wildflower seed mixtures are generally created to give a broad range of species but also to ensure that there is good chance of at least some species taking root and growing. 

Wildflower seeds can be sown throughout the year, however autumn is the best time as it will give you the earliest display of flowers. Blooms usually occur around 60-80 days after being sown, however it may be that they do not appear until after the first winter of being in the soil if sown at a time that isn’t autumn.