My year 2 wildflower meadow didn't turn out as expected 🐝💚

[@penelopehammerton2907]

Thank you Johanna, l love your mini meadows. A lawn is nice but a mini meadow is wonderful, and it lifts your spirits and makes you smile when you see it. Thank you for sharing.

[@bobbiostudio]

Awww Penelope thank you so much for your kind words, very glad your enjoyed the video 💗💗💗

[@lisasanders9896]

Beautiful garden and inspiring! Thankyou from New Zealand 🇳🇿

[@hoverboverer]

Hi. Good job! I would say it looks quite normal. The annuals will naturally disappear because they are really specialists of disturbed ground not meadow plants at all. They wont be able to compete once the sward has closed up. It certainly doesn't look like the soil is too fertile (the poorer the better). Perhaps try for interest all season rather than a flush in mid summer. Celendines, cowslips, violets, pignut in the spring will give way to the midsummer plants like speedwells, clovers, trefoils, St Johns wort, cranesbills, betony etc and then things like scabious and knapweeds in late summer. You can fit a remarkable number of different species in a tiny area!

[@bobbiostudio]

Oh that’s a great idea to go for more colour year round - I do love cowslips & scabiosa, thank you for suggesting it ❤️ We now have moved to a new garden so I can try it there! Thanks again 😊

[@crab_aesthetics]

Your meadow looks very nice. I started a wildflower border along my property line with my neighbor, the space is roughly 14 feet wide by 300 feet long. This spring I tore up all the existing sod and raked the ground until it was just bare dirt (for the most part). May 8 I spread wildflower seed with a broadcast spreader. Our last frost date is May 22nd. So far the project has not been tremendously successful. A lot of crab grass grew in, and not very many wildflowers. Definitely there are some cornflower, and some coreopsis. It is just not what I was expecting. I think manually digging up all the existing grass just exposed lots and lots of dormant grass seeds which for the most part out competed the wildflower seeds. Either that, or the birds ate a lot of them because I didn't have the means of spreading any kind of cover on them. Or maybe they didn't get enough rain water. It's a big area, I can't really water it easily. Anyhow I spread some more seeds today, and instead of a wildflower mix that has a ton of different things, I bought like 5 different kinds of flower seeds so that if/when things do come up, I should be able to identify them. Tomorrow if the weather is acceptable I will run everything over with a riding mower with the blades disengaged to try to press the seeds in to the dirt. Maybe I will try to cover some of them with some home made potting soil that I have. I don't have enough to cover the whole area but maybe I can do some patches. Also there's a possibility that next year I will have better results as the seeds that didn't germinate this year will hopefully get cold stratified over the winter and if we get enough rain next spring, perhaps they will end up growing then. Thanks for your update though, your videos were part of the reason I decided to try to start a wildflower garden of my own!

[@bobbiostudio]

Hey, I’m so glad you’re growing a meadow and thank you for sharing your meadow journey 🥰💚!! I hope the new seeds you’re adding will germinate!! If you keep having issues with weeds popping up, it might be helpful to sow some Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) (or an equivalent for your area). It’s an annual plant that likes to grow in grassy meadows. It is semi-parasitic on grass so will take away nutrients from the soil so only the wildflowers will thrive. You will have to cut it back before it sets seed 😊 I hope that next year your meadow will be what you expected, meadows keep evolving 💗😘

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

Might want to sow a bit earlier, 6-8 wks before your last frost date to give the flowers more time to germinate, so they can have more time to establish before it gets hot. I think you're right in that cold stratification might help some seeds germinate that didn't last year, I have definitely had that happen. And/or adjust your mix with some more species that perform better when it's hot and dry, if coreopsis worked for you there are a lot of other good options in the sunflower family. California poppy germinates really well for me too and does well in the heat. Crabgrass (for me anyway, not sure where you're located it might be different) can come in and dominate when other plants have died back from drought stress. Good luck, meadows are worth it! 🤗🐛🦋🐝🐦

[@crab_aesthetics]

@@Hayley-sl9lm Thank you for the reply! Yes, this past year was better than the first! I got lots of coreopsis and a tremendous number of rudbeckia (black eyed susans). Also a fair amount of siberian wallflower early in the spring, and then goldenrod in the late summer into fall. The grass was not as prolific this year. I am expanding and adding a new part shade area, so that it is not just a border but a border and then the lawn turns into a path that goes through it. Easier to mow, and more fun to experience! I will probably be starting from seed some other things like cosmos and zinnia. I have saved all sorts of cardboard tubes, my plan is to fill them with dirt, then start things like the cosmos or zinnia or tithonia in them, and then in a few months after last frost, use a bulb auger to make a lot of little holes in the wildflower area and drop them in. I had hoped I could just johnny appleseed the cosmos seeds around but my germination last year was very bad, I think I only got maybe like 3 or 4 tiny cosmos plants so I will try deliberately planting them this year. Ideally they will be able to self-sow and naturalize though. So thanks again for the video, great inspiration!

[@elviomelim8501]

It looks beautiful and next year I’m sure it will look even better. I sowed my wild flower / cosmos seeds in early April and they are now fully grown and blooming. I try to enjoy it’s beautiful flowers as much as possible. It’s such a great feeling to watch something you seeded grow into these beautiful flowers. Thanks for another great video, great info as usual. Can’t wait to see your next one . 🌹🌷💐🌺🌸🌼

[@bobbiostudio]

Couldn’t agree more, I love to watch things grow, it brings so much joy 💚 Still no blooms on my Cosmos but it won’t be long now!! Thank you so much for watching, so happy you enjoy them 🥰❤️😘😘

[@karengreene1999]

I really enjoy your videos! Thank you

[@bobbiostudio]

Thank you so much 🥰

[@maryesther4275]

Ohh That 2 cat is so cute ,and I like white yellow and blue flower that is so beautiful, I will do that in my yard, thank you girl friend.

[@Hello-zf5lq]

Clear plastic for 8 weeks in June to fry all the grass seeds sitting in the soil. Then prepare an even soil bed and don't rake the seeds. That's what the expert recommends. Otherwise, the weeds will mess it all up, there is simply too many weed seeds in the soil waiting to be activated by your digging.

[@Hayley-sl9lm]

Yes I've heard that solarization works really well... I was too lazy to do this and yeah, digging up everything has been an uphill battle😢😢😢.

[@nobody8328]

Is there anything you would do differently with the wildflower meadow? I'm planning to convert about an acre this fall and I'm looking for all the advice I can get 🙂 Do you think all annuals would have given you more color the second year?

[@bobbiostudio]

Hey 👋 Oh that’s amazing!! Well I might have cut the meadow and harvested the annual seeds a bit too soon (they probably didn’t have enough time to self seed) so I will wait longer this year. Also will include more ‘wilder’ & naturalising varieties like ammi majus, phacelia and some bulbs for spring colour! 😘😘

[@nobody8328]

@@bobbiostudio thanks! 😊💖

[@hoverboverer]

Actual meadows contain very few annuals. The reason these mixes contain so many is to give a 'wow' factor in the first year (they are are not meadow plants at all really, rather arable weeds that thrive on disturbance). After that, they decline (unless you are willing to disturb it every year - which is of little value to wildlife anyway). Perennials have far more lasting value and in general have more wildlife associated with them. An acre is lot to deal with in one go! Why not prepare a smaller area first to see what grows well in your soil and/or just leave an area to grow long to see what you have already? The greatest barrier to getting a diverse sward is soil fertility being too high. See what's growing already in your plot: if you have lots of nettles/dock /thistles that would indicate high fertility. It might be worthwhile taking off the layer of topsoil and sow in the subsoil (don't add compost and fertilizers, obviously). If you have poor soil to begin with then you might be able to just scarify the surface with a strong rake and so seed/plant plugs in the bare ground between the turf that's left. Obviously find out what kind of soil you have before buying seed. Most people advise to cut once a year all in one go, but this is bad practice if you don't have to. Cutting smaller areas at different times of the year will be of more value to wildlife and give a longer flowering season. Allowing some areas to remain long over winter is also useful (for hibernating insects and nesting material for birds in the spring) and can be cut every other year on rotation. Hope this helps.

[@Chemistry_for_gardeners]

7:40 What kind of flower?

[@shez3530]

im mixing my wildflower seed with colourfull annual seeds . adding plant food and hoping for the best. wilflowers are usually vigorous and easy to grow and i like helping the bees and butterflies,i like to feed wild birds as well , its so relaxing to watch them all. thanks for your videos ❤️

[@bobbiostudio]

I’m so happy to hear you’re growing your own wildflower meadow, you’re going to make a pollinator & wildlife heaven!! Hope you love the results as much as they will 💚🐝🦋🌼

[@shez3530]

i mix box fulls of wildflowers with scented flowes , its expensive but so nice to sit watching birds bees and butterflies enjoying it. but i cant have snapdragon flowers… last year i caught a fox rolling around in them, like a puppy . he flattened them all!! .

[@bluebowser3347]

People underestimate the importance of large grazing animals and moles on wildflower meadows. The grazing animals ensure no species becomes too dominant, but also trample the soil to disturb the ground layer. Moles also create brand new mounds of soil, which annuals such as poppies and cornflowers use to germinate in. It's how annuals survive in areas where perennials have taken over.

[@karengreene1999]

Another name for wildflower meadow - cat heaven ♥️😂

[@bobbiostudio]

🥹 absolutely

[@fluttershy77x]

The first meadow in the first year looked a lot more colorful though.

[@ericxia]

I prefer perennial meadows over annual ones, I don't need to resow seeds every year.

[@MsMrVlog]

Maybe you could have sown the meadow short again in early February and then put the annual seeds. Many seeds can survive the winter. I don’t know. Maybe someone else has an idea?

[@bobbiostudio]

Yes the seeds would survive winter if they had self seeded (I think I cut back too soon - all the seed harvest went into my other meadow 😊). Sowing seeds earlier might have helped (I did so in April) but because there were already a lot of established plants, they didn’t germinate (or the cats got to them while playing 🤣) - for annuals meadows it looks like it’s better to clear the soil first 😘

[@gray_f]

Those kitties would love some catmint, some varieties are preferred more than others by cats 🐈

[@bobbiostudio]

I did get them some and they do love it !!! 🐾🤍

[@TheCeaserG]

Having cats while trying to grow a garden is admittedly the hardest thing. 😂

[@bobbiostudio]

😇😂