Making wildflower turf

Hello all, has anyone made or heard about making a wildflower turf out of old blankets/ towels cut up and put into seed trays then covered with a bit of compost, then sprinkle wildflower seeds on top - to make a wildflower garden.

Any help please  Do these work?

I've heard of it being sold as something you can unroll. If i had a packet of seeds and a patch of soil I'd sow them in it.

As seeds dont need much in the way of nourishment to germinate then in theory this works to get them started-but what are you going to do next?

People I know are trialling it for transplanting at a railway station wild flower garden.  They did try direct sowing but found that this didn't work.   If you did start this in a seed tray would you do this indoors until they germinate - transferring to a cold frame later?

No-they do not need to be started indoors-they are WILD flowers-that germinate outside

Always remember unless this is done on a big scale -what you may think is a nice patch of wild flowers- to others is a patch of weeds.

Not that keen myself-but each to his-or her- own

If your seed trays are A4 size, then you'll need 16 trays to make just one square metre of meadow.

Personally I'd sow just the flower seeds (no grass), in invididual cells in a seed tray, and raise them as individual plants (ideally you ought to have done that last Autumn).

For a simple life, forget about the grass altogether. Just below is a snap of a municipal wildflower meadow not far from me, taken last Summer. It's just solid wildflowers. No grass. I think it was planted up in the Spring, by council workmen. You won't do better than this..

Gardengirl, are you planning an annual wildflowers mix or a perennial grass and flower mix?

I have a small pot with annual and bi-annual summer flowers so was thinking of trying those.  No idea what the people I know have got in their mix.

That will be what's sometimes sold as a cornfield mix. Poppies, cornflowers, annual chrysanths, corncockle, 

http://www.wildflower.org.uk/wildflower-mixes/cornfield-annual-seed-mixes.html

or

http://www.naturescape.co.uk/acatalog/british_native_wildflower_seeds_100__pure_meadow_mixes.html

This is a lovely wildflower meadow we saw in August last year in a garden in Helmsley, N. Yorkshire.

Whatever mix you use, it's worth making sure (or adding) Yellow rattle as that is partially parasitic on grass roots and will help stop grasses from taking over.