need help

Hi to you all and a good 2013 to you, ok I am moving house soon and have a huge garden which will need a gardener, but it has just me and my husband, so we thought maybe make a grass pathway which we can mow and have wild flowers, like poppies,whit daisy and cornflowers either side of the path to form a pretty wild like garden, now how do we create this, do we use seeds, or plugs for the easiest and quickest result?????

Plugs will give the easiest and quickest results. For seeds you would need to cultivate some bare earth to sow them in.

thankyou x

There are firms which specialise in wild flower meadows, both plugs and seeds. I would think a google would be productive.

Denise is this a grass meadow with flowers or a grass path with poppies and corflowers etc in bare soil beside it? There's lots of different sorts of meadow. Grassy ones have flowers that can cope with grass competition, dog daisies, knapweed, buttercups, whatever suits your soil. If you're creating one of these on existing grass you'll need to start with plugs or even larger plants. If you're starting from scratch you can sow a wildflower mix to suit your soil after removing perennial weeds

Poppies, cornflowers, corncockle etc are cornfield flowers (or weeds if you're a farmer) and grow in cultivated soil. They can't compete wth grass. You just direct sow these as you would any annual.

I saw something like this at Sissinghurst years ago and thought it was very stunning! The one there was primarily grass with wild flowers dotted through it. A client of mine copied this idea in a large area, the gardener said he simply bought a load of seed that was called something like 'wild flower meadow'. I believe he got someone in to cut it once or twice a year.

Yes the cutting neds to be timed by what you grow and it's easier maintenance if you have early or late flowering meadows. The early ones you leave til it's all seeded then mow til the end of the growing season. The late one you can mow for a while in spring then leave it and it will flower later. complex business getting it all coordinated but sometimes it comes just right.

It might be worth googling Sarah Raven as she did a short TV series about plants that are beneficial for wildlife, including flower meadows.  One of the things she looked at was whether to go with annual or perennial wildflowers.  You can also buy pre-seeded 'mats' or even turf that you roll out but of course this is pricey.  Hope this helps.

well I didnt think it would be so complicated......so let me claify, I want cornflowers, field poppies, white daisies amd something yellow, which I want to come up year after year, withour reseeding, so I need to draw out the path leaving this grass so I can mow it short, then dig the grass up either side of grass path in wide borders, then plant either plugs? or seed matting, or seeds? have I got it right? and thank you x

Field poppies like the ground to be cultivated, so although they set seed they will fizzle out unless the ground is tilled every year. That is why they appear in cornfields and where farmers have turned the soil. If you want something like cowslips they are perennial and will come up yearly as well as setting seed, but they like limestone and open fields like in the Cotswolds. Primroses prefer it more acid, damp and shadier. If you are going to dig the grass up either side of the path then don't plant plugs. Sow a flower meadow seed mix. Cornflowers of the sort I think you mean are annuals. Don't use fertiliser. If you are going to plant into the existing grass then plant plug plants.

Cowslips do very well in my garden in the Fens; they self seed like crazy and every Autumn I dig half of them up.

Right got it now, I will dig up the grass and sow a meadow mix with cornflowers and poppies.....thankyou so much you clever ppl xxxxxx do I sow spring time or later ???

have a look at The Old Vicarage, East Ruston. I think some of their meadow area might suit you. 

i think you need a cornfield mix. Chrysanthemum segetum, (yellow) poppies, cornflowers, corncockle and dog daisies The dogdaisies are perennial but should flower the first year. sow these as seed into bare soil

Thank you so much all of you really appreciate your time and help xxxxx when its done I will post you a pic x

Hi

The Natural History Museum have a search by postcode which will then list which wildflowers are native to your area.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/fff-pcp/glob.pl?report=pcfllist&group=&sort=&inpostcode=wr10

Just to warn you, meadows are lovely and I adore them, but they can be hard work to establish and they have a definite peak and can then look pretty messy for a good chunk of the year.

I went to the 'Field of Dreams' last year which has a glorious selection of plants. Its online so you can look at it and they do seeds too. Its in Somerset.

wow "fields of dreams" looks amazing, thanks muvs x

and many thanks to you all......most helpful xxxx