Oregon, USA. I want to turn this area into a wildflower meadow for next year.
Can I start working on it now in September or do I need to wait till next year? If I can start on it now what do I need to do to get ready for spreadng seed? Can I just more this grass low and how the flowers win? The soil is Clay so I plan to put an inch of new dirt down. Can I just lay the new dirt over the top of this existing? I will be planting flowers that are focused on attracting bees and butterflies. Thanks.
by PhatKiwi
3 Comments
No. The established grass will mostly win. Weeds and grass will just come right through any new dirt you lay. The grass has likely kept the weeds at bay so the second you rip up the grass that disturbed soil will have lots of weed seeds that will pop up.
The best approach is to solarize (too late now) or get a bunch of cardboard and lay down cardboard across the entire yard and then put 4-6 inches of mulch on top of the cardboard, followed by 2-3 inches of top soil then lay down all of the wildflower seed in the fall so it can properly be cold stratified.
You can get free mulch through ChipDrop if you live in a large enough area where there’s arborists operating. You can pay to get it quicker. Be warned it’s a lot of work when it does arrive.
Hello there. I am on year one of growing out a wildflower meadow over a lawn. Let me share my experience with you.
Last year I used wood chips from chip drop and cardboard. Laid out the cardboard over the lawn and then put down 2-3 inches of wood chips. Above that I put down 3 inches of pure mushroom manure and seeded my wildflower mix over it early spring.
This year, everything grew pretty well and I’m quite satisfied, so I will be continuing this method with more sections of the lawn. There has been no grass coming up through the mushroom manure, but there is some crabgrass here and there. The most persistent is bindweed, which continues to make its way through the layers now and then. Dandelion also makes its way through sometimes, and new dandelion seeds easily take root so it needs to be managed.
My recommendations for you.
Don’t put soil over the grass. Everything will push through and it will be a mess. At minimum, you want a layer nice cardboard and put your soil over that before planting. The woodchip is not necessary, but I like having it to create pathways instead of having lawn pathways, as you’ll need to constantly edge the lawn back from the flower beds.
In areas where you cannot acquire enough cardboard in time, you can consider a smaller area so you can easily manage the bed when weeds come through. Plant easily recognizable species so you don’t weed them accidentally when you inevitably have to weed.
Hello from Washington ☺️
What a great large blank slate! I’ll share my experience, take what you will. My husband pickaxed the top 2-3 inches of grass/weeds/bare soil in the early spring and we spread about an inch, maybe two, of locally made compost/potting soil. Then we spread a thick layer of mulch because I’m so used to covering bare soil to protect it. I ordered native meadow seeds (spring mix) and the highly reputable company I used is rather slow at fulfilling orders. When the seeds arrived, we decided that we wanted a little bigger area so hubby pick axed that. Then I realized that the chips were a mistake since seeds need bare soil to germinate. We raked the chips off, but we were excited to get the seeds spread and did a half ass job. The seeds on the truly bare soil (with compost) did remarkably better than in the previously mulched area. I did spend quite a bit of time identifying and pulling weeds, through the summer. I used Google Lens and a friend’s paid plant ID app a lot! I should have kept a picture journal to help myself and others out!
So. Sowing seeds in fall on bare soil is ideal. They germinate much better that way. If you have the time and energy to remove the top few inches of soil and the money to buy the necessary compost mix, now would be the time to do that. You don’t need to remove the soil from your property, you could build some mounds for interest. Those would need to be covered in cardboard and heavily mulched with wood chips and dealt with next fall. I highly recommend setting up a path winding through your space so that you can access all areas for weeding. Paths should be covered in some way, like big stones, cardboard and heavy mulch, or a bit of grass the width of a mower.
If I had it to do over, I’d do my research on individual flowering native meadow plants, instead of using a mix, and plant in sections, as in, one or two species per section. Then you will know which plants to keep when weeding. Would be so much easier and swaths of plants can be so beautiful.
Native plants are better in this type of project. Be careful to buy native seeds from a reputable company and don’t get sucked into cheaper wildflower mixes. PT lawn has a good native mix but I kept getting sucked into their “wildflower” mix which has some aggressive flowers that will take over the whole area in a few years. I got my seeds from NW Meadowscapes. High quality, but $$$. Not sure what I’m going to use this fall. Maybe just the seeds I’ve gathered and all of those gifted to me.
The advice from others about cardboard and mulch until next fall are excellent. Definitely the way to go if you have the patience. You will have better soil and less weeds as a reward for your patience.
I’ll be sowing more seeds this fall and I’m saving a lot of seeds from the plants that are doing well.
I’m happy to chat if my method is interesting to you. Also, there is a PNW gardening sub and a native gardening sub. Most of us are pretty nice and you might meet someone in your area. I did and he generously gave me a lot of seeds for next year and a couple of plants!!