Planting Wildflower Seeds ??

[James]

Ok, so I want to have a very small area, perhaps 150 square feet, in an area that is now grassed. I plan to sow heavy with a mixed wildflower seed.

Before seeding, I plan to put down about 3 inches of soil. I will throw out the seed, and then tamp it in, by walking over it with my boots.

Question 1: What should I do with the existing grass ? Won't the 3 inches of soil kill the grass ? Or, should I first kill the grass with roundup ?

Question 2: What keeps grass and weeds from growing back in this area ? It would seem that in about two years, the grass would be as high as the wildflowers.

What am I missing here ?

Thanks for any advice on this.

James

[brooklyn1]

Be certain the area is in full sun...150 sf is a pretty puny area for a wildflower meadow, that's like a 1 car garage, but it's doable. If the area is in sod grass I'd dig it all up, shake out as much of the soil as you can, return that and get rid of the grass to a compost pile, till the area and work in lots of rich topsoil. Sow your seed sparsely (blend it with a big sack of potting soil, then strew that about), lightly rake in, and strew the area with a bale of straw or the birds will eat at least half your seed. Water well every day, in like two weeks you'll see germination. You need to realize that wildflowers growing elsewhere are considered weeds. I could probably offer more help if I knew where you lived, what kind of terrain, and what wildlife is typically present; foraging critters will do a lot of your reseeding so I wouldn't add any chemical fertilizers... the most important aspect of a wildflower meadow is to maintain a healthy biosphere, every living creature is essential.

[Captain America]

The grass will grow up through the three inches of soil. You need to kill it or remove it.

[jeff]

This sounds exactly right to me.

Full sunlight and watering until it germinates seem to be the most important things. I put in some some wildflowers along the street boundary and where the trees start providing afternoon shade the wildflowers disappear.

Quality of soil is secondary as is watering after they are established.

Note that along roadsides, they simply mow everything down when the other wild grasses get too tall.

Jeff

[Phisherman]

Remove the grass, any method.

Mulch helps. Weeding is one of those gardening chores. You might want to carefully plan the area to minimize weeding chores.

[James]

Mulch helps, when seeding wildflowers ?? Exactly where would you put the mulch/ try to stick it in between 5,000 wildflowers ???

I do agree with the points to get rid of the grass first, and then seed heavily, so that the wildflowers dominate the grass and weeds in the future. I suppose it all has to be a balance.

Thanks for all the good replies !!

James

[Billy]

In his book, Gardening when it counts, Steve Solomon recommends rototilling the lawn, first North to South, and then East to West, and then repeat after 2 weeks. At this point I'd put down newsprint or cardboard, mulch on top of that, hose it down, let it sit for a couple of weeks, and then broadcast your seeds.