We've had many people contact us about putting in and caring for a wildflower section so we thought we'd put our experiences down here. We're by no means experts .. but this is what we've learned so far. As a reminder .. we're in Raleigh, NC .. Zone 7.

Before you start you need to consider that (in our area) between January ( when we mow it down ) and April it will be a big blank area. We try to overcome this by adding a couple of interesting bushes to the area so that there will be some visual interest when during this time.

The major mistakes we've made ...

• Tilling too deeply .. when preparing the soil only till up the first 1" .. any deeper and you will be bringing thousands of dormant weed and grass seeds to the surface.
• Not preparing early enough .. once you've selected the area, you should start spraying Roundup as soon as the first growth appears in that area and continue doing so throughout the summer to eliminate as many weeds as possible.

Select your seeds

You need to plan what types of flowers you want to have. We prefer a totally random mix. We also choose 50% annuals and 50% perennials. NOTE: the perennials will probably not bloom until the 2nd year. Also, we watch the garden centers for when they have their sales ( usually in August here ) .. that's when they have those pernnials that have already bloomed and are really cheap. We then stick these in the area .. if they live, fine .. if not, heck they only cost around a quarter.

Selecting/Preparing the site

You should select an area that receives full sun. Assuming that you are going to plant in the fall ( best time here in NC ), you should start spraying with Roundup in March and continue through September.

Use your lawnmower on the lowest setting to remove as much dead debris as possible. Actually, what we do is use a string trimmer and try to "scalp" the ground with it.

Till the ground to a maximum depth of one inch.

Planting/Seeding

Here in NC .. the best time to seed is the October time frame. If you do this the seeds can germinate and get plenty of natural watering. You can plant in the early spring ( when soil temps get above 50 deg ) but you will need to insure that the area gets at least 1" of water per week until the plants are around 6" high.

Mix your seed with sand to make it easier to broadcast and to see where the heck you've seeded. Some of the newer mixes in home centers come embedded in mulched newspaper to make this process easier.

Use a roller ( we use our riding lawnmower ) to compact the seeds into the dirt. Do NOT bother spreading any dirt on top of them. If you are worried about washout, you can spread a VERY LIGHT covering of straw on the area.

Caring/Maintaining

One of the great things about wildflower areas ( unless you are a total neat-freak ) is that they really take very little care.

Watering - once the plants are over 6" in height, watering will only be necessary during long drought periods ( for us we water some in July and August ).

Fertilizing - don't even bother .. it's not necessary

Weeds - Unless you can stop the wind from blowing, birds from flying over, etc. you will get weeds. BUT remember sometimes a "weed" is really just a flower in the wrong place so, in making it look natural, some weeds and grasses look just fine. We do have a problem with grass invasion here so we use Post on these areas with fairly good success in grass control. Just remember .. get the grass before it goes to seed if at all possible. For the rest of the weeds, we bought ( from Leonard's ) one of these tubes with sponge on the end .. it fills with Roundup and you can simply walk around the area and "wipe" the weeds you want to kill. Before we got this .. we used a pail with Roundup in it and a stick with a kitchen sponge tied to the end of it.

Winter Maintenance

Ok .. it's January and your area looks like crap .. what do you do? Well there are a couple of things .. here's what we do. NOTE: we wait until January to insure that as many seeds as possible have fallen from the existing flowers.

We set the mover to about 3" high ( to avoid cutting the perennial crowns ) and mow the area .. if you bag the cuttings, spread them right back over the area to save the remaining seeds that did not drop ... or ... spread the cuttings in another area and you'd be surprised how many flowers "pop up" there. Do NOT use a riding lawn mower for this .. the weight will crush the crowns of perennials ( if you are doing only annuals then you can ride at will ).

Fire - one reason you don't see many wildflowers in your area any more is that their natural habitat has been taken away. This includes the cycle of burning. At the suggestion of another gardener, we're going to try to burn off one of our sections this year to see how that does. We sure hope it works cause this would be the easiest "care" method out there.

The following Spring

In the early March time frame, we rake off all of the dead material that we had left over the winter. Then using a stiff rake, we "scuff up" the dirt ( being careful to avoid perennial crowns ) and spread more seed .. this time mostly annuals.

And the cycle starts all over again.

This has been our small way of trying to help with wildflowers. If you have any things that have really worked or not-worked .. please drop us an email so that we can share them here.

Thanks for visiting .. we hope you enjoyed this ... we'd love to have your comments in our guestbook

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