You can fill a small space or a large space with wildflowers quite easily using plug plants. This article looks at a few different ideas and tactics for getting your wildflower patch blooming.
Keeping it small
You can easily grow wildflowers in a pot or container, or in a small dedicated patch of the garden. A small raised bed would work too. Whatever you choose, our recommendation would be to have a total surface area of around 1 metre x 1 metre – an old wheelbarrow would make a good planter, for example.
Going big
For a larger area of wildflowers you may wish to choose a patch of grass. If you do this, cut the grass as short as possible ahead of planting and remove the clippings. Plant into grassland when the soil is moist and try not to mow again until after the wildflowers are over for the season. Alternatively you could fill a larger raised bed or a dedicated flower bed with wildfowers. Another option would be to plant into an old compost pile that you’re not using. There’s really no limit – the limit comes from your preferences for your own garden.
How many plug plants will I need?
We would recommend 25 plugs to a square metre. For best results, plant the plugs quite close together, about 10cm apart.
Remember that they will self-seed
If you allow the flowers to form seed heads they will self-seed readily. In a larger plot, you can encourage this by giving the seedheads a little shake from time to time to encourage the seeds to sprinkle. If you’re trying to keep things small, you may not want to allow them to self-seed as the seeds easily spread further and wider. In this instance, cut them back when you see seed-heads beginning to form.