Seed Mix - Pleva´s Bee Garden - Weight: 10 g

How to create and care for a meadow?

Choose a sunny site or half-shadow. This seed is suitable for moderate moisture conditions as well as slightly wetter or drier sites. The best time for sowing is spring and late autumn, although it can be sown all year round. The meadow should be planted in clean soil; due to the slow growth rate, the seeds of natural meadow plants cannot be sown into the established lawn or mixed with conventional grass seed when sowing! Common grasses would certainly suppress the meadow flowers.

Prepare the soil for sowing a meadow as for a lawn but do not fertilise or use herbicides. Sow the seeds at a density of approx. 2 g per 1 m² when sowing by hand and 1 g per 1 m² when sowing using a seed drill. Scatter the seed evenly and work it shallowly into the soil by raking (a depth of 0.5 cm is sufficient). It is advisable to harden the surface by rolling. For hand sowing, it is advisable to divide the sowing area and the seed into several smaller parts, so you can better estimate the appropriate sowing density.

Plants grow more slowly in the year of sowing, it is mainly their roots that grow, and weeds grow above the ground - the vegetation should be mown more often about 4 - 6 cm above the ground and the cut material removed. The meadow is in full bloom from the 2nd year and is very persistent – mow 2 - 3 times a year to thicken the growth (preferably when it starts to finish flowering). In the following years, mow twice a year at most. Meadow is ideally mowed with a scythe or bar mower 4 - 5 cm above the soil surface. Mowing with a scythe or bar mower is gentler, as an ordinary lawnmower is too fast for small animals. They don't have time to escape and so they die in the cut grass.

It is better to mow little by little so that insects always have a safe space and something to bite on. To support the insect inhabitants of the garden, it is advisable to leave a part of the meadow unmown all year round, thus creating a resting zone for the insects to breed and overwinter. These parts of the garden enjoy the favour of bees, bumblebees, butterflies, grasshoppers, and crickets and create here a 'singing meadow'. The unmown pieces need to be exchanged after one year to preserve the variety of plants.