With a dry or poor meadow you can create a true biotope on your property in which numerous herbs, sub-shrubs and heather plants, but also a wide variety of animals - such as insects - feel very comfortable. However, a dry meadow is not suitable for any kind of agricultural use, such as for haymaking or for grazing by grazing animals.
What is a dry meadow and what characteristics does it have?
A dry meadow is a biotope with dry, nutrient-poor soil, ideal for meadow herbs, sub-shrubs and heather plants. It requires little care, lots of sun and is not suitable for agricultural use. Typical variants are sand, limestone and steppe dry meadows.
Characteristics of a dry meadow
As the name suggests, the dry meadow is characterized by dry soil that is poor in nutrients. Ideal soils for dry meadows are very sandy and have very good drainage due to the loose and permeable soil. Moisture, for example from precipitation, seeps away or evaporates very quickly. Dry meadows generally require very little care because, among other things, Too frequent fertilization damages plants that are adapted to the poor soil. There are numerous different types of poor meadow, the typical plant population of which depends on the specific location - either flatland or mountains - and on the type of subsoil. Dry meadows don't need a lot of nutrients or moisture, but they do need plenty of sun.
Typical plants of a dry meadow
You will rarely find grasses on a dry meadow. Moisture- and nutrient-loving wild plants such as dandelions and docks also tend not to feel at home here. Instead, the conditions described are ideal for meadow herbs, which are usually quickly displaced by competing plants in conventional meadows. Typical plants for dry lawns are, for example:
- various sedum species
- Heather carnations and sand grass carnations
- Field hornwort
- Mountain Sandbells
- various gentians
- Silver Thistles
- Pasque flowers
- Carthusian carnations
- Meadow Sage
- various thymes (sand thyme, common thyme)
- Odermennig
- Heron's Beak
- sweet clover
- also some dry grasses (silver grass, blue-green iridescent grass, steppe timothy, common quaking grass)
In very sunny locations, Adonis florets, cowslips and sand cinquefoil also thrive on a dry meadow. When buying a seed mix for dry meadows, make sure that it contains primarily perennial, native plants.
Types of dry meadow
Essentially, the different types of dry meadow are differentiated from one another based on their substrate, although the transitions are usually fluid and most meadow herbs feel comfortable on almost any poor soil. The most important dry meadows are:
- Sand dry meadow
- Lime dry meadow
- Steppe dry meadow
Sandy dry meadows are typical of the heathland landscapes in central and northern Germany, while limestone dry meadows are mainly found in Central Europe. The semi-dry meadows, which are often found everywhere but have been pushed back in many places due to intensive agricultural use, represent a natural transition between dry and fat meadows.
Tips & Tricks
Clayey and loamy soils are not suitable for creating a dry meadow. However, less suitable soil can be dug up and replaced with a more optimal sand-soil mixture, which is spread over a thick layer of gravel.