There are many reasons to create a beautiful flower meadow with numerous, colorful flowers and herbs. Not only is it much easier to maintain than an (English) lawn, it also offers a kind of natural biotope due to its diversity of species. Poor meadows in particular are important for the survival of rare butterfly species and also serve as a food source for bees and bumblebees. Fat meadows, on the other hand, are better suited for agricultural use, for example in the form of cattle pasture or for haying.
How do I create a flower meadow and care for it properly?
In order to create and maintain a flower meadow, the soil type should first be determined and a lean or rich meadow should be created accordingly. Poor meadows may not be fertilized, fat meadows may be fertilized regularly. Both types of meadows require regular mowing and lots of sunlight.
Different types of meadows
If you want to create a meadow, it is not enough to simply buy a bag of meadow flower seeds, scatter them and hope for them to germinate - not all meadows are the same, because different soil conditions ensure that certain plants grow particularly well thrive on it. That's why you should first have a soil analysis carried out before sowing to find out the right type of meadow for the intended piece of land. Furthermore, the type of meadow also depends on how you want to use it. A poor or dry meadow can hardly be used for agriculture, while fat meadows are particularly suitable for cattle pasture and hay production due to their high nutrient content. Swampy meadows can usually only be used for producing hay, while horse meadows, although poor, must still contain a high proportion of structurally rich grasses. In this article, however, we will only deal with the two forms of a flower meadow that can be found more or less frequently up and down the country.
How to create a poor meadow
Poor meadows usually thrive on sandy or calcareous areas, i.e. H. nutrient-poor soils. For this reason, this type of meadow also has the greatest variety of different species, because fast-growing grasses and nitrogen-loving flowers (e.g. dandelions or buttercups) hardly stand a chance on such soil. Instead, the slow-growing flowers and herbs come into play. If you want to create a poor meadow, you must first – if necessary – emaciate the existing soil. This is especially the case if there is already a meadow, lawn or even a field on the selected area. Proceed as described when setting up:
- Mow the existing vegetation as short as possible.
- Scarify the soil so that it is loosened and aerated.
- Alternatively, you can dig it up.
- Crush up coarse chunks of earth so that the surface becomes nice and crumbly and smooth.
- If you need to thin the soil, add a thick layer of sand-soil mixture.
- Spread the flower seeds widely and cover them with a thin layer of sand.
- This is to protect the seeds from being eaten by birds.
- Keep the soil evenly moist and avoid any fertilizers.
Typical flowers of a poor meadow
In poor meadows there are often representatives of plant species such as
- Small Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)
- Carnation (Armeria maritima)
- Quickgrass (Briza media)
- True bedstraw (Galium verum)
- Primrose (Primula veris)
- or pitch pinks (Silene viscaria)
to find.
Creating a fat meadow
The fat meadow is created in a similar way to the lean meadow, except that of course you do not enrich the soil with additional sand to make it emaciated. However, you should ensure that it is emaciated, especially if you are turning a lawn into a meadow. This is primarily done by stopping the usual fertilization of the lawn. If the lawn or floor area is overgrown with moss, this is usually an indication of acidification of the soil - you can correct this with additional liming. In addition, it can often make sense not to simply mow the previous vegetation and dig up the ground, but instead to remove the top layer of soil with a flat spade. This is then replaced with fresh soil.
Typical flowers of a fat meadow
Fat meadows are mainly home to many fast-growing grasses and some nitrogen-loving plants. Herbs, on the other hand, disappear the more nutrient-rich the meadow is.
- Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
- Gamander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys)
- Soft brome (Bromus hordeaceus)
- White bedstraw (Galium album)
- Sharp buttercup (Ranunculus acris), especially on moist fat meadows
- White clover (Trifolium repens)
Proper care of the meadow
Of course, fat and poor meadows also differ greatly from each other in terms of care.
Caring for a poor meadow
The most important care instruction for poor meadows is that they must not be fertilized under any circumstances, as fertilization primarily promotes strong-growing plants such as grasses. The more nutrients you add, the more grass and fewer flowers will thrive in your meadow. Instead, the poor meadow should be limed once a year, as this measure prevents the soil from becoming too acidic. Regular mowing once or twice a year also contributes to a rich flora. It is best to mow the first time in either May or the second half of June and the second time in September. However, the crop should be cleared away.
Caring for a fat meadow
In contrast to poor meadows, fat meadows should be fertilized regularly. For this purpose you can apply special fertilizers, but also natural fertilizers (manure, manure, compost). Grazed fat meadows receive completely natural fertilization from cattle manure. Furthermore, fat meadows should be mown about three times a year, which traditionally happens once in May, once in the second half of June and once in August.
Tips & Tricks
Whatever type of meadow you choose, all meadows need one thing: as much sun as possible.