How & when to cut back a wildflower meadow

Another good one, Lee! We have this bookmarked these videos as we now have our mini-meadow started: marked out, grass cut back, some seeds and bulbs planted , and more perennial wf seeds ordered for spring . Right now it looks like a fairy circle, lol. We are really looking foward to seeing our (feral) honeybees enjoy it. Looking foward to more updates on yours!

Good of you to mention using a scythe. On half an acre that's an easy task. Also a June - July cut allows for butterflies like meadow browns, ringlets and day flying moths to lay their eggs on the freshly mown areas, as their caterpillars prefer short, sweet, fresh growth. I'm a scyther, so obviously I'm going with that as the only true way to manage a meadow traditionally. Plenty videos of me doing so on my channel, if anyone reads this far. A half acre could be done in one go within a couple of hours, but as you mention, mowing in sections over a period of a few weeks is much better.

Thank you 😊

Yet again I have learnt a lot. I can’t wait to see this wild meadow flourishing next year. You need to get a basket on the Cherry bomb mower for Barrymore ride in 🤗. Another brilliant vlog. 😍 Mum xx

You always make my day Lee. No matter how crappy I feel about the onset of winter you make it better. Keep doing what you do and love to Barry! Hugs. J

Great video Lee - thank you!

This was simply AWESOME, Lee! Thank you — you’ve given me all I need to know about doing it. I have subscribed. Much appreciated…

Well thought out, accessible, and just a delight to watch! Thank you!

Thank you! Love your videos, you're very easy to learn from as a new gardener! X

Enjoyed this series Lee. Looking forward to seeing how it looks this summer!

Your channel is so fun! I'm going to watch all the videos. I'm an Arborist and garden designer in northern California and working on creating the English cottage garden of my dreams at my own home. Love it, keep the videos coming!

Just found this video explaining after my question in another video 🙂👍

Great vid. I’m absolutely useless in the garden but we have a garden and I want to be more active in it. Thank you so much for the tips. I have loads of flowers growing all over my lawn and my mother inlaw suggested a meadow pathway. 👍🏽

Excellent video! Thanks

Morning mate... Have a fantastic day 🙂

So excited to see this! We have a 2.5 acre plot that we are planning to turn into a meadow/wildlife area. Gonna check out your other videos too. In the US rather than the UK... do you think this all still applies?

The hay cut is a matter of timing, and is best done as follows: First, the cut hay is left for a week to dry, then turned and left for another week to complete drying. These actions allow the seeds from the wildflowers to ripen and fall to the ground, ready to germinate the next year. The timing is as follows: most of the "weeds" like thistles, nettles and other obnoxious items flower and seed later in the year, so choose the time for the cut to allow the nice Spring flowers to flower and seed, but prevent the later, coarser "weeds" from setting their seeds. We have run our 1700m² patch this way for 30 years, and now have 5 species of orchid every year, among such other treasures as Snowdrops, Cowslips, Salad Burnet, Meadow Clary, Lady's Bedstraw, Ox-eye Daisies, Restharrow, Buttercups, Fumitory......... Note, it took a couple of years before the patch started to emerge as a wildflower meadow, but reached maturity in about 6 years. The orchids will install themselves if they want to - you can't transplant them from the wild, they just die. You can however introduce Snowdrops, Daffodils and Lily of the Valley in the right kind of soil. Don't plant huge numbers: if they like it they'll multiply, if they don't they'll die out The reason for removing the grass cuttings and Hay is the nitrogen content. Grass needs a high nitrogen content to flourish. It has the odd characteristic of producing growth at its base, and not at its top as most plants do. Wildflowers, as Lee says, do better in low nitrogen soils.

I have some vases of wild flowers left over from a wedding given to my wife. Can they be sown onto a patch of waste land at back of our garden to grow? Always loved wild flowers meadows. Any advice please

Great video

Thank you Mr. Burkhill, for your efforts to help us naturalize and promote indigenous species and pollinators. My first question for you is about the lawn mower / tractor you use in cutting back your meadow(s), i.e., what brand and model is it, please? I've never seen one quite like it with the lever for dumping. I wonder if it's even available in the U.S. Regardless, please let us know.