| Winter | Year one. Remove the surface vegetation from your lawn and add to your compost heap. Rake the soil and sow the seeds for your meadow. Compact the soil either with a roller or by walking on it. You can add annuals to the mix to act as a nursery crop during the establishment year when some perennials do not flower. |
| Spring | allow plants to grow, flowers should begin to appear in April - May |
| Summer | once the meadow has finished flowering (approx. July), mow and leave for 2-3 days before removing clippings. This allows finer seeds to settle from flower heads. |
| Autumn | mow meadow once more before the start of winter to a height of approximately 10 cm. Add any further seeds or plugs if you wish to increase diversity. |
Plants for a spring meadow:
Birds foot trefoil, bugle, greater burnet, salad burnet, bulbous and meadow buttercup, cat's ear, red clover, cowslip, cuckooflower, oxeye daisy, dandelion, goat's beard, marsh marigold, hoary plantain, ragged robin, meadow saxifrage, common sorrel, germander speedwell, lesser trefoil, kidney vetch, yellowrattle, bluebell, daffodil, fritillary, meadow saffron, snowdrop, star-of-bethlehem
| Winter | as normal - no need to mow or tend to your lawn. |
| Spring | mow the lawn once or twice a fortnight but make sure your mower blades are high enough so the grass remains at least 4-6cm tall. If you wish to add seeds or plugs to the lawn do so before the end of March. |
| Summer | leave the lawn to flower for a 3-4 week period in June or July. Make sure the flowers have long enough to set seed and complete their flowering period. |
| Autumn | begin mowing the lawn again, make sure you remove the cuttings to maintain low fertility and reduce the dominance of coarse grasses. October is a good month for adding species to your lawn either as plugs or seeds. |
Plants for a formal flowery Lawn:
Crane's bills, buttercups, black medick, lesser celandine, hawkweed, hoary plantain, tormentil, horseshoe vetch, kidney vetch, thyme, clovers, yarrow, dandelion, daisy, bird's foot trefoil, bugle, lesser stitchwort, spring sedge, slender speedwell, self heal, mouse ears
Plants for your summer meadow:
Agrimony, wild basil, lady's bedstraw, birds foot trefoil, salad burnet, meadow buttercup, cat's ear, clovers, meadow crane's bills, oxeye daisy, black knapweed, goat's beard, meadow sweet, ribwort plantain, common restharrow, field scabious, self heal, perforate St John's wort, kidney vetch, tufted vetch, meadow vetchling
| Winter | Year one, Remove the surface vegetation from your lawn and add to your compost heap. Rake the soil and sow the seeds for your meadow. Compact the soil either with a roller or by standing on raked soil. You can add annuals to the mix to act as a nursery crop during the establishment year when many perennial meadow species do not flower. |
| Spring | mow to a height of 10 cm to encourage strong root growth. Remove the clippings from the meadow. Stop mowing in approximately mid April. |
| Summer | allow the meadow to flower and enjoy the butterflies as they feast on the nectar. |
| Autumn | Mow the meadow to a height of approximately 10 cm. Remove and compost clippings. You can add any extra seeds or plugs you wish to add colour and diversity to your meadow until the end of March. |
Plants for your cornfield meadow:
grasses (choose from barley, bearded wheat, oats [not wild], sweet vernal grass), pheasant's eye, corncockle, common poppy, scentless mayweed, wild pansy, corn buttercup, cornflower, corn marigold, Venus' looking-glass.
| Winter | leave the seeds to begin their growth. |
| Spring | the annuals should begin to grow quite vigorously by mid April, the latest you can sow seeds is the end of March. Do not mow during this period. |
| Late summer | allow meadow to flower. Once flowering period is finished, mow the meadow and leave the clippings for a few days for the seeds to fall from the seed heads. When removing the clippings, shake the dead flower heads to make sure the seeds have reached the soil for next year's crop. Rake the ground and compact. |
| start here:
Autumn |
scrape the surface vegetation from your lawn and add to your compost heap. Rake the soil and sow the seeds for your meadow. Either stand on the soil to compact it or use a roller. |