Creating and maintaining a flower meadow

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 their germination - after all, meadows are not just meadows, because different soil conditions ensure that certain plants thrive particularly well on it. Therefore, before sowing, you should first have a soil analysis carried out in order to find out the right meadow type for the planned 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 agricultural purposes, while fat meadows, due to their high nutrient content, are particularly suitable as cattle pasture and for haymaking. Marsh meadows can usually only be used for the production of hay, while horse meadows are lean,but still have to contain a high proportion of structurally rich grasses. In this article, however, we will only deal with the two forms of a flower meadow, as they are more or less often to be found - up and down the country.

How to create a poor meadow

Rough meadows usually thrive on sandy or lime-rich, ie nutrient-poor, soils. For this reason, this type of meadow has the largest number of different species, because fast-growing grasses and nitrogen-loving flowers (e.g. dandelions or buttercups) hardly stand a chance on such a soil. Instead, the rather slow-growing flowers and herbs come into play. If you want to create a poor meadow, you must first of all - if necessary - lean 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 for the system:

Mow the existing vegetation too short as possible.
Scarify the ground so that it is loosened and ventilated.
Alternatively, you can dig it up.
Chop up coarse chunks of earth so that the surface is nice, crumbly and smooth.
If you have to lean the soil, work in a thick layer of sand-earth mixture.
Scatter the flower seeds over a large area 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 using any fertilizers.

Typical flowers of a poor meadow

Representatives of plant species such as

Lesser ormennig (Agrimonia eupatoria)
Carnation (Armeria maritima)
Trembling grass (Briza media)
Real bedstraw (Galium verum)
Common cowslip (Primula veris)
or Pechnelken (Silene viscaria)

to find.

Creating a fat meadow

The fat meadow is laid out in a similar way to the lean meadow, except that you do not of course enrich the soil with additional sand for emaciation. Nevertheless, you should ensure that it is emaciated, especially if you are converting a lawn into a meadow. This is primarily done by stopping the usual fertilization of the lawn. If the lawn or the floor area is overgrown with moss, this is usually an indication of over-acidification of the soil - you can counteract 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 remove the top layer of soil with a flat spade. This is then replaced with fresh soil.

Typical flowers of a fat meadow

Above all, there are many fast-growing grasses and some nitrogen-loving plants on fat meadows. Herbs, on the other hand, disappear the more nutritious the meadow is.

Dandelion (taraxacum officinale)
Germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys)
Soft Trespe (Bromus hordeaceus)
White bedstraw (Galium album)
Sharp buttercup (Ranunculus acris), especially on moist, greasy meadows
White clover (Trifolium repens)

Proper maintenance of the meadow

Of course, Fett- und Lagerwiese also differ greatly in terms of care.

Maintain a poor meadow

The most important care advice for poor meadows is that they must not be fertilized under any circumstances, because fertilization primarily promotes strongly growing plants such as grasses. The more nutrients you add, the more grasses and the fewer flowers will flourish in your meadow. Instead, however, the lean meadow should be limed once a year, because this measure prevents over-acidification of the soil. Regular mowing once or twice a year also contributes to a rich flora. It is best to mow the first time either in May or in the second half of June and the second time in September. However, the cuttings should be cleared away.

Maintain a fat meadow

In contrast to the lean meadow, fat meadows should be fertilized regularly. For this purpose, you can apply special art, but also natural fertilizers (liquid manure, dung, compost). Grazed fat meadows receive a completely natural fertilization from the cattle manure. (€ 17.80 at Amazon *) Furthermore, fat meadows should be mowed about three times a year, which traditionally happens once in May, once in the second half of June and once in August.