Flower meadows always look beautiful in photos, in reality, on the other hand, it is often rather pathetic. You can really conjure up the flowers in the garden.
Colorful flowers instead of the lawn unit green, an enticing prospect for many gardeners. For at least as many also a chapter of gardening experience, which they closed disappointed. A miserable flower meadow usually has two causes: Normal garden soil contains too many nutrients, especially nitrogen. And when the flowers bloom in the first day, mowing is delayed, in the hope, that the annuals sow themselves. Mowing in July is absolutely necessary, so that the perennials get air and space in the seed mixture, to develop.
Not much can go wrong using the following method:
• Die alte Grasnarbe wird abgetragen, and if only in small places, where islands of flowers are to develop, the soil mixed with sand.
• Die Samen werden nur dünn mit Erde bedeckt, pressed and kept moist for five to six weeks.
• Eine Bodenprobe zeigt den Nährstoffgehalt des Bodens. Sets for determination are available in specialist shops.
The right flowers for every soil
■ Nährstoffreichen Boden brauchen Bocksbart, bluebell, Cranesbill, Labkraut, Bärenklau, Meadow sage, sparsette, Margerite.
■ Mager, dry and calcareous
love fringed gentian, Carthusian pink, Tauben-Skabios, Upright Ziest, Dornige Hauhechel, Stengellose Kratzdistel.
■ Mager, the soil for arnica is dry and lime-free, Bloodroot, Round-leaved bellflower, Hasenklee.
■ Feucht und moorig mögen es Sumpfdotterblume, Kuckuckslichtnelke, meadowfoam, meadowsweet, autumn crocus, Knotweed, Celandine, Siberian iris, Sumpfkratzdistel.