Your insect-friendly garden
Take part now and protect biodiversity.
Would you like to make your garden more insect-friendly and create an insect protection or wildflower meadow, for example? That’s a good idea, because these meadows are pleasing to the eye and are also valuable biotopes. With their biodiversity, they provide a habitat for numerous small animals and insects such as butterflies, flies, wild bees and bumblebees. And many birds also like to spend time in the higher grass.
Beautiful and easy to care for
In general, wildflower meadows require relatively little maintenance: It is sufficient to mow the meadow twice a year. After a start-up phase of one to two years, the reward is already there: your meadow becomes a colorful carpet of flowers that blooms almost all year round. It provides shelter and food for many insects and there is always something to discover. All you have to do is be patient and let nature take its course.
A mini meadow is enough
Even if you only want to plant a small bed or a flower pot with colorful flower mixtures, you will make insects very happy. However, make sure that your seeds are as local as possible.
And this is how it works:
CHECK GROUND CONDITIONS
To begin with, you should check the site and soil conditions in your area so that you can choose the right wildflowers. Most wild herbs love poor, nutrient-poor soil. You can easily determine the soil type yourself: Simply take some soil in your hand rub it between your fingers or in the palm of your hand. If the soil is easy to shape, roll and knead and smears, you are dealing with a heavy, nutrient-rich clay soil. If the soil literally runs through your fingers, cannot be shaped and leaves hardly any marks on your hands, it is a sandy soil that is naturally low in nutrients.
TILLAGE
You must prepare the soil before sowing. If grass is already growing in the area, you should first peel off the existing turf with a sharp spade and remove it. To reduce nutrients, you can also remove 10 centimetres of topsoil. Then dig up the soil or loosen it; break up larger clumps of soil. Now you can level the area with a wide rake. If you work the field both lengthwise and crosswise, the subsoil will be nice and crumbly. Finally, use a rake to remove larger stones and root weeds. If you have determined that the soil is rich in nutrients, you can further thin it out by mixing in sand or fine gravel.
Sowing
A good time to sow your wildflower meadow is from February to May. But it is also possible from August to October. Sow the seeds flat above the ground, preferably on a windless day.
COMPACT AREA
After sowing, be sure to lightly compact the area with a lawn roller. In small areas, you can also press the seed down with a shovel. Rolling ensures the necessary soil contact, easy incorporation and even germination. Then water the seed field thoroughly; make sure that the soil remains evenly moist in the following weeks so that the seeds germinate and grow well. In the coming weeks, however, you should only water the area enough to prevent puddles from forming so that the seeds are not washed away.
PROPER CARE
About ten weeks after sowing, you can mow your meadow for the first time to remove older weeds. Although you will also cut back the new flowers and grasses, they will then sprout again and form an even denser carpet of plants. If you have sown in spring, you may have to mow two or three times in the first year to suppress the weeds and encourage the growth of the meadow flowers. From the second year onwards, however, this will only be necessary twice a year: once in June and once in September.
WHICH WILDFLOWER MIXTURE?
For your insect protection meadow, it is best to use one of the many seed mixtures available in specialist shops. Make sure you buy the seeds from a reputable seed manufacturer and not from a DIY store. Specialist manufacturers put together seed mixtures specifically for the respective soil type – with different proportions of herbs and grasses. With some suppliers, you can even have your mixture put together individually.
Organic seed promotes biodiversity
There are also mixtures for specific insect species or natural areas and locations, such as mown meadows, gardens or embankments. Your seeds should come from native meadows and native plants, preferably from your region. Typical species in a Central European flower meadow are, for example, common yarrow, red campion, St. John’s wort and white bedstraw.
Let us advise you
Some mixtures also contain seeds for early initial greening. These quick greening seeds germinate a few weeks before the actual mixture and serve to protect the seed. It is therefore always worth buying the seeds from a specialist retailer and seeking advice before sowing.
