Making a small meadow/butterfly garden

tafflondon

I have an area of garden that I want to turn into a small meadow/bee and butterfly friendly space and I’m looking for suggestions for suitable plants.

The area is 5.5M by 3.5M with a 2M wall on the east side, similar height hedges on the south and west sides and open to the north so doesn’t get much direct sun but is light, it’s also partly sheltered from rain but drains slowly.  Along one side is a log pile to encourage the stag beetles to continue breeding and nearby is a small stand of nettles for various butterflies.

It’s currently bare ground, covered with about 20cm of earth excavated from foundations for my workshop but it’s likely to be fairly ‘rich’ as previous owners had bonfires there.

 What would give a fast result?  Which seeds or plug plants? How much/many would I need to give good coverage?  We have cats so need to consider plant toxicity as well.

Fire

Welcome Taff. Meadow Mats would give the fastest results, but not the cheapest. Very reliable, though.

tafflondon

Fire said:

Welcome Taff. Meadow Mats would give the fastest results, but not the cheapest. Very reliable, though.

Thanks for the suggestion, Fire, but as you say it's not cheap, we'll have to go for seeds/plugs and wait.

DampGardenMan

If it's currently grass, and you're not planning on removing this, you might like to consider some Yellow Rattle to help keep the grass from swamping other things.

tafflondon

It's bare, lightly tilled, ground at the moment so doesn't need anything to fight grass but would yellow rattle, or something else, help 'condition' the soil for wild flowers?

Blue Onion

Can you sow direct?  Do you have a low slug population and a way of keeping the cat off seedlings?  I created a pollinator garden a few weeks ago.. I just put a bunch of different seed packets marked as 'pollinator friendly flowers' together and sowed direct. I also picked up a few six packs of flowers from the GC for instant effect and instant necture/pollen for the waiting insects.  

You are limited by lack of sun, but bee balm does well in shade.  Autumn Bride Heuchera is supposed to do well in dry shade, and blooms late in the year when other flowers are long gone.  

tafflondon

Thanks Blue, that was my plan, as much as I had one.  I was looking for alternatives or validation from people who know more than I about these things.

DampGardenMan

tafflondon said:

It's bare, lightly tilled, ground at the moment so doesn't need anything to fight grass but would yellow rattle, or something else, help 'condition' the soil for wild flowers?

Yellow rattle won't - it needs grass to survive, it's parasitic!

Fire

You could try a seed mix for woodland shade, such as this one.

Lyn

Most wild flowers thrive better in poor soil, no need to enrich, 

Fire

Wild flowers that I have found seed easily are ox eye daisies, cow parsley, toadflax, clover and corn marigold. You could try seeding these.