Setting up wildlife garden

Lena_vs_Deer

Although I don’t live in UK, I thought it may be fun to share my project here.
We are still zone 8, this part is facing south west, so much shade on the photo is only because it's taken early in the morning  

I'm trying to set up a bit of a meadow on area adjacent to a forest with a bit of a mowed patch in a middle for picnic table .
This year we just let it grow on its own to see what would come up naturally, it's mainly variety of grasses and stinging nettles.
I've got some seeds  for native meadow flowers (which includes lupine apparently! how exciting!) ... and it says I can seed them in autumn. Have anyone tried seeding meadow before winter? I've only ever seeded indoor during that time. So it's a bit scary for some reason. I guess no one like to waste time and space  

Also would be really grateful for any suggestions for maybe something tall and structural! First thing comes to mind is sunflower, but they had been planted before and deer ate them completely haha

If anyone is interested I can keep this updated trough the year and hopefully entertain you with watching it grow ... I guess it's like watching paint dry but we'll see.... 

Fire

Please do keep us posted. I used to live in the north-west and miss it. Please post your wild life spots too.

Lena_vs_Deer

These are not very good photos, but these are the best I can do haha… I usually only catch a glimpse of wild life when I’m up to my ears in dirt  
Luckily I always have a phone in my pocket.
Here are some usual suspects- woodpeckers, robins (love that I caught this one with a mouthful of grass) and various moths waiting for sun to go away

Lena_vs_Deer

I also have mentioned before that we have deer crossing in that part 
(photo from earlier this year) 

steephill

Foxgloves would add a taller note in the meadow and our deer don't eat them. We get roe and muntjac deer in the garden but I imagine their diet would be similar to your white-tailed deer.

Nature doesn't save seed until Spring, most seeds fall in Autumn and survive the Winter without our help. Common advice on wildflower meadows is to cut back after seeds have set and fallen to the ground then remove the cut material to stop it building up soil fertility.

Lena_vs_Deer

Wildlife visitor - little pine vole, minding his little woodland business