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What is a wildflower meadow? It’s an area of permanent grass where wildflowers grow – not a bed of cornfield annuals like poppies nor the gold-themed flowers which were planted around the Olympic park. 

The reason it’s important to make the distinction is that a bed of poppies grows on fertile soil. Wildflower meadows grow better on unproductive soil, where vigorous grasses don’t out-compete the flowers. The best time to create and sow your meadow is in autumn.

Choose a suitable area. You might want to turn some of your lawn, or an old flower border into your new wildflower meadow. It needs to somewhere open and sunny, but can be flat or sloping. A relatively large area is best, where you have space for growing a range of wildflowers.

Reducing the fertility. Your soil is likely to be too rich for a meadow if it’s had plenty of fertiliser added over the years. The best way to reduce the fertility is to remove the top three to six inches of topsoil, using a turf cutter, or a spade and muscle-power! If you don’t want to strip the soil, you can reduce some of the fertility by sowing a crop of mustard plants in the first year. Part of the brassica family, they’re notoriously hungry plants and will remove some of the nutrients from the soil as they grow.

Dig the soil and get rid of any weeds. Time for more backbreaking effort! You want to create a fine tilth (soil which looks like breadcrumbs) for seed sowing, as you would with a lawn. Once you have bare soil, lay black plastic over it so that any weed seeds already in the soil germinate and die. Some people resort to chemicals at this stage if they are beset with nettles or docks.

At last, sowing! This is the fun bit and is best done in autumn. You need about five grams of seed per square metre of meadow. Because the sowing is so thin it's best to mix the seed with dry silver sand (the type used for block paving). Do not use builders' sand as it is not fine enough and is usually too damp. Pale-coloured sand helps you see areas that you've already sown and whether you've missed anywhere. The correct ratio is usually three-five parts sand to one of seed.

Just scatter the seed as you walk across the ground. To try and get an even coverage, split your seeds into batches and sow one batch walking in one direction and another batch walking at 90 degrees. 
There's no need to rake the seed in or cover it with soil, but gently walk across it so that the seeds are in contact with the soil. You may need to net it from birds.

Keep it well watered until it has established.

Aftercare; In the first growing season, cut the growth in midsummer and remove all the dead, spent material (known as the arisings).

In subsequent seasons, the main method for managing a meadow is to not mow from early April to late July, August or even early September. It's best to vary the time you cut each year or some plants may begin to dominate others. If you're cutting early (eg July), leave an uncut refuge for grasshoppers as their nymphs are most vulnerable then.

Cut the hay in dry weather –  it will probably be too high for a mower, so  use grass shears or you might even want to do it the old way with a scythe. Leave it lying on the ground for up to a week for the seeds to drop, and then clear it all away for compost.

Give the meadow a couple more mows during the autumn and maybe once in early spring if it needs it. You may need to do some 'spot' weeding, to remove things like nettles, dock and thistles.

If you give it a go, we'd love to see your results and hear your stories.

Your meadow will evolve year by year, with some species coming through strongly to start with and then others taking over. You should see bees and butterflies start to use your meadow and, if you're really lucky, grasshoppers. Birds should feed there and bats may fly over the top. Yes, it can become one of the most life-filled parts of your garden. Recent studies in London parks have indicated substantial invertebrate benefits within two years of meadow creation.