- 27
- 81 102
Indiana Meadows
United States
Приєднався 5 січ 2016
Sharing my meadow gardening tips
Pollinators love Monarda fistulosa (wild Bergamot aka Bee Balm)
Year 4 of the meadow and Monarda is still very happy
Переглядів: 34
Відео
Mowing the meadow in the fall with a scythe
Переглядів 196Рік тому
Once established this is just about all of the maintenance needed each year. I do try too keep out weeds but that is just as I’m enjoying a coffee or adult beverage by the meadow. Here’s a link to Sythe Supply scythesupply.com
Hummingbird Melee
Переглядів 177Рік тому
I do get hummingbird visits to the flowers in the meadow but when feeders are nearby they are drawn away from the meadow. So, I decided to put a feeder right in the meadow and now this seems to be one of the most desirable feeders around. I have two in my yard and many of the neighbors have them too. My favorite part is when the defending female takes a break at the Agastache (aka hummingbird m...
Update: with a little TLC in August the meadow still looks great.
Переглядів 186Рік тому
My Monarda/Bee Balm was browning up on top and very tall here in early August. I’ve also had a problem with powdery mildew on my bee balm. Hoping that removing the affected tops will make the mildew less of problem next year.
The BEST food for GOLDFINCHES!!
Переглядів 242Рік тому
Plant a meadow to attract #goldfinches to your yard. It’s the best #birdseed for #birdlovers
Year 3 vs Year 1 late June
Переглядів 203Рік тому
It’s a bee balm explosion in year 3. Year 1 looks even better than the first patch I tried in 2020.
How I made a beautiful wildflower meadow from my lawn. It’s easy.
Переглядів 73 тис.Рік тому
How I made a beautiful wildflower meadow from my lawn. It’s easy.
This is incredible! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
So you just tilled it? I live in Texas and have been wanting to do this, but we have weeds galore. Was told i had to get a sod cutter or remove the sod some other way to do this. I have a tiller. Might try this method instead of renting the sod cutter.
You need to till it down 6-8 inches and then let it sit for 4-6 weeks before seeding. This gives weed seeds time to sprout. Then till the top 4 inches again right before seeding to eliminate those sprouted weed seeds. It’s impossible to keep weeds out completely but once you have established flowers they’ll compete well with the weedy stuff
So pretty! You may have just inspired my next front yard project...
Awesome good luck!
feeling tears well up when you showed us the two lawn chairs facing your beautiful garden great job dude👍🏽
Awwww thanks!
Absolutely beautiful, thanks for sharing with the bees and us
Wow, stunning.
Thanks!
Lovely wildflower garden. I just wanted to let you know that you didn't comment on irrigation and frequency of watering. This is a critical consideration when rainfall is not regular enough to keep germinating seedlings from failing. Any suggestions here?
@@richardfaltonson3121 it’s necessary to water after sowing. Lightly water to moisten the soil (not drenching) until the seedlings are 6 inches tall. Wildflowers are drought tolerant and no need to water after that.
Can it be any kind of sand or does it have to be a specific kind of sand?
@@dp4304 I guess any sand would be fine, it just adds volume to make it easier to spread seeds evenly
Wow!!!
Looks awesome!
Very nice!!😊
This was the best video. Made me feel better about how simple I could be. Any other preparation for soil other than the sand? And was this all just from the one bag of seed? (Last question) are these all perennial?
The sand isn’t for soil prep, it’s just to add volume to the seeds. I ordered a bag of seed that was the right size for the plot. But full disclosure is that I had some extra seeds from Eden brothers that I tossed in.
I plan to do more and more of my lawn. Last year i did planting by weed whacking the grass low, covering with paper then compost/manure/soil, then planting. No dig no rototiller
Probably a better soil your way but sounds like more work to me lol
Did you have to water the seeds everyday? Did you water the wildflowers? Any maintenance? Or did you just leave it alone and it came back next year? Thank you!
For the first six weeks or so I did a light watering every day unless we had rain. After that, I’ve never watered. There is some minimal maintenance, I pull weeds when I see them. The biggest chore is trimming back all the bee balm after it has finished flowering. I do this to let the light in and also to rid the inevitable powdery mildewed tops. Also makes the echinacea flowers pop since they aren’t hidden by the bee balm canes.
Wow Lovely Flowers ^^ Like 6 My friend, thank you for good sharing Have a good relationship
Thanks for visiting
I’m thinking about planting wild flowers seed on the steep hill across the street from my house. All kinds of pretty flowers would grow there until the City sprayed a powerful herbicide all up and down the slope several years ago. It was a brown, dead mess 😢 Things are starting to grow back, a few Queen Anne’s Lace, but no more Black Eyed Susans, it’s sad. I’m thinking of clearing it out and start with planting some naturalizing Crocus and maybe daffodils this Fall then sow wildflower seed in the Spring.
Guerrilla gardening! Love it!
Ha, I just had one of those on my Butterfly Bush late yesterday! 👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hummingbird Moth I mean 😅
Love them
Its amazing to witness insects in their habitat hotel.I hope mine will be occupied soon. Thank you for sharing.
Sadly a woodpecker found the box and ate nearly all of them!
@@IndianaMeadows I am so sorry.
Visual overload. Looks fantastic! Good job
Thank you very much!
Nice to catch you on here again! Lovely..
Haven’t had any new projects to speak of this year.
@@IndianaMeadows , thanks for sharing your “visitors.”
💖
What is that big yellow sunflower looking plant at the 14:30 minute mark? I just planted my own pollinator garden and I’m not sure what is weed and what is native. I pulled out some really big plants that looked like that not knowing.
At 13:30? I did sow some sunflower seeds that were given to me by a friend that year. Not sure of the variety
Do you just till the lawn under? If so, doesn't the grass just come back? I have a double lot in Indianapolis and want my entire lawn to look like yours! Is it worth planting in the fall, and how do you keep the birds away?
Yes, I just tilled the grass into the soil. Some grass will come back, I spray it in the spring with an herbicide that is specific to grasses (called grass out). I haven’t tried a fall sowing, but some plant’s actually need a cold stratification period for seeds to germinate. For example, my meadow doesn’t have any milkweed even though there were seeds in the starting mix. Milkweed seeds need cold stratification. I’ve wanted to try sowing in fall to see how it turns out. Some seeds in the mix wouldn’t survive winter, and this should give a different result. Probably a lot of the first year annuals would be missing and you’d get less color in year one.
@@IndianaMeadows I've decided to go with a spring planting, as I really want the colors! Last question: when you put the seed down, how do you keep the birds and squirrels at bay? Thank you for your time!
I don’t think the squirrels are interested as the wildflower seeds are quite small. Some birds might do a little bit of pecking but you’re seeding at a high enough density that they can’t really cause any impact
Fantastic 🎉🎉🎉. I need your help. I am trying to convince my husband that we need to do this but he has BIG reservations about it. His main issue is getting the wildflower to stay where they have been planted and not coming up in the grass. You planted this meadow next to grass. Do you find that the yard/grass has a lot more weeds/wildflowers? Or do you find everything kinda stays in the area you tilled up? Any help or advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you🌼🌻🌷🪻🌸🌹🐝🪲🐞🐛🦋🐤
I don’t treat the grass with any pre emergent or anything else and I haven’t seen any evidence that the wildflowers are spreading into the lawn. I do have broadleaf things and clover in the grass. The grass effectively outcompetes with any seeds that spread from the meadows I wish that wasn’t the case!. Grass getting into the meadow is the bigger problem.
@@IndianaMeadows thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It is greatly appreciated. Do you have an update to this video? Did the wildflowers come back ok?
Yes, the perennial plants do come back and they get more and more established each year. Some of my other videos show the meadow in subsequent years. The annuals don’t come back (cosmos for example) though.
Pollinator paradise
I love how you had beautiful colors and blooms all summer long! ☀️
Absolutely gorgeous. Love wildflowers. Cosmos is amazing. You made me hate my lawn.
Beautiful - I love them all - planted a box years ago (a round section) and they still come. I love the cosmos!
American Meadows should sponsor you. Because of this video I am buying seeds from them! Thank you for spreading your knowledge. The garden is beautiful!
Thank you! Please leave a comment to let me know how it turns out! I did email @americanmeadows but no reply lol
Did you use any fertilizer or herbicides? If so, what and when did you apply them? Also, I'd be interested to know how you will keep weeds from encroaching.
I have never used any fertilizer but I think the brood X cicadas emergence probably played a big role in fertilizing the first year. I do spray clumps of grass with a product called “grass out” once in the spring. I spend a lot of time sitting by the meadow and I pull weeds by hand whenever I notice them. The biggest weed problem I have is with slender path rush. It’s encroaching heavily in a part of the meadow. This year I did expend some effort removing it (by hand) and reseeding. It actually looks natural in the meadow but I want flowers not rush.
Since you have planted wildflowers in your yard, more birds, bees, and butterflies have come to your yard.
Definitely!
Sooo pretty
Thank you!
how long did that take?
Probably 4-5 hours or so? My tiller isn’t super powerful
@@IndianaMeadows Did you just till under the grass?
Very lovely..
Thank you! 😊
That is so lovely. All the colors. My husband and I are doing our yard today. Thank you for sharing.
Good luck!
sunflowers too?
The first year I through down some sunflower seeds but not since.
Wow! This was the most complete video on the topic of changing a lawn into a beautiful meadow. I especially liked the videos on the progressive growth. Good Job! Just make sure I understand and do my project correctly, you mowed your lawn very short, went over the area a couple of times with a rototiller, and then put down the seeds. Right? How long did you wait between the tilling? You did not try to kill the exiting lawn by chocking it under black plastic, or using a sod cutter first? Looking forward to your response. Thank you.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. There are instructional videos at American Meadows website. I followed them. First round of tilling is 6-8 inches down. Then wait 4-6 weeks, this gives weed seeds time to sprout. Then just prior to seeding retill the top 3-4 inches to kill weeds. I didn’t kill the lawn with plastic/cardboard but I’ve seen that recommended. Nor did I use a sod cutter. You’ll never get all the grass but it doesn’t matter once plants start getting tall.
@@IndianaMeadows 😃 Thanks a bunch for the quick response. You actually answered another question with your reply. I feel I am ready to tackle my project now.
I love it, i have those wild flowers in my kiddie pool flower beds, i want to do a meadow like you, will have to get my neighbor to till it up for me, thanks for sharing 🫶✌️🦋🦋🦋
Go for it!
@@IndianaMeadows 🙏🦋🌻
Hi there- I was wondering how often you watered after seeding?
You need to water for about the first six weeks to keep the soil moist. Once the seedlings reach a height of 6 inches I never water. Wildflowers are hardy and drought tolerant
Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I would love to have this.
What would happen if you didn't mow it? Did you wait until after the first hard frost as American Meadows recommends?
It doesn’t look super nice in the winter without mowing. I do wait until first hard frost
Beautiful…..
Well done! We live in Missouri, Zone 6 and this year I'm going to do this in our back and side yard. We live just outside of Kansas City and have dear but I'm going to try this anyway. I hope our neighbors will enjoy it as much as we will. I've planted the wildflower mix in the past and it seems that the Cosmos are always the fastest to grow and the deer will eat them if they get the chance. I like your slow-motion shot of the hummingbird moth! I love your work and hope to see more videos! Thank you for all of your hard work and for sharing your method in planting this beautiful habitat!
@jamesmanning-tu6rs thanks for the very kind words. I can say that our neighbors love our meadow. Good luck with yours and lmk how it turns out!
Why do you put them In sand?
The sand acts as filler and makes it easier to see where you’ve spread the seed. Many seeds are very small and adding the sand makes it easier to spread evenly
So pretty 😍
Thank you!! 😊
oh wowwww i am in the process of doing something similar to my front and back yard. hoping it comes out even half as good as yours!
Good luck!
I have an HOA and I don’t know if they will allow me to do that I want to so bad I have a sprawling yard and I really want to fill it with flowers but I don’t know if they will let me. I guess I could do it and find out, but I don’t wanna have to pull them all out if they say I can’t have it.
Maybe you can start with a small patch and slowly expand it over the years so that nobody will notice?😉
How large of seed packet did you order and what specific sand did you mix with? I have about 1/4 of an acre I need to get done
If you go to the American Meadows website they will have recommendations on how much seed you need per square foot. I think I used 8lbs of sand for 1 pound seed
does it self seed?
Yes, it self sows but I also add in plants that I like which were not part of the original mix
I’m doing 1/4 acre. Why did you mixed with sand? Thanks
The sand just adds some volume to make the seeds spread more gradually/evenly
Thanks!