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!
Although i've spent my entire life working in gardens i still completely zoned out watching the last few minutes of the flowers in bloom. Mesmerising, great video 👍 Well planted and hopefully will inspire others to do something similar.
Love it. I'm 1.5 years into converting from a grass to a clover/grass lawn. There is a problem area at the back of the property that I was considering for wild-flowers, Terrible soil so tilling in some topsoil soil and using a Southestern wilflower mix may be they way to go. Thanks.
Awesome wildflower garden. I have some wildflower seeds I purchased from Dollar Tree and Dollar General. I’m going to do the same. Thanks for the inspiration.
Beautiful! I love seeing the evolution over the seasons. I wonder if you've inspired any of your neighbors to to take on a similar project (I know I'd be inspired by seeing this out my window).
Thanks! I’ve had my neighbors tell me how much they love it. Some great gardeners in our community but so far nobody has done it like this. Second year was still pretty great, seems like year three will be even better. Hoping to post on the progression at some point.
Great work I love how beautiful the blooms are the variety you got. WAAAAYYYYY better than the lawn that was there and it looks like you're sure enjoying it. Since you're in the midwest, I would encourage you to add more native plants as time goes on. You've be rewarded with wildlife.
Thank you! Totally better than the lawn. The non-natives are annuals that are there for color in year one. Hoping to show what it looks like in subsequent years soon!
You are an inspiration, and this video helped me to make my decision. As the years have gone by, I'm taking apart 2 large perennial beds, wanting something pleasant but a lot easier to maintain. I'm nearly done with removing and replanting elsewhere and donating plants. I had wondered about simply replanting lawn grass (not my fave idea), planting perennial grasses (an o.k. idea, but big expense again). Finally, you've given me the courage to go for what I find most rewarding: a meadow. Just ordered the seed from American Meadow. Now, I can hardly wait til next May! thanks a lot. Patricia
Hi Patricia- that’s really awesome! Sorry for the delay response I’ve been slack in checking comments. Best of luck with your meadow! It’s super fun and rewarding!
Very cool 👍. I have a huge pollinator garden and many areas that I have let go back to wild on my small 3.5 acre mini farm. I have plans to put in a wild flower meadow as well. Yours is awesome and gives people inspiration to do the same. Thanks for sharing. 😎
Go for it! I’d love to have the chance to turn that much acreage into wildflower meadow. Have you thought of yellow rattle as a way to kill off turf grass?
Wow, so beautiful, and so peaceful with the bird sounds all around. I'd sit out there all the time. Question: were weeds not a problem? I was worried that a billion weed seeds would sprout and crowd out all the flower seedlings, but that didn't happen.
Great question, prepping the site is key to avoid seeds. I tilled it once and waited a few weeks to let weeds sprout then tilled again. That worked well in this spot.
Love all the beauty and how it changes every few weeks. You did a great job. My sister and i did a huge patch in her back yard last year, started it the autumn before with cardboard, soil, and mulch instead of tilling. Then seeded in the spring, it looked pretty but not as gorgeous as yours. Im hoping this year will be more spectacular.
My sister is about to use this approach too. Please let me know details (set-up / degree of success). We are trying several different approaches and want to learn from others who have been there / done that.
@@victoriaarcher9861 it was very easy, just lay a thick layer of cardboard on the area you want to kill grass/weeds, soak the cardboard with the hose put a layer of compost or soil soak that layer then mulch and soak the mulch. Its preferable to do this in late summer to early fall to give give the cardboard time to breakdown by spring. The more wet the area stays the quicker the cardboard will breakdown. In spring sprinkle wildflower seed both annual and perenial mixes. We just hand sprinkled no sand or anything but it is a small area. Make sue the seed stays miost until germination, lightly water using the mist selection on hose nozzle. She had gorgeous blooms by late June until November, not completely full but this year the perenials should be established so it should be fuller this year. She did sow annual seed again this spring. If all the cardboard is not broken down its okay the seed will still germinate and the roots will find there way down to the earth.the card board attracts earthworms who will break down the cardboard and aerate the soil. Hope this helps.
That's awesome. I plant the same type of seeds every year but just in large pots. I love your idea (and beautiful result) of creating a wildflower meadow. Great video 👍
Nice. I hope the areas I’m gardening looks as nice as yours. Last year I sowed two different packages that had 20 - 25 different seeds for my zone and tested what would grow successfully. So I purchased those seeds and started sowing since November.
Everything in the garden is “deer resistant” but the deer do graze! I have so many echinacea stems that were nibbled by deer. Same thing with the bee balm in spring. a lot of the asters I have right now have been topped by deer. I think they will eat anything as young tender plants, but once the plants get taller they’re left alone. My beds are big enough that some flowers escape the grazing. But if I fenced it in it would undoubtedly be much much better
Hahaha! But don’t scare the goldfinches away ;)! Most of the flowering I’m year one is actually from annuals but in later years it’s all almost perennials. Most perennials take a year or two to first flowers which is why the seed mix has annuals for year one.
@@IndianaMeadows I have a city suburban large-ish corner and have started a meadow. This year, transitioning out of grass to Wh. Dutch clover. I have on order some seeds to make a floral meadow for the corner area where there's an ugly tree, water lid, sewer pipe, and fire hydrant. I guess I'll need to trim around the water items for visibility but it beats the alternative. I have goldfinches around too. They like the zinnias which seeds I toss around my beds for happy color to fill between non-blooming perennials. I'll look fwd to seeing your meadow happily established.
Good morning, from East TN! Just the video I needed to see and thank you for sharing! It is so lovely! I’m wanting to do the same, with most of my yard! I’m on an acre, but my HOA will likely have words. How does this look in the winter? I’ve done this in my flower beds around the house, and I love it! Just cast every seed I can get my hands on, and I too, have so many lovely little visitors! Your green electric tiller? I have one exactly like it! LOVE it! Be well! 🌿🧡🌿
Thanks! Glad you like it! I mow it once down to about 6” in the late fall-using a scythe that I bought for this purpose. I don’t think it looks any worse than brown winter grass. My HOA is very hands off
@@IndianaMeadows , thank you for the reply! I wish mine was hands off. Not as bad as some I’ve seen on here though, thankfully. Those scythe apparatuses are everywhere in our little vintage/antique shops around here. I’ll have to google and see if I can swing something like that. I plan on buying a grinding wheel this winter and sharpening all my own blades. I made eye glasses back in the day, the old fashioned way, and it can’t be any more difficult than using that. It certainly can’t look any worse than dormant lawn, you are right! This makes this old lady very excited! Thank you so much for sharing, again! 🌺🌸🌺
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!
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 🫶✌️🦋🦋🦋
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
Looks great! I plan on doing this along a fence row. I'm in Muncie so I might have to factor in it being slightly cooler than Bloomington at that time of year. Your video gave me a lot of ideas. Thanks!
What is done for grass and weeds that will regrow with the flowers? I love my clover and let it go as long as possible but grass came up too and made it a mess.
I keep an eye out for weeds and pull them up. I spray turfgrasses in early spring with a product called grass out. Some will object to chemical use. But it’s just one application. You can also try planting yellow rattle in with your clover, it’s parasitic on grasses and will kill them. I haven’t tried yellow rattle myself though
Hi Ron, I have lots of wild bunnies too. They don’t seem to eat much of the garden but they do love it for shelter. Each year I have had baby bunnies that love to hide in the thick foliage
My father was a barber, and he would bring home bags of hair sweep from the floor of his barbershop, which then he would sprinkle it all around the perimeter of the garden and up the rows . The smell of so many humans deterred the rabbits/etc.
I haven’t tried the cardboard smothering method. I draw out the outline of the bed first using landscape paint. Then I used an electric rototiller and tilled down about 5 or six inches about a month or so before seeding. This gives time for weeds to sprout. Then I tilled again down about 3 inches right before spreading the seeds. That worked well.
I’d love to see another video next Summer and then the following Summer also. I bet it will be even more beautiful! Did you have to remove many weeds the first year after you planted the wildflowers?
There are other videos of subsequent years. I spend a lot of time sitting by the meadow and do pull weeds as they appear but I’d say weeding is pretty minimal. But I can’t say that would be the case if you don’t pay attention
Wonderful video! We have been adding wildflower beds to our yard in small, slow increments mainly because we are taking up the grass turf first by hand (flat shovel / stirrup hoe). As expected, that's a **very** big labor-intensive undertaking! Your roto-till approach would obviously cut that prep time immensely. Question: What will your wildflower bed look like the 2nd year (recognizing that annual wildflowers may need to be supplemented if they didn't seed themselves well enough)? Will you be facing original turf grass coming back in your new wildflower-dedicated bed? **Any tips, suggestions, etc. from you or your viewers would be real helpful and appreciated**
In the second year I reseeded in a few bare patches using plains coreopsis seeds and cosmos. There was a bit of turf grass that persisted. I try to pull as much as I can in spring and also spray with a product called Grass Beater. I know some people will object to using chemicals but it’s just a single application in early spring before the pollinators start to arrive. Also, it doesn’t kill natural grasses like sedges and rushes. I have a fair amount of slender path rush that’s working in to bare spots. I try to pull it when I can but it’s probably a losing battle. It has a low growing habit though so the flowers rise up above it and it’s hardly noticeable. With perennials, the saying goes “sleep, creep, LEAP.” Second year the plants are still establishing root systems so the meadow was a bit ratty. I can see that third year is going to be much better.
PS- I apply the Grass Beater to any small patches of turf grass. It doesn’t kill dicots so even if a bit touches the perennials they shouldn’t be harmed (and as far as I can tell they are not).
If anyone is committed to keeping out the grasses.. A 1 to 2 ft wide pile of wood chips, delivered... Can really help.. Especially if you dig out a little soil... and make the chips a foot deep! Otherwise, there are Edging solutions that vary, depending on how deep your grass roots can travel to pass a barrier. Love this!! 🍀🍻
What zone are you in? What a stunning garden!! .... I just de-turfed about 400 square feet today, November 7, 2023, in my own side lot. I'm in zone 5, Northern Illinois... I will be sowing my wildflower seed in the next few days... hoping and praying for a similar spring show! Thank you for this video... it is exactly what I was looking for! Very inspiring!
I’m in Zone 6a. Good luck with your seeding! I have done my seeding in the spring, but I have been meaning to try a plot with fall seeding. Some of the seeds in the mix I used need a winter hardening period (ie. Milkweed, lupine). Disappointing that I don’t have those at all
I tried just tilling and then planting. It looked OK the first year as the annuals came up fast. By the second year the biennials and the perennials were coming along nicely but the grass was coming back pretty good. By the third year it was mostly grass and I gave up and just started mowing it with the lawn again. I know many people are against spraying, but when I do it again, I will use glyphosate first on the entire area. Then spot spray clethodim whenever I see grass coming back.
I only ever watered until the baby plants were 6 inches tall. The second year wasn’t as great but that’s to be expected. Almost all of the color in the first year is from annuals. The perennials did have some flowers in year 2 but overall kind of ratty. This is part of the “sleep, creep, leap” pattern of their growth. I expect this year will be MUCH better. See the sleep leap creep video on my channel!
@@IndianaMeadows so true ! annuals are instant gratification and keep us hopeful for the rebound during the 'down time'. We were the first on our street to take down the chain link fence and turn our little front lawn into a 'mini meadow' 16 years ago. Douglas Fir in middle back, Weeping Norway spruce at the far back side, rose bushes in front for anchors. Then staples like Queen Anne's Lace, Delphinium, California Poppies, Digitalis. Then any annual that seemed to fit in the mix from year to year. We always have visitor plants show up from who knows where, especially sunflowers, bee balm and camomile~ everyone is welcome. It's magic !
Wow... You could always add the annuals you like... Or the same mixture in late April again each season... And some spring watering, if needed for the seeds. If you did water heavily.. a couple of times a month... It would be gang busters! All summer.. Thanks for this great Inspiration!!
@@bubblerings i actually did try some cosmos and plains coreopsis seeds in the barer patches of year 2. Coreopsis did well but the cosmos didn’t really take. Hard to prepare the soil amidst established perennials
@@IndianaMeadows Oh bummer.. I usually would throw some fine mulch or potting soil on the seeds.. But, I live in Hawaii.. Not growing northern perennials.. Aloha..🍻
It is so beautiful!! Thanks for sharing!!! Love to see all those pollinators enjoying !! I love all the vivid colors!! I live in the Midwest. Couple of questions I have - do you need to water this meadow area or whatever rains we get is good enough? And do these plants reseed and come back next year if these are annuals?
Sorry for the slow reply. The annuals do not reseed but they’re only there to add color in the first year. The perennials come back year after year. The plants survive the winter months once established and they also reseed. I don’t water unless I have planted something new to fill in bare spots.
@@IndianaMeadows thank you so much. We live in a town house community and this year being a dry one with not enough rains, couple of us were suggesting planting wildflower seeds in the barren spaces, so it will be a low maintenance one. After seeing your videos and now your responses we definitely want to try it next spring.
@@ssubramanian605 oh that’s great! It’s really important to prepare the soil for seeding though. The tilling helps with that to aerate and make it easier for sprouts. If you just toss seeds on bare spots of soil they won’t do well. Also, watering is needed in the first year until the seedlings are six inches tall. Just enough to keep soil moist without soaking. But if it’s a rainy spring less watering is necessary
Lovely, definitely lovely! I did this on a much smaller scale a bunch of years ago. To this day, I still have California Poppies coming up each year. This year I've decided to let them all reseed themselves, instead of pulling them up when spent. I'd rather have a lot of poppies, as opposed to poppies and weeds. Love what did with your flower bed. Did they all come back this year? (2023) Good job!
Thanks! The perennials come back each year, the meadow gets better and better as they become more and more established. I’ve posted a lot of videos from 2023 actually! Like and subscribe to see the updates ;)
how lovely ........ I created a meadow too, this spring, I will sprinkle some more variety of seeds in mine. Think I will sprinkle some poppy and zinnias into my mix. Last fall, I sprinkled Holly hock into my centre area.......love Xeriscape gardening too........ how did you water your meadow?
Thank you! I love holly hocks and zinnias and poppies haha. This meadow only requires watering for the first six weeks or so. After that nature does the rest
I think it would be great in a front yard as long as you have enough sun. 4-8 hours is best. You do need to kill the grass first, I did this by tilling as seen in the video. I keep an eye on “weeds” and pull them as they come up. Kind of depends on your definition of a weed but for me that would be non natives or natives like goldenrod that I don’t want taking over the whole meadow.
I did this in a large section of my yard, and didn't have to mow it for 36 years!
That’s awesome
Less is more. That's the gardening style I like. 😊
what happened on the 37th year?
I sold the house and bought a condo!@@jonathanroson2277
Think smarter not harder, love it
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
It’s like one of those lovely homes that has a hidden meadow garden in a book 📖🌸💛🧚🏻♀️✨
Thank you!
Much prettier than all that grass!
Love seeing the bees!
Although i've spent my entire life working in gardens i still completely zoned out watching the last few minutes of the flowers in bloom. Mesmerising, great video 👍 Well planted and hopefully will inspire others to do something similar.
Wow. Thanks a lot for the kudos! Definitely going to check out the vids on your channel. Looks like great stuff!
That is absolutely beautiful. Wildflowers make me feel happy, I just love seeing all the pollinators being busy amongst them :)
I spend hours every week just sitting and watching the pollinators!
Love it. I'm 1.5 years into converting from a grass to a clover/grass lawn. There is a problem area at the back of the property that I was considering for wild-flowers, Terrible soil so tilling in some topsoil soil and using a Southestern wilflower mix may be they way to go. Thanks.
Most wildflowers aren’t very picky about soil. You should have good luck!
Fantastic ok I am motivated to make this happen. Incredible film making…
Lol on the “film making” but do it!
WOW! This took my breath away! Absolutely beautiful, peaceful, and calm. You've done a wonderful job!
Thank you!
Ok,I'm doing it!Thanks for the inspiration!!(fellow Hoosier,here.)
Go for it. It’s so fun. I spend hours sitting in those Adirondack chairs just watching bees and butterflies and birds
Awesome wildflower garden. I have some wildflower seeds I purchased from Dollar Tree and Dollar General. I’m going to do the same. Thanks for the inspiration.
Beautiful! I love seeing the evolution over the seasons. I wonder if you've inspired any of your neighbors to to take on a similar project (I know I'd be inspired by seeing this out my window).
Thanks! I’ve had my neighbors tell me how much they love it. Some great gardeners in our community but so far nobody has done it like this. Second year was still pretty great, seems like year three will be even better. Hoping to post on the progression at some point.
Stunning. Thank you for showing how it changed over the summer. Always something new coming up.
It’s going to be even more exciting to see the changes across the years!
Beautiful - I love them all - planted a box years ago (a round section) and they still come. I love the cosmos!
Very nice!!😊
Oh! I love Cosmos! Lovely meadow garden. Inspired me!🌸
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
Absolutely gorgeous. Love wildflowers. Cosmos is amazing. You made me hate my lawn.
Great work I love how beautiful the blooms are the variety you got. WAAAAYYYYY better than the lawn that was there and it looks like you're sure enjoying it. Since you're in the midwest, I would encourage you to add more native plants as time goes on. You've be rewarded with wildlife.
Thank you! Totally better than the lawn. The non-natives are annuals that are there for color in year one. Hoping to show what it looks like in subsequent years soon!
I envy you and I admire you for your success on that project too! What a beautiful patch of flowers!
Thank you Brenda!
You are an inspiration, and this video helped me to make my decision. As the years have gone by, I'm taking apart 2 large perennial beds, wanting something pleasant but a lot easier to maintain. I'm nearly done with removing and replanting elsewhere and donating plants. I had wondered about simply replanting lawn grass (not my fave idea), planting perennial grasses (an o.k. idea, but big expense again). Finally, you've given me the courage to go for what I find most rewarding: a meadow. Just ordered the seed from American Meadow. Now, I can hardly wait til next May! thanks a lot. Patricia
Hi Patricia- that’s really awesome! Sorry for the delay response I’ve been slack in checking comments. Best of luck with your meadow! It’s super fun and rewarding!
Thank you for showing the progress! What fun!
Thanks. I hope to update with how it looks this year soon!
Lovely! I could look at them forever!❤
I spend hours just sitting in a chair and watching them all summer long!
What a beautiful addition to your garden!
Wow absolutely gorgeous ❤ this so delightful for my eyes to gaze apon, thanks bunches.
Thanks Tracey!
So pretty! You may have just inspired my next front yard project...
Awesome good luck!
Wow, stunning.
Thanks!
What a beautiful meadow you have
Very cool 👍. I have a huge pollinator garden and many areas that I have let go back to wild on my small 3.5 acre mini farm. I have plans to put in a wild flower meadow as well. Yours is awesome and gives people inspiration to do the same. Thanks for sharing. 😎
Go for it! I’d love to have the chance to turn that much acreage into wildflower meadow. Have you thought of yellow rattle as a way to kill off turf grass?
Beautiful thank you for sharing x
Thanks. Trying another patch this year!
Looks awesome!
Wow, so beautiful, and so peaceful with the bird sounds all around. I'd sit out there all the time.
Question: were weeds not a problem? I was worried that a billion weed seeds would sprout and crowd out all the flower seedlings, but that didn't happen.
Great question, prepping the site is key to avoid seeds. I tilled it once and waited a few weeks to let weeds sprout then tilled again. That worked well in this spot.
I love how you had beautiful colors and blooms all summer long! ☀️
Love all the beauty and how it changes every few weeks. You did a great job. My sister and i did a huge patch in her back yard last year, started it the autumn before with cardboard, soil, and mulch instead of tilling. Then seeded in the spring, it looked pretty but not as gorgeous as yours. Im hoping this year will be more spectacular.
My sister is about to use this approach too. Please let me know details (set-up / degree of success). We are trying several different approaches and want to learn from others who have been there / done that.
@@victoriaarcher9861 it was very easy, just lay a thick layer of cardboard on the area you want to kill grass/weeds, soak the cardboard with the hose put a layer of compost or soil soak that layer then mulch and soak the mulch. Its preferable to do this in late summer to early fall to give give the cardboard time to breakdown by spring. The more wet the area stays the quicker the cardboard will breakdown. In spring sprinkle wildflower seed both annual and perenial mixes. We just hand sprinkled no sand or anything but it is a small area. Make sue the seed stays miost until germination, lightly water using the mist selection on hose nozzle. She had gorgeous blooms by late June until November, not completely full but this year the perenials should be established so it should be fuller this year. She did sow annual seed again this spring. If all the cardboard is not broken down its okay the seed will still germinate and the roots will find there way down to the earth.the card board attracts earthworms who will break down the cardboard and aerate the soil. Hope this helps.
@@adrabruzzese7610 thanks for info and fingers crossed for the same success in our yard.
@@victoriaarcher9861 I hope your sister has success!
@adrabruzzese7610 how thick should the compost/soil be?
That's awesome. I plant the same type of seeds every year but just in large pots. I love your idea (and beautiful result) of creating a wildflower meadow. Great video 👍
Thanks! Great videos on your channel!
Love what you did. I’d love to do this when I get a home of my own.
It’s fun!
You can do it with a planter outside! Or a window box!
Nice. I hope the areas I’m gardening looks as nice as yours. Last year I sowed two different packages that had 20 - 25 different seeds for my zone and tested what would grow successfully. So I purchased those seeds and started sowing since November.
Good luck!
I live over in Martinsville IN. and would love to do something like this but feel overwhelmed on where to start, thank you for sharing this!!!
You can do it!
Looks just beautiful. Enjoy!
Visual overload. Looks fantastic! Good job
Thank you very much!
Lovely....thank you
Thank you too!
This is incredible! Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Im surprised the deer do not come in and eat them. What a beautiful idea. It really turned out nice since you tilled up the bed.
Everything in the garden is “deer resistant” but the deer do graze! I have so many echinacea stems that were nibbled by deer. Same thing with the bee balm in spring. a lot of the asters I have right now have been topped by deer. I think they will eat anything as young tender plants, but once the plants get taller they’re left alone. My beds are big enough that some flowers escape the grazing. But if I fenced it in it would undoubtedly be much much better
A wildflower meadow is all perennials, right? I LOVE THIS!!! Can't help shouting that out. LOL.
Hahaha! But don’t scare the goldfinches away ;)! Most of the flowering I’m year one is actually from annuals but in later years it’s all almost perennials. Most perennials take a year or two to first flowers which is why the seed mix has annuals for year one.
@@IndianaMeadows I have a city suburban large-ish corner and have started a meadow. This year, transitioning out of grass to Wh. Dutch clover. I have on order some seeds to make a floral meadow for the corner area where there's an ugly tree, water lid, sewer pipe, and fire hydrant. I guess I'll need to trim around the water items for visibility but it beats the alternative. I have goldfinches around too. They like the zinnias which seeds I toss around my beds for happy color to fill between non-blooming perennials. I'll look fwd to seeing your meadow happily established.
Absolutely beautiful!!!
Oh so very beautiful I love your flower bed😊
Thank you! 🤗
That is so lovely. All the colors. My husband and I are doing our yard today. Thank you for sharing.
Good luck!
Good morning, from East TN! Just the video I needed to see and thank you for sharing! It is so lovely! I’m wanting to do the same, with most of my yard! I’m on an acre, but my HOA will likely have words. How does this look in the winter? I’ve done this in my flower beds around the house, and I love it! Just cast every seed I can get my hands on, and I too, have so many lovely little visitors! Your green electric tiller? I have one exactly like it! LOVE it! Be well! 🌿🧡🌿
Thanks! Glad you like it! I mow it once down to about 6” in the late fall-using a scythe that I bought for this purpose. I don’t think it looks any worse than brown winter grass. My HOA is very hands off
@@IndianaMeadows , thank you for the reply! I wish mine was hands off. Not as bad as some I’ve seen on here though, thankfully. Those scythe apparatuses are everywhere in our little vintage/antique shops around here. I’ll have to google and see if I can swing something like that. I plan on buying a grinding wheel this winter and sharpening all my own blades. I made eye glasses back in the day, the old fashioned way, and it can’t be any more difficult than using that. It certainly can’t look any worse than dormant lawn, you are right! This makes this old lady very excited! Thank you so much for sharing, again! 🌺🌸🌺
Id love to just sit there and watch the different butterflies pass by
That’s my modus operandi for sure
Very nice,looks great..sometimes you can deadhead to get more blooms.since this is first year,let it go to seed . Happy gardening
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!
Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I would love to have this.
Love the flowers and love that I.U. sweat shirt!!
Thank you!!
Beautiful. Love it.
Thank you! 😊
Looks amazing!
I've learned so much from your gardening tips - thank you for sharing! 🌸📚
You are so welcome!
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 🙏🦋🌻
Absolutely beautiful!! I can’t grow much of anything in this heat wave.
Beautiful! I just planted 20k seeds in my garden and I hope they turn out as well as yours
Good luck!
Beautifully done, delightful!
Enjoy
Nice job, that looks great.
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
Stunning!
Looks great! I plan on doing this along a fence row. I'm in Muncie so I might have to factor in it being slightly cooler than Bloomington at that time of year. Your video gave me a lot of ideas. Thanks!
Sounds great! Have fun!
🏡...Beautiful and Lovely 🎼.
wow super wow. i wish i can do like this here in vegas
I bet there are drought tolerant seed mixes you could use
So beautiful.❤ from Croatia.
Thank you! 😊
Loving the time lapse. It’s so beautiful. The first August video it changed so much with all the yellow. So pretty.
Thank you. I can't wait to see what it looks like in year three! Sleep, creep, LEAP!
What is done for grass and weeds that will regrow with the flowers? I love my clover and let it go as long as possible but grass came up too and made it a mess.
I keep an eye out for weeds and pull them up. I spray turfgrasses in early spring with a product called grass out. Some will object to chemical use. But it’s just one application. You can also try planting yellow rattle in with your clover, it’s parasitic on grasses and will kill them. I haven’t tried yellow rattle myself though
Beautiful! I can only dream because the prolific wild rabbits in my area eat everything.
Hi Ron, I have lots of wild bunnies too. They don’t seem to eat much of the garden but they do love it for shelter. Each year I have had baby bunnies that love to hide in the thick foliage
My father was a barber, and he would bring home bags of hair sweep from the floor of his barbershop, which then he would sprinkle it all around the perimeter of the garden and up the rows . The smell of so many humans deterred the rabbits/etc.
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!
Googoo gaga. Totally delightfull!
Hahaha best comment yet
So pretty 😍
Thank you!! 😊
What's your favorite way of initially getting rid of the sod? Did you do cardboard the year before?
I haven’t tried the cardboard smothering method. I draw out the outline of the bed first using landscape paint. Then I used an electric rototiller and tilled down about 5 or six inches about a month or so before seeding. This gives time for weeds to sprout. Then I tilled again down about 3 inches right before spreading the seeds. That worked well.
Beautiful
Pollinator paradise
I’d love to see another video next Summer and then the following Summer also. I bet it will be even more beautiful!
Did you have to remove many weeds the first year after you planted the wildflowers?
There are other videos of subsequent years. I spend a lot of time sitting by the meadow and do pull weeds as they appear but I’d say weeding is pretty minimal. But I can’t say that would be the case if you don’t pay attention
Sooo pretty
Thank you!
That’s so beautiful
Thank you!
I love it that is a great idea
Thanks!
It's beautiful.
Wonderful video! We have been adding wildflower beds to our yard in small, slow increments mainly because we are taking up the grass turf first by hand (flat shovel / stirrup hoe). As expected, that's a **very** big labor-intensive undertaking! Your roto-till approach would obviously cut that prep time immensely. Question: What will your wildflower bed look like the 2nd year (recognizing that annual wildflowers may need to be supplemented if they didn't seed themselves well enough)? Will you be facing original turf grass coming back in your new wildflower-dedicated bed? **Any tips, suggestions, etc. from you or your viewers would be real helpful and appreciated**
In the second year I reseeded in a few bare patches using plains coreopsis seeds and cosmos. There was a bit of turf grass that persisted. I try to pull as much as I can in spring and also spray with a product called Grass Beater. I know some people will object to using chemicals but it’s just a single application in early spring before the pollinators start to arrive. Also, it doesn’t kill natural grasses like sedges and rushes. I have a fair amount of slender path rush that’s working in to bare spots. I try to pull it when I can but it’s probably a losing battle. It has a low growing habit though so the flowers rise up above it and it’s hardly noticeable. With perennials, the saying goes “sleep, creep, LEAP.” Second year the plants are still establishing root systems so the meadow was a bit ratty. I can see that third year is going to be much better.
PS- I apply the Grass Beater to any small patches of turf grass. It doesn’t kill dicots so even if a bit touches the perennials they shouldn’t be harmed (and as far as I can tell they are not).
@@IndianaMeadows thanks! And best wishes for your good luck contiuing in the meadow
If anyone is committed to keeping out the grasses.. A 1 to 2 ft wide pile of wood chips, delivered... Can really help.. Especially if you dig out a little soil... and make the chips a foot deep!
Otherwise, there are Edging solutions that vary, depending on how deep your grass roots can travel to pass a barrier.
Love this!! 🍀🍻
How beautiful!
It really is!
What zone are you in?
What a stunning garden!! .... I just de-turfed about 400 square feet today, November 7, 2023, in my own side lot. I'm in zone 5, Northern Illinois... I will be sowing my wildflower seed in the next few days... hoping and praying for a similar spring show! Thank you for this video... it is exactly what I was looking for! Very inspiring!
I’m in Zone 6a. Good luck with your seeding! I have done my seeding in the spring, but I have been meaning to try a plot with fall seeding. Some of the seeds in the mix I used need a winter hardening period (ie. Milkweed, lupine). Disappointing that I don’t have those at all
I tried just tilling and then planting. It looked OK the first year as the annuals came up fast. By the second year the biennials and the perennials were coming along nicely but the grass was coming back pretty good. By the third year it was mostly grass and I gave up and just started mowing it with the lawn again. I know many people are against spraying, but when I do it again, I will use glyphosate first on the entire area. Then spot spray clethodim whenever I see grass coming back.
Try planting yellow rattle to inhibit the grass. Glyphosate kills everything including people 😢
@@Solitude11-11 I don't believe it. Besides, live in farm country. I'm not dead yet. 😂 I doubt my little bit will make any difference.
@@morrismonet3554 Yeah that’s what everybody says…
I tried to subscribe , but , UA-cam says I have too many subscriptions !!!! Thanks for posting this gardening video !!!!
Oh no! But thanks
I love this ❤
Beautiful and inspiring ✨️ did you need to water much once the plants established? What did the next year look like?
I only ever watered until the baby plants were 6 inches tall. The second year wasn’t as great but that’s to be expected. Almost all of the color in the first year is from annuals. The perennials did have some flowers in year 2 but overall kind of ratty. This is part of the “sleep, creep, leap” pattern of their growth. I expect this year will be MUCH better. See the sleep leap creep video on my channel!
@@IndianaMeadows so true ! annuals are instant gratification and keep us hopeful for the rebound during the 'down time'. We were the first on our street to take down the chain link fence and turn our little front lawn into a 'mini meadow' 16 years ago. Douglas Fir in middle back, Weeping Norway spruce at the far back side, rose bushes in front for anchors. Then staples like Queen Anne's Lace, Delphinium, California Poppies, Digitalis. Then any annual that seemed to fit in the mix from year to year. We always have visitor plants show up from who knows where, especially sunflowers, bee balm and camomile~ everyone is welcome. It's magic !
Wow... You could always add the annuals you like... Or the same mixture in late April again each season... And some spring watering, if needed for the seeds.
If you did water heavily.. a couple of times a month... It would be gang busters! All summer..
Thanks for this great Inspiration!!
@@bubblerings i actually did try some cosmos and plains coreopsis seeds in the barer patches of year 2. Coreopsis did well but the cosmos didn’t really take. Hard to prepare the soil amidst established perennials
@@IndianaMeadows
Oh bummer.. I usually would throw some fine mulch or potting soil on the seeds.. But, I live in Hawaii..
Not growing northern perennials..
Aloha..🍻
Thanks so much for sharing ❤
It is so beautiful!! Thanks for sharing!!! Love to see all those pollinators enjoying !!
I love all the vivid colors!!
I live in the Midwest.
Couple of questions I have - do you need to water this meadow area or whatever rains we get is good enough?
And do these plants reseed and come back next year if these are annuals?
Sorry for the slow reply. The annuals do not reseed but they’re only there to add color in the first year. The perennials come back year after year. The plants survive the winter months once established and they also reseed. I don’t water unless I have planted something new to fill in bare spots.
@@IndianaMeadows thank you so much. We live in a town house community and this year being a dry one with not enough rains, couple of us were suggesting planting wildflower seeds in the barren spaces, so it will be a low maintenance one. After seeing your videos and now your responses we definitely want to try it next spring.
@@ssubramanian605 oh that’s great! It’s really important to prepare the soil for seeding though. The tilling helps with that to aerate and make it easier for sprouts. If you just toss seeds on bare spots of soil they won’t do well. Also, watering is needed in the first year until the seedlings are six inches tall. Just enough to keep soil moist without soaking. But if it’s a rainy spring less watering is necessary
Like my mom would say" from spring til fall, you'll see different wildflowers pop up every couple weeks
Lovely, definitely lovely! I did this on a much smaller scale a bunch of years ago. To this day, I still have California Poppies coming up each year. This year I've decided to let them all reseed themselves, instead of pulling them up when spent. I'd rather have a lot of poppies, as opposed to poppies and weeds. Love what did with your flower bed. Did they all come back this year? (2023) Good job!
Thanks! The perennials come back each year, the meadow gets better and better as they become more and more established. I’ve posted a lot of videos from 2023 actually! Like and subscribe to see the updates ;)
how lovely ........ I created a meadow too, this spring, I will sprinkle some more variety of seeds in mine. Think I will sprinkle some poppy and zinnias into my mix. Last fall, I sprinkled Holly hock into my centre area.......love Xeriscape gardening too........ how did you water your meadow?
Thank you! I love holly hocks and zinnias and poppies haha. This meadow only requires watering for the first six weeks or so. After that nature does the rest
Gorgeous! Three questions: would this work in a front yard, can I put it in with the current grass, and how do you keep out weeds?
I think it would be great in a front yard as long as you have enough sun. 4-8 hours is best. You do need to kill the grass first, I did this by tilling as seen in the video. I keep an eye on “weeds” and pull them as they come up. Kind of depends on your definition of a weed but for me that would be non natives or natives like goldenrod that I don’t want taking over the whole meadow.
@IndianaMeadows thanks for replying! I think I'll try this next year. It's stunning.
Great! Good luck with your meadow!
Very lovely..
Thank you! 😊
Beautiful ❤
Thank you! 😊
beautiful!
Very nice 🌺🌼🌸