Planting wildflowers

The UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s. As well as being a source of delicate beauty, wildflowers provide vital sustenance and shelter for pollinating insects, which themselves are a food source for birds, bats and hedgehogs. So one of the best things you can do for wildlife – including humans – is plant some wildflowers, whether it’s a planter on your balcony or a swathe of your garden.

This spring, Wilder have been sowing the north concourse at Tate Modern with annual and perennial wildflower seed from Meadow in my Garden.

Here’s our brief guide to planting seed:

🕰️ Sow between September and October or March and June

🌧️ Wait till rain is forecast

🌿 Dig up any grassy turf and put it to one side (turf is great for topping off hugelkultur beds - just turn it upside down)

🧹 Rake the soil till you have a fine tilth

🌱 Scatter the seed at the rate of a small handful per square metre

💃🏾 Step or dance the seed into the ground

👁️ Watch it grow… in six weeks you’ll start to see some blossom

Cut the grass with a scythe or large clippers once the summer is over and you see some seed heads. Leave a few patches uncut, so overwintering insects such as lacewings and ladybirds have a place to stay.

Let the clippings lie on the ground for a week, so the seeds can fall onto the ground. Then remove the clippings and compost them.