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Sowing poppies on established meadow
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Posted by nansaid z8CA (My Page) on Mon, Mar 10, 08 at 14:02
| I have a meadow with natural grasses where blackeyed susans re-sow and come up every year faithfully. I'd like to add some poppies, but if I tear up the soil completely I may be disturbing my black eyed susans.
My question is: Can I just run a rake over the meadow soil to break it up a bit, sow the poppies, then lightly toss soil over that and still have some poppies in summer?
I'd hate to have to start by completely rototilling my meadow up when it is so pretty already.
Thanks for any replies |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Sowing poppies on established meadow
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| I think you can sow the poppies into the existing meadow. I would consider spot sowing into places where there is a little open soil or thinner grass, perhaps with a little raking or hoeing to break up the soil, then spread the poppy seeds on top. You won't have to sow all that much of the meadow for it to look nice when the poppies bloom - if you can find 10% of the meadow to sow poppies, that would be a really nice show in the spring. Even 5% would be pretty nice, I think. Most of the time when you see a really brilliant show of wildflowers, if you actually go out and check how much of the space is taken up by the plant the flowers are coming from, it really isn't much of the space. |
RE: Sowing poppies on established meadow
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| I'm new to this entire process, however, ripped up an established field to 'properly sow the seed' last year. I used a combination of an annual and perennial seed mix. WOW! Was I sorry! I had barren sandy loam, and wildlife feasting on the seed!!! In the end, I had an occasional annual that popped up. What a disaster! This spring, I'm going to re-seed. I'll never, ever pull out the existing vegetation again. I will sow over the field w/ the new seed and hope for the best. I can live w/ the prairie garden look over barren, dusty ground any day! |
RE: Sowing poppies on established meadow
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| Spot sowing is the key, with localized areas of preparation. |
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