The problem would be the quick grass growth in the spring and not enough sun penetrating to reach the seed. If you have to contantly mow every week to keep the grass scalped you would contantly be cropping whatever wildflower did manage to germinate... Jest my humble opinion.

Why not prepare the area with round it up at least 2 times and then seed?

In TX I wouldn't know the right time to seed. I'm up north and seeded in November right before the snows came.
Also I would take a guess that if you did mangage to get plants coming up that eventually the lawn grass would crowd everything out in the long run.

I'm sure there are more reason's but I'll leave that to the more experienced.

Vera

actually seeding into to grass does work - but you will have to keep it mowed for the first season and your germination rate may be reduced than if you did a good soil preparation. i do not like to promote the use of round up... particularly for small residential areas - its not necessary...
i have a friend that does his planting right into grass - he cuts the grass real short right before he seeds, then he sweeps the seeds into the grass to get good soil contact. then the following year - he continues to mow this area as if it were lawn - but a little high - the highest setting on his mower - then the third year he lets it grow and hand weeds as necessary...it actually works quite well for weed suppression - the mowed prairie plants get a good year to set down roots - the grass prevents weeds from taking over - which weeds are a common problem in the natural plantings because the native plants grow so slow - particularly that first year ... and the turf grass is no competition for the native plants once their roots have set down in that third year...

you can seed right now - you dont have to wait until its cold out...

Goes to show ya what I think LOL! Well I'm just gonna have to try this too on my grassy bank behind the house...I hate mowing it.
Gotta love Joepye :)

Vera

I have absolutely no experience with this. But, Sara Stein agrees with Vera. She states that you absolutely cannot turn a lawn into a meadow. Sara has a whole chapter about meadows in "Planting Noah's Garden", but to quote just a little ...

"I can't plant New England aster in our island yard; the quackgrass will gobble up it's space. I can's sow a prairie grass; the earlier grass will shade it out before it sees the sun. No mowing schedule will discourage the growth already there; ... "

I've also heard that meadow flowers really need the prairie grasses to grow with them. Something like a symbiotic relationship.

Shelley

everyone's experiences are different - but one key that sarah may not have tried - when planting into a lawn you must keep it mowed - you cannot let your lawn or the prairie plants grow at will in the first growing season ... it probably also depends upon your lawn - if you have crab grass in your lawn or bermuda type grass - it might be harder -

Joepyeweed-so if I mow ultra-short now, and overseed with little bluestem, and then mow as lawn(only taller)for a couple of years, then one fine fall I will see that tell-tale red color? I'll give it a try!

I have a situation where I would like to add more fescue to a majority bluegrass lawn. Does the recommendations here work for that situation?

actually its very common to do what is called overseeding to a turf grass lawn. people like to add another species of bluegrass or fescue into their lawns to provide a mix of grasses for a number of different reasons. and its very much the same principal - typically overseeding is done in the fall by mowing the turf short before adding the new seed. in a turf grass lawn some people like to dethatch right before they overseed to provide more soil contact. for a kentucky blue grass lawn, i would probably dethatch and spread some compost right before i seeded. however this wont work if you are considering the speciality no-mow fine fescues - they are too slow growing to compete with the bluegrass over a growing season. of course my personal preference is to minimize turf grass areas as much as possible.

turf grass really cant outcompete the prairie grasses, once they get established. the first year or two the prairie grasses need help - after that they generally will take over.

I just saw this post. I threw bluebonnet seed over my lawn in November. Each year I wait to mow until I've harvested the seeds and I scatter them. Each year I have a prettier bluebonnet meadow. No extra watering, no extra fertilizing whatsoever. Look at it this way. With all the wildflowers planted by the TXDOT there's no way they could baby the seeds.

Update on my seeding into lawn.........So far, so good!
I've had a total of 9 different wildflowers blooming so far and it's just beautiful. Not like a picture in a book, but very satisfying for me. I had used Roundup on roughly half the area, which is about 100 x 25. The grass in the area I didn't round up is about 6" tall by now, but the orange poppies and the blue (looks like bachelor button) flowers are several inches taller.

This may not work in the long run, but I've had a riot with it this spring