Perennial wildflowers in grass

If you’re trying to establish perennial wildflowers in a little patch of an existing lawn you can’t just sow the seeds in the turf. Mow the grass in the area, remove the cuttings and stop feeding to weaken the turf, so the flowers can establish.

Wildflowers need fewer nutrients than grass so encouraging them in your lawn is an easy way to cope with a less than perfect lawn on dry, nutrient-poor soil.

Buy plug plants to put in the turf now, or you could sow seeds indoors now to raise small plants to pop in the turf in spring. It can be helpful to kill the grass in small patches to help the plants compete against the grass, too. Use a ready-to-use weedkiller and spray a small circle 10cm (4in) across a week or two before planting.

How well your plants establish and which plants will naturalise well depends on the soil you have and your mowing regime. Not all wild plants like the same soil so you’ll eventually get a natural balance of what suits your conditions.

It’s best to delay mowing on your little patch until July, when early-flowering plants have set seed. If you include later flowers you’ll need to delay cutting until August. Mow once they’ve dried and shed seeds.

After that you can mow the spot once a month and make the last cut in November so the grass is as short as possible in spring. This is so wildflowers get a chance to beat the grass to the sun and any bulbs can show themselves off.