Wildflower meadows

Creating a wildflower meadow was one of my priorities at Perch Hill. It’s turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

I started by sowing tons of yellow rattle. This weakens the grass and allows more delicate and often more colourful and interesting wildflowers to grow.

Each spring, the mix is dominated by campions. We have a smattering of white campion, lots of red campion and also ragged robin doing well. These wildflowers are hugely important for the view from our kitchen, and we’ve extended the seasonal show with bulbs studded through. There are a few tricks for getting different bulb varieties looking good in grass. The first is to plant them in swathes rather than patches. The second trick is to go for a couple of different varieties each year and to plant them en masse, then go for different ones the following season.

• A Year Full Of Flowers (Bloomsbury ) by Sarah Raven is out now. For more of Sarah’s expert gardening tips, visit sarahraven.com. READER OFFER: Get 15% off Sarah’s range – turn to page 190 for details.