Wildflower garden design and ideas
Wildflower garden design means letting part of the garden grow like a meadow: poppies, cornflowers and ox-eye daisies among fine grasses, with a mown path or a crisp edge so it looks planned, not forgotten.
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Bare dug ground sown as a meadow of poppies, cornflowers and daisies, with a mown path
Get this garden →Real wildflower garden ideas
Wildflowers for gardens of every size, from a whole lawn turned to meadow to a border round one tree, each a real garden redesigned with the app. Tap Before to see how each started, or Get this garden to try the look on yours.
Wildflower meadow ideas
Two meadows with a mown path through them: a big lawn sown with wildflowers under young birches, and bare dug ground turned into poppies, cornflowers and ox-eye daisies. 2 gardens
Bare dug ground sown as a meadow of poppies, cornflowers and daisies, with a mown path
Get this garden →Wildflower border ideas
A wildflower garden border in a small space: artificial grass under a copper beech taken up and sown with poppies, cornflowers and daisies round a bird bath. 1 garden
Artificial grass under a copper beech replaced with a wildflower border and a bird bath
Get this garden →How to design a wildflower garden
The few ideas behind the gardens above, and how to create a wildflower garden of your own from them.
What makes a wildflower garden
A wildflower garden swaps some of the lawn or bare soil for flowers that grow the way they would in a field: loose and mixed, among fine grasses, rather than in blocks. Most keep a mown path through the flowers or a strip of short grass round them, which is what makes a meadow look deliberate.
Annual or perennial meadow
There are two kinds. An annual cornfield mix of poppies, cornflowers and corn marigolds flowers the first summer from seed sown on bare, dug soil, and needs the ground turning again to come back. A perennial meadow of ox-eye daisies, knapweed, scabious and grasses takes a year or two to settle, then comes back each year.
Starting from a lawn
Wildflowers do best in poor soil, so lift the turf or skim off the richest topsoil rather than adding compost. To turn an existing lawn into meadow, sow yellow rattle into the grass in autumn: it weakens the grass so the flowers can compete, and plug plants can follow.
A meadow in a small garden
A meadow does not need a field. A strip along a fence, a border round a tree, or one corner of the lawn sown and edged with a mown line all work, and they bring in bees and butterflies the same way a field does.
See it on your own garden first
Garden Design App designs your garden from a photo. It reads a picture of your garden, keeps the house, the fences and the trees where they are, and redesigns it as a wildflower garden with plants you could genuinely grow.
From an idea to a plan you can plant
When one of the designs clicks, the Pro and Max plans turn it into a planting plan: every plant named, how big each grows and where each goes, with a month by month flowering calendar so the garden has something in flower from spring to autumn.
12 wildflower garden plants
British wildflowers for a meadow or a wildflower border: annuals for the first summer, perennials for the years after.
- Ox-eye daisy
- Field poppy
- Cornflower
- Corn marigold
- Red campion
- Common knapweed
- Field scabious
- Wild carrot
- Bird's-foot trefoil
- Meadow cranesbill
- Musk mallow
- Yellow rattle
More wildflower garden ideas
A rectangle of new turf beside a blank gable becomes a meadow of salvias and scabious, in our new build garden ideas makeover.
Grasses and late flowers in loose drifts, a meadow's garden cousin, fill our prairie garden ideas.
A small pond, gravel and flowers for bees and butterflies fill one of the gardens on our wildlife garden design page.
Wildflower garden design questions
How do I start a wildflower garden?
Pick a sunny spot, take off the turf or the richest topsoil, and sow onto bare, raked ground in autumn or spring. Wildflowers do better in poor soil than rich, so leave out the compost and feed.
Can you just throw wildflower seeds onto grass?
Not into an established lawn: the grass will smother them. The seed needs bare soil, raked and firmed, with the seed pressed in. In a lawn, sow yellow rattle first to weaken the grass, or plant small plug plants instead.
What month do you plant wildflowers?
In the UK, September to October or March to April. Autumn suits perennial meadow mixes and yellow rattle, which needs a cold spell before it will grow; spring suits annual cornfield mixes.
What are the disadvantages of a wildflower meadow?
It looks untidy for part of the year, above all once it has flowered, and it needs cutting once a year in late summer with the cuttings taken away. It takes a year or two to settle, and in rich soil the grasses and weeds win.
Can I see a wildflower garden on my own garden?
Yes. Add a photo of your garden, choose the Wildflower meadow style, and see it redesigned in about a minute. Your house, fences and trees stay.
Are the plants real, and can I buy them?
Yes. With the Pro and Max plans every design names its plants: garden centre favourites and RHS Award of Garden Merit winners, chosen by a professional gardener, with how big each grows and where each goes.
Is it free?
Your first 3 designs are free, with no card needed. The Pro plan is £29 and the Max plan is £49, paid once, with nothing to cancel.
Can I try more than one wildflower garden idea?
Yes. Make different designs and compare them on your own garden. Your first 3 are free, and Pro, one payment of £29, gives you 20 designs over 14 days, two at a time, so you can see several looks side by side.
Why does my redesign look like high summer?
We show your garden at its peak, in full flower, so you can see how full it can look. It is an artist's impression: your real garden changes through the seasons. Every paid design comes with a flowering calendar, so you know what flowers each month, and evergreen shapes help it look good in winter.
Let part of your garden run wild.
Try any of these wildflower garden ideas on your own garden in about a minute. Your first 3 designs are free.
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