June – meadow spectacular

At our recent open day (thank you to everyone who came!), the most commented on part of the garden was without doubt the strip of annual meadow. Intensely colourful, with an inviting grass path meandering through the middle, its bucolic good looks seem to stir a slightly different set of emotions from the rest of the garden.

Unlike a perennial meadow, which includes several grass species, takes years to mature, and offers a more muted, softer colour palette, an annual meadow is more a 'live fast, die young' sort. Often containing no grasses, it features only annual flowers – things like poppies, cornflowers, and flax. These last for just one growing season, during which time they flower boldly and brightly.

The seed mix used here is the Classic Mix from Pictorial Meadows. A cut above your average garden centre seed pack, it has been carefully designed to provide constant interest and waves of colour throughout the growing season. Using cultivated forms of both native and non-native species, there’s nothing remotely ‘natural’ about it, and yet it manages to evoke the rustic aesthetic of wildflowers from a bygone age. The folks at Pictorial Meadows certainly know their stuff, and while such expertise comes with a higher price tag, we think you’ll agree the results are well worth it.

The finely tuned Classic Mix PA01.

This is the second year running that an annual meadow has featured in this spot. Part of a parcel of land acquired by Bella to extend the garden, the strip connects a paddock (currently empty but earmarked for a cut flower garden and nursery area) with the Studio and Bog garden.

Initially, the seed mix was intended as a temporary quick fix – a low input, high impact way to cover the large area as it awaited a permanent design. Its beauty has won everyone over, however – so much so that Bella is sorely tempted to stick with it long term...

"It is not just the visitors who love it. It is a rather wonderful thing - and actually not that much work for fabulous impact. The current thinking – and all things can change – is that we'll continue with it, using a trellis to provide screening and privacy instead of the original plan for shrubs and trees".

One of the main things visitors were curious about was how they could achieve similar results at home. Whilst it's true that annual meadows are a relatively low-maintenance garden feature, they're perhaps not quite as easy as the sellers of 'wildflower seed bombs' and suchlike would have us believe.

Head Gardener Jack offers the following advice:

• Sow into bare ground Whereas the starting point for a perennial meadow can be grass, the same is not true for an annual meadow which will only thrive where there is no competition. If the area you have in mind for your annual meadow is currently lawn, you'll need to remove this before proceeding.

• Preparation is key The ground must be as free of weeds as possible. Whether you achieve this by covering the soil for 12 months or more with black plastic, cardboard, carpet and so on; spraying a herbicide in the autumn and spring prior to sowing; or simply doing a lot of hand weeding – this is your number one key to success. In the run up to the first year of sowing, Jack used a combination of all three methods. For the second year, it was two spraying sessions and a day of hand weeding.

• Do yourself a favour with fresh topsoil Once he’s confident the weeds have been taken care of, Jack spreads a layer of bought-in topsoil over the ground. This creates a fine, friable tilth without bringing more weed seeds to the surface through raking or rotavating.

• Sow in March or April once the soil has begun to warm up Getting the seed down early in the year usually ensures that nature takes care of the watering, and means you can be enjoying flowers from as early as May.

• Re-sow annually if you want reliable performance every year If you've allowed your previous years' annual meadow to go to seed, there's a good chance you'll have plenty of seedlings germinating of their own accord. While it's tempting (and entirely possible) to step back and leave these to grow, this is not the approach taken at Gasper. One reason is that it doesn't allow for sufficiently rigorous weed control, but the main issue is the inevitable loss of the original mix's carefully balanced formula. Some species will dominate while others might not show at all, and with no control over the sowing rate there may be too many plants competing for space.

It's clearly the annual meadow's moment in the spotlight, though let's not forget our perennial meadow over on the other side of the garden. An entirely different beast from its quick and colourful cousin, this ever-evolving plant community sees individual species naturally ebb and flow from year to year. It is quieter and more understated than the annually sown mix, though no less beautiful in our eyes.

Until next month. Stay cool!