Have you ever caught sight of a patch of wildflowers growing along the side of a road? Lovely, wasn’t it? Have you thought about creating your own wildflower patch? Wildflower gardens are like any other garden. They take time to plant and cultivate into the mass of loveliness spotted roadside, but once they take off, you will have a lovely garden for years to come.

It is not enough to drop some seeds onto the ground like Mother Nature does roadside. You need a site with partial to full sun, and you need to prep the site accordingly. So, grab your garden tools and prepare to clear the area.

How you go about clearing the site will depend on the size of it. If it is a small area, you may be able to dig out the weeds by hand. If it is a rather large area, you may want to mow it and cover it with plastic for a couple of months to smother the weeds or apply an herbicide to kill the weeds more quickly. When the area is cleared, you will need to till it and apply some herbicide spray. This will remove any weeds remaining. Then you can rake and level the soil.

Now you are ready to plant the seeds. Choose species native to your area. Wildflower seeds can be tiny, so mix yours with sand to make them easier to plant. Scatter the mix evenly across the site and rake it in lightly. Then water the area thoroughly and cover it with straw to keep the birds away. With regular watering, the seeds should germinate in 10 to 21 days and bloom in five to six weeks. To help fill in the garden and keep weeds at bay, you may want to plant some grasses. Hardy fescues, such as Kentucky 31 tall fescue grass, work well in wildflower gardens.

In the beginning, you will need to weed and water your wildflower garden regularly, reseed it periodically and mow it down each fall. Once the flowers get established, there will be very little maintenance to keep your oasis intact. Add some benches, weed now and then, and enjoy!