Half-day project

MEADOW PLANTERS

Medium gardening

Summer

Full sun

Low to moderate watering

Feed with a general-purpose fertiliser in spring

After visiting the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, I really wanted to have a wild meadow garden at home – no mean feat when all you have is pots. Fortunately, I came across a wonderful company called Pictorial Meadows who supply ready-made ‘turf’ containing wild-flower seed, giving you a lovely display of wild flowers. The wild-flower turf is easy to establish and hardly contains any grass (just 1 per cent) because this can quickly overwhelm the perennial flower species. Instead, the little meadow plants are grown in a special substrate. I simply cut the turf down to size to fit my pots. You can also buy seeds for sowing yourself, but I think the results can sometimes be hit and miss when growing wild flowers in containers.

Pictorial Meadows offer a range of turfs for different seasons, all of which contain a variety of beautiful wild flowers. I chose a summer-flowering mix that provides a burst of pink, white and blue (with some additional yellows). I particularly like the bright pink flowers of German pink and the architectural violet-blue flower spikes of viper’s bugloss, which is a magnet for bees. Common yarrow has small, cream or pink flowerheads in summer, but the filigree foliage is also of note, giving a lovely texture to the display. You’ll find that these wild-flower containers encourage bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects to your garden space.