Guide
Feeding a meadow is how you get a field of grass
Gardeners improve soil by instinct. Meadow flowers are outcompeted by grass on rich soil, so the correct preparation is to make the ground poorer.
Reduce fertility
Strip the turf and topsoil, or sow yellow rattle first, which parasitises grass roots and weakens them. Do not add compost of any kind.
When to cut
Once in late summer after seed has set, and take the cuttings away. Leaving them returns nutrients and undoes the whole thing.
Expectations
Year one looks poor. Year two is better. A meadow takes three or four years to establish and no amount of effort compresses that.
Read the full guideSee the yellow rattle method
