Chris Hogg wrote:

> My understanding of a wildflower meadow is that it requires fairly
> poor soil. This prevents some of the more aggressive weeds from
> getting a strong hold and crowding out the weaker, possibly more
> desirable flowers.

Having rotavated it back in Feb when it was quite wet, it set into hard clods,
only a few weeds poked through and no "bad" ones, so I sprayed them off a couple
of weeks ago.

We didn't really get much frost to break the soil down, and it would break my
back to rake it all, so I hired a power raker which, despite being quite a beast
to control, did an excellent job, it brought a few stones to the surface which I
suppose I ought to pick out.

Looking like we might get some rain tomorrow, so should be ready to sow the
seeds one evening. I have bought a hand-held spreader and a bag of kilned sand
to mix with the seeds, still not sure how easy it'll be gauging just 2 g/m^2

In article <jduilpFmrv8U1@mid.individual.net>, usenet@andyburns.uk
says...
>
> Chris Hogg wrote:
>
> > My understanding of a wildflower meadow is that it requires fairly
> > poor soil. This prevents some of the more aggressive weeds from
> > getting a strong hold and crowding out the weaker, possibly more
> > desirable flowers.
>
> Having rotavated it back in Feb when it was quite wet, it set into hard clods,
> only a few weeds poked through and no "bad" ones, so I sprayed them off a couple
> of weeks ago.
>
> We didn't really get much frost to break the soil down, and it would break my
> back to rake it all, so I hired a power raker which, despite being quite a beast
> to control, did an excellent job, it brought a few stones to the surface which I
> suppose I ought to pick out.
>
> Looking like we might get some rain tomorrow, so should be ready to sow the
> seeds one evening. I have bought a hand-held spreader and a bag of kilned sand
> to mix with the seeds, still not sure how easy it'll be gauging just 2 g/m^2

Mix the WF seed well with a larger weight of sand . Then you can
easily judge the even coverage of sand (light colour) scattered over a
square metre of earth (darker.)

Use 4 garden canes tied together in a metre square and move it along as
you seed each sq.m.

Janet.

Janet wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> Looking like we might get some rain tomorrow

yay ...

>> so should be ready to sow the seeds one evening. I have bought a hand-held
>> spreader and a bag of kilned sand to mix with the seeds, still not sure how
>> easy it'll be gauging just 2 g/m^2
>
> Mix the WF seed well with a larger weight of sand .

yes, I'd already bought some sand, still a bit worried that the sand and smaller
seeds will sink in the hopper leaving the larger seeds floating on top and not
spreading evenly.

> Use 4 garden canes tied together in a metre square and move it along as
> you seed each sq.m.

Not very keen on marking out 140 squares individually, was hoping to get a
correct spreading rate and do it at walking pace, probably in two directions to
smooth out errors.

On 11/05/2022 06:59, Andy Burns wrote:

> yes, I'd already bought some sand, still a bit worried that the sand and smaller
> seeds will sink in the hopper leaving the larger seeds floating on top and not
> spreading evenly.

It's more expensive than sand, but crushed bran breakfast cereal will
have the same density as seeds - more or less. You could try mixing the
seeds with that.

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> a bit worried that the sand and smaller seeds will sink in the hopper
>> leaving the larger seeds floating on top and not spreading evenly.
>
> It's more expensive than sand, but crushed bran breakfast cereal will have the
> same density as seeds - more or less. You could try mixing the seeds with that.

£1.29 for 750g from H&B, I've got 350g of seed, so that'd allow about a 2:1 mix
with the seeds, thanks ... will probably attract more birds!

On 11/05/2022 08:31, Andy Burns wrote:
>
> Jeff Layman wrote:
>
>> Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>>> a bit worried that the sand and smaller seeds will sink in the hopper
>>> leaving the larger seeds floating on top and not spreading evenly.
>>
>> It's more expensive than sand, but crushed bran breakfast cereal will have the
>> same density as seeds - more or less. You could try mixing the seeds with that.
>
> £1.29 for 750g from H&B, I've got 350g of seed, so that'd allow about a 2:1 mix
> with the seeds, thanks ... will probably attract more birds!

Well, there are always pros and cons! But birds seem to know what to
reject - they most certainly open sunflower seeds and allow the hard
coat to fall away. The fussy little goldfinches even carefully remove
the soft covering of sunflower kernels and discard it before eating the
kernel! So maybe the birds will not eat the bran as it's not nutritious.

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> £1.29 for 750g from H&B, I've got 350g of seed, so that'd allow about a 2:1 mix
>> with the seeds, thanks ... will probably attract more birds!
>
> Well, there are always pros and cons! But birds seem to know what to reject -
> they most certainly open sunflower seeds and allow the hard coat to fall away.
> The fussy little goldfinches even carefully remove the soft covering of
> sunflower kernels and discard it before eating the kernel! So maybe the birds
> will not eat the bran as it's not nutritious.

Certainly spreading a mixture over 1Kg seems a more reasonable amount, with some
hope of dividing it into a least two "runs" and adjusting the rate if it looks
like it might run out too quickly