It’s just as easy to grow cornfield annuals in a pot or planter and, by using compost, you avoid the natural ‘weed’ burden you find in open ground. Follow the same sowing instructions on the previous page, sowing at a rate of about 2–3g per square metre. This means not many seeds at all in even quite a large pot. You can selectively thin out one or more of the plants in the mix if they look like they are going to dominate.
IS IT A MEADOW?
Sometimes a bed of annuals gets called a meadow. Of course, you can call it anything you want to – but it isn’t a meadow, and the distinction is important. Meadows contain different species and are managed very differently.
● AMEADOW (which, in a garden, might be called a mini-meadow, pop-up meadow or flowering lawn) is full of mainly grasses and perennial wildflowers and is managed by mowing (or grazing, should you have a sheep or cow to hand!). Once created, you won’t need to dig it again.
It doesn’t provide the same colour blast as a bed of annuals, but has a more muted charm.
● ABED OF ANNUALS isn’t managed by mowing – it needs cultivating every year to give the annual seeds a fresh, clear bed in which to germinate. These are the mixes that give kaleidoscopes of colour.
● MIX & MATCH If you want, it is possible to sow a meadow on bare ground and mix in a ‘nurse crop’ of cornfield annuals. These will provide cover for the slowly-growing perennials in the first year, but will increasingly disappear after that as the meadow plants establish.
WILDLIFE GARDEN JOBS FOR MARCH
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