Growing wildflowers on a slope. If you have a slope in your garden, you might be wondering what to do with it. You could embed rocks in it and create an alpine garden, or if it can be accessed by a mower, you could turf it using TurfOnline’s Enviromat wildflower turf and have a grassy slope to roll down.
However, an easier option in terms of maintenance would be to plant a wildflower meadow on the slope. At TurfOnline, we believe this is the most effective way to spruce up a sloped garden, and below we explain how to achieve this look.
Why plant a wildflower meadow on a slope?
As mentioned above, wildflower meadows are superb options for those gardeners trying to keep the workload down. As much as gardening is great, it can be invaluable to have a space that doesn’t require a tonne of hard graft to maintain. Thankfully, wildflower turf needs very little to thrive.
This is because of another plus point for wildflowers: the wildlife it attracts. They provide the equivalent of a gourmet restaurant for bees, butterflies and birds, meaning that you’ll soon have a garden thriving with visitors and filled with birdsong.
The idea of having a colourful bank of wildflowers and grasses is universally appealing, and you can rest assured that the dense mat of roots will stabilise the slope.
How to establish wildflowers on a slope
If you’re looking to stabilise a slope, always choose perennial wildflowers and grasses. Annual species are great for summer colour but come winter, there will be nothing there to hold the soil in place. Wildflower seeds are cheap and cheerful but can be slow to establish, so if you want instant coverage, it’s worth investing in a quality wildflower turf like Meadowmat.
Firstly, prepare the soil well before adding any plants, because wildflowers like low-nutrient soil and plenty of it. If there isn’t much soil on your slope, either import some or consider growing sedum matting rather than wildflowers. Sedums are great for pollinating insects and very easy to maintain but do need an abundance of sunshine.
Slopes being made ready to receive Meadowmat wildflower turf. This is a project in Essex being carried out by Holland Landscapes
For wildflowers, the soil needs to be 10-15cm deep and raked to a nice tilth. Sprinkle with the hose or a watering can before you start so that the soil is moist but not sodden.
Laying Meadowmat
To lay down Meadowmat, simply sit your roll of wildflower turf at the bottom of the bank and slowly roll it upwards. Press it down firmly so that it has good contact with the soil, and peg it down as you go (if you want to, you can take the pegs out once the roots have established). On a particularly large slope, it could be better to lay the wildflower turf horizontally in bands across the bank.
Avoid walking on prepared soil or your wildflower turf. If you do need to step on it, use laying boards to spread your weight.
Once you’ve finished, you’ll need to water every day for the first fortnight or so and then every other day for the next two weeks. You must get the water to soak through the wildflower turf and into the soil below. This can be tricky on a slope – so be vigilant. Using a sprinkler attachment on your hose or watering can help.
More about wildflower gardening
Find out how wildflowers make for easy gardening here.
Growing wildflowers in a small garden 
Growing wildflowers on your lawn 
When is the best time to lay Meadowmat? 
