Starting a Meadow in Grass Using This Native Plant

This native wildflower can actually replace your grass with wildflower meadow over time; and it can all be done without heavy machinery or expensive investments in soil and labor. In many areas, grass is too vigorous for wildflowers to grow. Demanding roots and tall growth from grass can compete with with other plants and quickly shade them out.

Yellow rattle is a simi-parasitic plant, meaning that it obtains part of its nutrients directly from the roots of other plants, mainly grasses. By doing so it reduces the vigor of grass wherever it grows.

Take a look a this area where yellow rattle has etablished its self in our field. The grass is naturally shorter and less concentrated, allowing sunlight and root space for other other native wildflowers such as arnica and bedstraw to grow. This example happened naturally, but you can use this wonderful plant to speed up the process of starting your own wildflower meadow.

1. Cut the Grass

cut the grass as short as you can in the late fall and remove the debris. Leaving it in can add too much nutrition to the soil, causing high feeding grasses to gain advantage. Wildfowers actually have an upper hand in low nutrient soil.

2. Remove Debris

Rake the area to open up the ground. You want to make sure soil is exposed in order for the yellow rattle seeds to have seed to soil contact with the ground. This is crucial for germination.

3. Spread Seed

Scatter the seed in the open ground. Make sure to do this in the fall, as the seeds will need to be exposed to the cold weather (stratify) in order for them to break dormancy and germinate in the spring. If you've gathered the seeds yourself, make sure to break them out of their pod first. If you don't have it growing naturally in your area and you'd like to buy seeds online we sell them here: Yellow Rattle Seeds

Unlike some cover crops, you don't have to worry about getting rid of it after its done its job. The plant its self is a wildflower for your meadow. The yellow blossoms add colour and and the combination of leaves, sepals, and petals have an interesting look. Yellow rattle also adds diversity to the local ecosystem by attracting various birds, and pollinators like bees and butterflies.

If possible, let them grow a season or two, allowing them to weaken the grass before introducing other wildflowers in into your meadow. Yellow rattle will move its way through the field over the years. Note though taxonomical differences are still being sorted out, the subspecies "groenlandica" growing in alpine or subalpine regions in a variety of habitat across North America is considered native, while other subspecies are considered introduced.

Using semi-parasitic plants such as yellow rattle is, in my opinion, the most natural, uninvasive way to turn large areas of grass into meadow. It's been proven over and over again in nature without the use of hands. The tradeoff is time, but for large, grassy areas, and especially where this plant grows naturally nearby; one can easily gather seed, mow, rake, and cast the seed to areas where meadow is planned to be. Over time it will clear the path for a more diverse variety of delicate-feeding meadow plants.