Planting Wildflowers for Bees and Butterflies

Why a Wildflower Patch Is Worth the Effort

Few things lift the heart like a strip of ragged robin and ox-eye daisies buzzing with life on a July morning. Wildflowers are the engine room of a smallholding's ecology: they supply the nectar and pollen that bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies need to complete their life cycles, and in return they bring pollination to your fruit trees, soft fruit and runner beans. A well-chosen patch will also feed the caterpillars of native butterflies, many of which are fussy about which plants they will eat.

The good news is that you do not need acres. A sunny border, an awkward corner beside the hen run, or a rough verge along a track can all be turned into a productive pollinator haven. The trick is to choose the right seed for your soil, sow it properly, and then manage it patiently rather than tidily.

Choose Native Seed for Your Soil and Region

Native wildflowers have evolved alongside our native insects, so they tend to offer the right shape of flower for the right tongue length. Avoid imported mixes and anything described as a general-purpose "butterfly mix" without a species list. Instead, buy a mix matched to your soil type: a chalk and limestone mix for thin, lime-rich ground, a clay soil mix for heavy land, and a meadow mix for neutral loam.

• Clay and heavy soils: common knapweed, meadow cranesbill, field scabious, greater burnet, tufted vetch.
• Chalk and limestone: wild marjoram, salad burnet, small scabious, cowslip, kidney vetch (a favourite of the small blue butterfly).
• Acid and sandy soils: sheep's sorrel, tormentil, betony, devil's-bit scabious, foxglove.
• Cornfield annuals for quick colour: cornflower, corncockle, corn marigold, common poppy, scentless mayweed.

Include yellow rattle wherever you can. This modest yellow-flowered annual is semi-parasitic on grasses and weakens their vigour, opening up space for flowers to establish. Sow it in autumn; it needs a spell of cold to germinate.

Prepare the Ground Properly

Wildflowers resent competition from vigorous grass and from a soil that is too rich. If your patch has been fed or manured, consider stripping the top few centimetres of turf or lifting it and stacking it upside down for a season. The aim is a lean, open seedbed.

• Clear existing vegetation thoroughly, roots and all. Perennial weeds such as docks and thistles must go before sowing.
• Let the ground settle for two or three weeks, then hoe off the first flush of weed seedlings.
• Sow in autumn (September to October) or early spring (March to April). Autumn sowing suits most native perennials.
• Broadcast at about 1.5 to 2 grams per square metre for a meadow mix, or up to 5 grams for cornfield annuals.
• Mix the seed with dry sand or fine compost so you can see where you have been, then rake lightly and firm with a board or roller. Do not bury the seed deeply.

Water gently if the weather turns dry, and keep the patch free of problem weeds in the first year. Expect mostly green growth and only a sprinkling of flowers in year one — this is normal.

Manage the Meadow Through the Year

A wildflower patch is not an unmanaged patch. Without cutting, grasses take over and the flowers quietly disappear. The classic hay meadow regime works well on almost any smallholding scale.

• Late July to August: take the main cut once the majority of flowers have set seed. Use a scythe, strimmer or mower on a high setting.
• Remove the cuttings. Rake them up and compost or use as hay. Leaving them in place feeds the soil and encourages grass at the expense of flowers.
• September to October: take a second, shorter cut to tidy the regrowth, again clearing the clippings.
• November to March: leave the patch long and tussocky. Seed heads feed goldfinches and the hollow stems shelter overwintering insects.
• Always leave a section uncut each year, rotating which part, so something is always providing cover.

Never apply fertiliser, and avoid insecticides and broad-spectrum weedkillers anywhere near the patch. If you keep livestock, fence the area off or graze it lightly in winter only.

Add the Extras That Butterflies Really Need

Nectar is only half the story. Many of our best-loved butterflies need specific larval food plants, and a wildflower patch surrounded by short, tidy grass offers nowhere for them to complete their life cycle.

• Cuckooflower and garlic mustard for orange-tip and green-veined white.
• Common bird's-foot trefoil for common blue and dingy skipper.
• Nettles in a sunny patch for peacock, small tortoiseshell and red admiral caterpillars.
• Buckthorn and alder buckthorn for brimstone.
• Grasses left long over winter for meadow brown, ringlet and gatekeeper.

Add a shallow water dish with pebbles for drinking, a south-facing log pile or bank of bare earth for solitary bees to nest in, and leave a few dead stems standing. It costs nothing and makes a real difference.

What to Expect in Your First Few Years

Be patient and observant. Year one is mostly establishment. Year two brings colour and the first real hum of bees. By year three, if you have cut and cleared diligently, the patch should be self-sustaining, with knapweed, scabious and clover returning year after year and yellow rattle keeping the grasses in check.

Keep a simple notebook of what flowers when and which insects visit. You will quickly learn which corners perform best and can tweak your mix accordingly. There is no greater reward on a smallholding than stepping outside on a warm afternoon to find your own patch of wildflowers alive with wings.