Preparing hard clay seed bed for meadow mix

Hi Gardeners!

So I've decided to give this clay soil meadow mix a go.

I've cleared a patch of grass, carefully removing as many weeds as I can.

The ground is so hard, bits are like concrete.

I'm wondering the best way to improve the soil before sowing. It needs a finer tilth, I've raked and removed the bigger clods.

Does anyone have advice on how to improve the seed bed? I don't was to add compost as I think the seed need low nutrients.
Perhaps a rough, clay seed bed is okay.

Thanks,
Fin

 

Hi,

Rather than spening a lot of time and effort making the bed suitable for the seeds, why not get some of those, say 15 Cell seed trays using a mix of normal compost and some of your fine clay soil and sow just a few seeds into each cell.

They should geminate easily and when big enough just plant out the whole cell or even split them if possible.

With broadcast sowing can be difficult to know which are the weeds and the ones you want.

 

Hi @ricky101 - thanks, that's a great idea. It will help to get some plants going and can pick out any new weeds that emerge in the mean time.

 

Be interesting to see some pics as your seeds get going and what its like when they have established in the bed.

Was just out watering some plants and saw some viola flowers on the lawn, thought they had been blown off from some nearby plants, but no, they were some self seeded plants , even though the lawn was cut quiet low a few days ago.

They looked so good, kind of make me think about turning this lawn into a meadow type, have already got wild violets in the front lawn; would save all that cutting and trimming !