Master your mix

Nick's guide to combining plants In this new series Nick Bailey shows how to mix plants in natural planting communities for a happy, healthy garden. First up, we look at meadows

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M eadows are perhaps the ultimate example of plants growing better together. They speak of abundant wildness, beauty and a habitat rich in flora and fauna. But many gardeners fear they are difficult, complicated and take years to achieve. That might be the case if you are trying to establish a native meadow from seed in an existing grassland, but there are other much simpler and more achievable approaches.

And perhaps the easiest of the lot are annual exotic meadows.

I've established these long-flowering, colour-rich, pollinatorfriendly patches many times and you can, too.

Annual meadows

Annual exotic meadow mixes skilfully blend plants borrowed from many parts of the world to create a rich tapestry flowering from May to November. Mixes of this nature often feature the likes of long-flowering linaria in candy colours, California poppies in rich orange, and delicate blue phacelia, not to mention lofty umbels such as ammi and meadow classics such as poppies and cornflowers. The species mix usually varies in height from 20cm up to 80cm, with a mix of forms and leaf shapes ensuring they physically support one another while providing a non-stop display and a reliable eight-month-long feast for pollinators.