According to Diboll, timing and site preparation are critical to growing a successful mix of wildflowers. The site must be prepared properly from the start or the area will revert to grasses and weeds.
Since you are creating a space that takes years for nature to generate, the meadow will need a fresh start. The existing population of weeds and their seed must be cleared, ensuring that the area where the new meadow will be is totally free of competitive plants. This requires an entire growing season of preparation.
Begin by mowing the area as close as practical. Then begin weed eradication. Mulch and herbicides provide two ways to do this. The mulch can be plastic sheeting, thick wads of newspaper or other material that will keep light from reaching weeds. Plastic sheeting also creates heat to smother germinating seeds. Diboll suggests treating all surface weeds with an herbicide that will kill the entire area of weeds, including their roots.
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved vinegar as a weed killer. When weeds are young, spray them with a vinegar-based weed killer available from your garden center or grocery store. White vinegar is a 5 percent solution, and that will kill young weeds. You can also spray weeds with very effective glyphosate-based herbicides such as Roundup and Kleeraway. Follow all label instructions on any herbicide. In the case of household vinegar, use it undiluted in a plastic sprayer, because vinegar is corrosive to metal.
Apply herbicides as needed in spring, summer, fall, winter and again next spring. The objective is to rid the surface soil of all plant material. This will provide the conditions for the wildflower seed that you will spread to germinate and begin growing.
Another way to kill weeds is to use plastic sheeting. This spring, mulch the area that you would like to plant next spring, covering it with thick (three- to four-mill) plastic sheeting secured with soil staples. The sheeting will help germinate the seeds in the top inch or two of soil. As they grow, the weeds will suffocate under the plastic. The sheeting that is laid now, in early April, must stay in place for the entire year, so you can control weed seeds that germinate through all seasons.
Remove the plastic sheeting to seed your wildflower meadow about June 15, 2012. The soil you find under the plastic should be bare. Do not till the soil you just cleared. That would bring fresh weed seed to the surface. Only scratch the bare soil deeply enough (about an eighth of an inch) to hold the wildflower seed. Sprinkle your seed mix evenly over the area, perhaps with some sheep’s fescue. That’s all that should contact the previously covered soil.
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