Many of the perennials that I have listed below are common plants that your neighbors probably grow in their own gardens.  I found when I started my own wildflower meadow that my gardening friends were only to happy to share their divisions in the spring.  I waited until my wildflower seeds had germinated and I could get a sense of where the “bald patches” were and then filled in with the auxiliary perennials.

The best time to seed here in the North, is early spring (mid May to mid June).  You can also seed in late fall, but if there should be a stretch of unseasonable warm weather some of the seed may germinate and winter kill.

Mow the site close to the ground and then rake away any debris which might be covering the ground.  Do not till again or you will turn up more weed seeds.  Be very selective about which seed mix you use.  I recommend buying your mix from a local grower so you will get one appropriate to our region.  Whether you are planting a prairie or wildflower garden, incorporate a few native, nonaggressive, grasses to tie your garden together.

Mix the seeds with sand (1 part seed to 4 parts sand) and then broadcast them evenly over the entire area by hand.

After the seeds have been sown you need to “tamp” them down so that they make contact with the soil.  For smaller gardens, rake a very light dusting of soil over the whole area and then tamp with the back of the rake.  For large areas you’ll need a tractor to pull a farm drag with two inch deep teeth or use a square piece of chain link fence weighted down with several cement blocks.  After dragging, drive the tractor back over the area to pack the seeds down.

Water regularly until the plants have become established.  After that, a prairie planting should rarely have to be watered as most of the plants are naturally drought resistant.

One way to prevent weeds from shading new prairie seedlings the first year is to set your mower at its highest cutting position and mow each time the weed growth is 6 to 10 inches high, before the weeds have set seed.

After that first growing season, your prairie garden will only require mowing every two to four years.  A wildflower meadow needs an annual mowing in the fall after all the flowers have set seed.  This will ensure that all the annual flower seeds are distributed on the ground before the snow comes to pack them down for the next growing season

Flowers for a Northern Wildflower Meadow

The Minnesota DNR has a great page with Prairie and Wildflower landscape good for Northern Backyards at:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/nativeplants/index.html

Other good links for prairie and wildflower information are:

"Natural Gardening in Small Spaces," by Noel Kingsbury, Hardcover - 176  pages (April 2003), Timber Pr.  I love this book!  It is the definitive resource for those with small city lots (and even those that don't) who would like to have a more natural landscape.