In article , Nell
writes

My soil is quite acidic. English Nature recommends twenty or so
wildflowers for acidic soil. Over the next few years I intend to insert
them as "plugs" higgledy-piggledy into small holes in the lawn. The
proper method to create grassland is to completely remove your lawn (!),
till the top few inches of remaining soil, de-nutrify it as much as
possible for a few years by planting it with Yellow Rattle, and then
sprinkling it with a mixture of all the wildflowers and wild grasses
that love acid soil. Well, I cannot be doing all that. Too expensive
an operation for one thing.

Perhaps, but your plug plants will struggle if your nutrient levels are
too high. Grasses, dandelions love a high nutrient situation and will
out-compete most other things. Be prepared for a long slog!

Very roughly, you need to decide on whether you want a spring meadow -
mow from July onwards, keeping about 6 inches high - or a summer one -
mow in September. Spring meadow plants include bulbs and low growing
plants which will struggle in the long grass of a summer one - cowslips,
for example, do not seem to thrive in long grass.

The big blue geranium and Centaurea nigra seem to be happy in long
grass, able to compete well, and relatively untroubled by slugs.

oxeye daisy leucanthemum vulgare,
slugs like these


yarrow achillea millefolium,

and this. I've completely failed to esatblish it.

self-heal prunella vulgaris.

Not very tall - think it would struggle in a summer meadow.


Campanula rotundifolia
suscepible to slug damage, and I don't think it will cope with long
grass.


Centaurea nigra
Good and showy.

Hieracium pilosella
Is this the orange one? Seems to be going well at the moment, but time
till tell.

Vicia cracca * = legume (use native strain only)
This is happy in long grass


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"