Originally Posted by lannerman

As a point of interest, having created several 'wild meadows' professionally, if I was to be asked whats the biggest mistake that most people make, its trying to create these in 'normal top-soil', let me explain. If you do try to create these in normal top soil, the grass grows so well that it often smothers the broad leaved flowering element of the mixture and you end up with very little 'flower' so what I found was the most successful way is to remove most of the top soil almost to subsoil level and then sow. The effect of doing this is to 'weaken' the grass element, allowing the flowering element more chance to survive without the grasses crowding them out.
One of the most successful 'wild flower meadows' I ever created was on coastal sand dunes, as planting here gave a lovely balance to the grass v wild flowers, due to the poor nature of the sandy soil.
Hope this helps, Lannerman.