Seed Mix FAQs

Why did Wild Roots create a seed mix?

Sometimes it’s impractical or too expensive to buy individual plants to cover a large space, and sometimes you just want to do things a little differently and watch nature take its course. A few years back, we decided to seed a portion of our back yard and weren’t satisfied with any of the seed mixes we found on the market. At the time we bought the best available mix and adjusted it by adding more of what we wanted to see. The experience of watching the meadow grow that first year, and evolve over time, has been amazing. We knew years ago we wanted to one day create our own mix from scratch. We also learned a lot in the process and have a read a ton about meadow compositions since (including the math involved) and want to share that knowledge with our community.

What makes this mix different from others on the market?

If you visit a garden center or gift shop, you’ll see a lot of different “meadow in a can” type of products. The packaging is always cute but unfortunately, many of these are stuffed with non-natives and exotic annual plants. And what’s worse, because of the heavy reliance on annuals and the understandable business need to package a lot of seeds at a time, most of these mixes completely fizzle out after one growing season and much of the seed isn’t viable or of high enough quality to get good germination.

On the other hand, many bulk seed wholesalers sell mixes that do contain high-quality seeds of beneficial native species, but they’re designed for large-scale restoration projects in natural areas. They’re great for that purpose, but frankly would be extremely underwhelming in a small-scale home garden or similar space.

Our goal was to create a mix that was designed to maximize aesthetics for small spaces year over year, but was also made up of high-quality, ecologically beneficial native plants.

How long will it take for your mix to have an impact?

This is definitely not one of those aforementioned meadows in a can packed with annuals. Our mix is mostly made up of hardy perennials that will provide blooms year after year. The one downside is that many plants of this variety might not show blooms until the second or even third growing season since they start off their growth by focusing on stable roots, so a bit of patience is required. But to give the mix some oomph in year one, we added two of our favorite biennial plants, lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). These are shorter-lived plants (though they may reseed), but they typically produce profuse, long-lived blooms from summer through fall during the first growing season while others are getting established. And don’t be surprised if some of the other species, especially purple coneflowers and wild bergamot show off some blooms in year one as well.

How did you design the mix?

We started out with some of our personal favorite native plants that are easy to grow and aren’t super picky about their conditions. We avoided any that were super tall so they wouldn’t overwhelm smaller spaces (most species are in the 3-4 foot range). Next we made sure that we’d have a mix that would provide a continual succession of blooms throughout the entire growing season, so the resulting garden would never look dull. And finally we made sure that we included plenty of species that had excellent wildlife value (though frankly that part’s pretty easy when you start with a native palette).

But choosing the species is just the beginning. Plants vary widely in their germination rates and growth patterns. James Hitchmough, a UK horticulturalist and researcher, has designed many prominent seed-grown public gardens and has trialed dozens of species. We used his measured emergence rates and chose a target number of viable seedlings per square meter of garden for each included species in order to create a mix with maximum impact.

When should I sow my seeds?

For best results, we recommend sowing around New Year’s, though you can get away with sowing them anytime between late fall and early Spring.

Most native perennial seeds have evolved a protective coating to prevent them from germinating at inopportune times. Each species has its own optimal conditions for germinating (some of them very specific, like passing through a bird’s digestive tract to dissolve the seed coating), but a good general way to maximize germination for most of our mid-Atlantic natives (including the ones in this mix) is to simply sow them in the winter. This period of cold stratification will encourage the seeds to break dormancy and germinate at the right time.

But don’t worry too much if you aren’t able to get to them in the winter. You can still sow in the spring, but your germination rates of certain species might be lower (though if you’re lucky, any that stay dormant might stick around in the soil and germinate next year).

Where and how should I sow my seeds?

Site preparation

Pick a reasonably sunny spot and clear it completely of grass, weeds, and other plants, including any roots that might resprout. It is possible to scatter the seeds among other garden plants, but many of the species won’t germinate if they’re shaded out by other mature plants. So we recommend starting with a blank slate.

Remember, fast-growing weeds and turf can quickly out-compete the seedlings in this mix, so be sure to fully remove them to get to bare soil. As with most gardening projects, thorough site preparation is the key to a successful project, and skimping here just leads to extra work later on (or even worse, a failed garden project).

Extra Credit for Site Prep

So you’re one of those people who likes to go all out, huh? We’ve got you covered.

One thing to keep in mind is that your soil will likely contain a bank of dormant weed seeds, so an extra step that you may take is to spread 3-4 inches of coarse sand (such as masonry sand) on top of your cleared soil to suppress the seed bank and keep the buried weeds from sprouting. This is called a planting mulch, and your seeds will have no trouble putting their roots down to the native soil below. This is not a necessary step by any means, but more like extra insurance.

Sowing your seeds

Many of the seeds in the mix are extremely small and light, so it can be tricky to spread the relatively small amount of viable seeds needed for 100 square feet evenly over that large a space, especially since it can be hard to see where your seeds are landing. For that reason, we’ve included inert rice hulls in the mix to bulk it up and make it easier to spread evenly. This is a standard practice for restoration seeding, and no, we didn’t just add it to make the packaging look bigger :)

Before spreading, shake your seeds well so they mix evenly with each other and the rice hulls. We recommend taking about half of the seed mix and then spreading that out evenly over your soil surface by hand over the entire 100 sq ft planting area (you don’t need to dig trenches or holes for them like you might with veggie seeds). Then take the second half and cover the same area, using a spreading motion perpendicular to what you used the first time. This method makes it less likely that you’ll miss areas (or use up your seed before you’ve covered the entire area).

Once your seeds are spread, gently walk over them to ensure good seed-to-soil contact. You can also (very gently) rake your seeds into the planting medium, but keep them close to the surface. If it’s warm enough, you can gently water them with a shower attachment to a watering can just to help ensure they stick

At this point, you can leave your seeds alone to begin the stratification process, but you’re liable to lose some to birds, squirrels, and even wind. If you’ve used a sand sowing mulch, gently raking them in will usually suffice to protect most of your seeds. For best results when planting on soil, you can scatter a thinner layer of sand on top of your seeds (maybe a quarter inch or so) to protect them. Water and even sunlight can still easily get to your seeds under a thin layer of sand. You can also toss a very small amount of loose, dry soil on top of your planting area to stabilize it, but be sure not to deeply bury your seeds! Do not add wood chips or other garden mulches over your seeds, they need light to germinate. For areas where you might expect heavy disturbance, you can put a layer of biodegradable jute erosion mats over top of your seeds, but make sure the weave isn’t too tight such that it prevents your seeds fro sprouting.

What kind of growing conditions should my garden have?

We designed this mix with easy-to-grow species that can thrive in a wide range of conditions. For optimal results, choose a site with full sun and average soil. But part sun should still work fine.

Do you have soil that’s a little bit dry, or conversely maybe a little bit on the moist side? Slightly sandy? Or do you have more clay-like soil? Since we picked a lot of generalist species, you’ll likely still get good results.

Remember, with a mix of different species like this, your exact results will vary with your site conditions. You might get a different balance of these species from the same mix than your friend across town with different growing conditions, but both should still look great.

This isn’t a universal mix though (no such seed mix exists). This mix would not work on sites with full shade (a closed tree canopy), standing water or constantly wet soils, or soils with extreme pH.

Should I amend, fertilize, or till my soil?

Nah. Those are common practices for increasing agricultural yields but will likely cause more harm than good when gardening with native plants. In fact, most native plants prefer lean soils and can flop over or experience pest problems when soils are too rich.

You may be tempted to till your soil to prepare the planting bed, but you’re much better off doing your best to mechanically remove the turf and weeds while leaving the soil structure relatively intact. Tilling can break up turf roots that could resprout or bring buried weed seeds up to the surface.

As for fertilizer, you should think of it more as a prescription drug than plant food (plants make their own food via photosynthesis, after all). Never add fertilizer unless you’re correcting a specific deficiency identified by a soil test (which again, is going to generally be in the realm of growing food).

How should I take care of my garden?

Prior to germination

Once your seeds are sown, you don’t need to do much, just let nature take its course. No watering needed over the winter.

Once the seeds germinate

Once you start to see sprouts in early spring, you should start watering. You won’t need much - maybe a light watering 1-2 times per week during the spring and early summer to increase your germination rates and keep the vulnerable seedlings from drying out (plants grown from seed will need much less water than transplanted mature plants). Water more frequently during the emergence season if you use a sand sowing mulch, which will dry out faster than normal soil.

As your seeds emerge, be sure to remove any grass or weeds that sprout and may compete with your plants (see below for more info). Keeping your plot weed-free until your plants are strong enough to thrive on their own and are filling the space is the key to success.

You can start to tail off your watering as summer approaches, but watering during hot, dry periods, or whenever your plants look like their flagging, is still a good idea during year one. Depending on your growing conditions, you likely won’t need to water after year one, unless we get another crazy drought like we had this year :(

After each growing season

Cut your stalks back to the ground after each growing season (we like to chop ours up and leave them as mulch). While a lot of folks cut back in the fall, we like to keep our dried stalks up over the winter to provide food and habitat for wildlife (and for aesthetic reasons too).

How do I know what’s a weed and what’s a desirable plant?

This is one of the hardest parts about growing a garden from seed. You’ll need to nip weeds in the bud, but it can be very difficult to know which seedlings are weeds and which are plants in this mix (even if you’re familiar with the mature versions, seedlings can look quite different).

This seedling guide can be very helpful in identifying desirable plants. Most of the plants in our mix are pictured in it.

Are all of these plants native?

Every species in this mix has a native range that includes the mid-Atlantic, though some are quite rare as wild populations here in NJ. Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) is the only one that doesn’t have a documented range in New Jersey, though it’s been documented as native in New York, Maryland, and other nearby states.

As for the seeds themselves, we didn’t incorporate any pre-made mixes, and we did our best to use seeds with local genetic provenance, where available. About half of the seeds in this mix can be traced to ecotypes from populations within 1 or 2 states of us.