'meadow' early days

[mutantpoodle]

Hi
last year I sowed 2 packs of 'meadow seeds' obtained online
both suggested coverage and I deliberately exceeded that

so my 'meadow' is 1 year old and has been quite colourful but VERY full of greenery

locally the 'real' meadows have been mown

should I cut mine down yet...or should I wait until the greenery turns, obviously I wasnt expecting fantastic results in only one year but would like to do the right thing for the future

[Laughton]

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=446

[Sorcery]

Hi
last year I sowed 2 packs of 'meadow seeds' obtained online
both suggested coverage and I deliberately exceeded that

so my 'meadow' is 1 year old and has been quite colourful but VERY full of greenery

locally the 'real' meadows have been mown

should I cut mine down yet...or should I wait until the greenery turns, obviously I wasnt expecting fantastic results in only one year but would like to do the right thing for the future

I have been mulling this over too. You would certainly want to leave the mowings around for a while to let the seeds drop. However since it's a year old, there will probably be a mixture of annuals, perennials and biannuals. Only the annuals+some of the perennials will have flowered & be seeding. One of the better things about cutting is that it decapitates the things that will take over the meadow like gorse, brambles and saplings but the cut should be high to avoid damaging anything desirable that's going to be around next year.

I note the RHS advice and have had cut my meadow progressively later each year. However it's a possibility that it would best left as is, for birds, insects, soil fertility. There is no requirement I know of to cut & remove vegetation unless growing for feed. So that might be what gets tried this year.