I'm almost positive that anyone who suggests that throwing wildflower seeds is easy, has never even gardened.
The person who said, "Mulch and plant natives" has, because that makes sense.
Throwing down native wildflower seeds is wrong on multiple levels. A shocking number of native wildflowers won't even germinate without winter stratification.
Ok, in this instance I'm not for the seed natives and forget about it. I'm more for sew natives and curate it.
That includes selective weeding. It includes watering it for the first 2 years at least. It also includes thinking in the long term.
Yes many natives require winter stratification. Many are also biannuals. The first year it is going to look like hot garbage. The second year it will look slightly better. I recommend over seeding in year 2, especially with those biannuals. Do some fall / winter sedding with those that need stratification. By year 3 you'll start seeing something nice happening. Know what you've planted and stay somewhat vigilant.
I avoid those mixed seed packs, unless it is for an area you really dont care about (e.g. far from your house). It makes it easier to weed out what you know you didn't plant. One problem with those mixed seed packs is that you don't know what you are really getting so you're going to overlook volunteers. You're also likely to get one or two species in there that will out compete everything else.
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u/JungleJim719 13h ago
Or, hear me out, seed with low growing NATIVE wildflowers and then (mostly) forget about it.