Natural garden with hedge instead of fence

I love our meadow. Every single time I look at it...

I love your meadow too. How long did it take until it looked like this?

I started my poor meadow this year. I sowed some seeds, but I fear other "weeds" have already completely taken over. I tend to just let it grow wild. So far it looks like a thistle field, bordered with bindweed, buttercups, chickweed, shepherd's purse, and other such disliked species.

In the end, I don't really care what grows there, as long as insects can hide in it and the plants grow tall enough to cover 3 ugly manhole covers of the cisterns. So far, the thistles are making every effort. I'm curious what the goldfinches will say about it in autumn.

Question: This year we have a massive infestation of the snowballs with the snowball leaf beetle. The plants have been eaten bare. I don't particularly care about the variety and I see little point in taking major rescue measures. Poison is out of the question in my garden anyway. Is it then just bad luck for the snowball or will it come back next year? Do the beetles stay forever? Then I might rather pull out the plants?

I have no idea how well Schneeball can tolerate being grazed so bare - I would see if he recovers, if not you can always swap him out.

The meadow is in its 2nd year. Last year we had almost only goosefoot - I mowed too late. Only at the edges were scattered flaxweed, poppies, and cornflowers.
And then this year this explosion of blossoms, I wouldn't have expected it.

mowed too late.

When would D.E. have been correct? Everyone writes something different there. Do you use the scythe?

When would D.E. have been correct? Everyone writes something different. Are you using the scythe?

I regularly mow some paths with the electric mower so that I can water the hedge and the beds – and of course so there are observation paths.

I then scythe the rest, yes. On the one hand, the mower eventually can’t get through anymore, on the other hand, there is so much life in the meadow that I would just crush with a mower.

At the moment, there are two good options; I stick to the recommendations of Rieger Hoffmann. If you look on their site under "Wissen - Mähzeitpunkt".

What was the problem for us: it was a new sowing on some topsoil. Apparently, the fat hen seeds were already in there. And fat hen is really nasty – so I had a nice monoculture there. And I should have mowed THAT completely once it was 20cm high. Then I probably would have had many more flowers last year.

The meadow is in its second year. Last year, we almost only had goosefoot – I mowed too late. Only at the edges were occasional flax, poppies, and cornflowers. And then this year, this explosion of blossoms, which I hadn’t expected.

Could you briefly say something about how you proceeded? Was it a seed mixture or did you just wait and see what came? We have been trying this for a while on a small area, with less spectacular success...