How to Count Wildflowers

Measure a 12-by-12-inch area (one square foot) in the midst of your wildflower garden. Mark it off each of the four corners with a stick, dowel-rod or even popsicle sticks and connect them with string. This gives you a visual reference of your square-foot area.

Count each stem or stalk of the wildflowers within this square-foot area. Write this number down.

Measure another square-foot area at least several feet away from the first one and count the wildflowers in this box. You may wish to create a third or even a fourth if you have an area larger than an acre. The more of these square foot areas you count, the more accurate the end result will be.

Add the number of wildflowers counted within each square foot area, and then divide by the number of areas you made. For example if you made three and the wildflowers counted in each came to 24, 18 and 27, then you would add those to equal 69. Divide 69 by three and you get 23 -- the average number of wildflowers per square foot.

Measure the entire area of wildflowers if you do not already know it. If you have a relatively small area, use a tape measure. If your area is larger, then walking off the perimeter with a distance measuring wheel (there are digital ones available) is much quicker. Once you figure out the total area in which the wildflowers grow, you can then use your per-square-foot number to figure out the total number of wildflowers. If, for example, the total area is 70 square feet and your wildflowers per square foot count is 23, you would multiply 70 by 23, which equals 1,610 total wildflowers.