Questions: Seedling recruitment is a key step in any seed-based ecological restoration project. There is a controversial discussion (a) whether soil preparation is required to reduce competition of pre-existing vegetation, or whether vegetation cover facilitate seedling recruitment, and (b) whether grazing should be excluded in initial stages of grassland restoration to protect seedlings, because grazing exclusion may also favour competitive ruderal species. We set up a combined soil preparation and grazing experiment to evaluate the effect of both factors on seedling recruitment of seeds transferred from a species-rich donor site.