the daydream fund challenge thread

lostinrates

rozeepozee wrote: »

Sounds fabulous. Something I would ike to do in the medium term too, so I'm interested in the replies.

mine is a smallish patch to begine with, about ten metres by five ish? But plan to make the orchard a wild flower place too, plus species roses.


I think i have fox and cub seeds in an envelope, don't actually kow what these are, but a friends mum got them for me from her verge..perhaps i call them somethg else? I also have thos ebig wild daisy/marguerites which i hope will take, i love them, and red corn poppies.

For help, common mallow and chamomile do really well around there. More worrying ly...as regards nitrogen levels and wild flowers, so do nettles. The area is main,y hardcore and rubish atm and will be built up rather than cleared, with some rough soil.....ditch clear oit soil, that kind rough stuff, so should be impoverished. We are on clay.

Itismehonest

lostinrates wrote: »

I know i want to but will they germinate and survive?!

Also, i am going to be ready in the next week or two, to turn my attention to my first wildflower planting area. I know rhiwfield has some experience with this!

I want to sow and plant just wild flowers, i am confident the grass will recover from my prepping and encroach from either side in future years and want the area flower rich, not meadow proper. Its at the side of my drive, and the idea is to look beter than natural.....like no make up makeup . The area gets full east sun, full west sun, part gets shade from the south sun from two very, very old elders whoch were cut back last year to hedge height...so can have some shade tolerant stuff...like bluebells, at the back, and some sun lovers at the front...more poppies!

I want a ript of colour, and advice on where to buy seed cheaply....i hope to aquire lots myself to, i have some from last summer but not enough is welcome! And bulbs....where to buy native bulbs not plundered from wild at a decent price.

I know the RHS Wild About Wildflowers weekend is 14/15 April when everyone will be planting their RHS wildflower seeds.

I never know who to recommend when it comes wildflower seeds or bulbs - particularly at a good price. I always tend to go for a trusted source on these sort of things but, obviously, they don't usually work out the best on price.
Do you have a Gardening Club or something similar locally, lir. Sometimes they'll have seeds & bulbs although you may have missed the boat for this year.

Fox & cub is Hieracium brunneocroceum

Found it online now ...http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/foxandcubs.htm

lostinrates

Itismehonest wrote: »

I know the RHS Wild About Wildflowers weekend is 14/15 April when everyone will be planting their RHS wildflower seeds.

I never know who to recommend when it comes wildflower seeds or bulbs - particularly at a good price. I always tend to go for a trusted source on these sort of things but, obviously, they don't usually work out the best on price.
Do you have a Gardening Club or something similar locally, lir. Sometimes they'll have seeds & bulbs although you may have missed the boat for this year.

Yes, we have a village gardening club, but they are more the multicoloured modern primrose type iyswim. They do what they do really well, but.....its not what i want to do or have.

Incidentally, one of the local villages....we sort of get claimed by three, has the national collection of what i happen to think is one of the ugliest plants in some gardens. It just about makes it clear the difference of the local gardening style and likes and mine. My wildflower patch will be seen as weed harbouring.:o

lostinrates

Ahh, thanks, i do know what that is, hurrah! I like it!

rozeepozee

lostinrates wrote: »

We are on clay.

Now I will pay even more attention.

Itismehonest

lostinrates wrote: »

Yes, we have a village gardening club, but they are more the multicoloured modern primrose type iyswim. They do what they do really well, but.....its not what i want to do or have.

More what might be called suburban planting than wild country. I know exactly what you mean.

lostinrates wrote: »

Incidentally, one of the local villages....we sort of get claimed by three, has the national collection of what i happen to think is one of the ugliest plants in some gardens. It just about makes it clear the difference of the local gardening style and likes and mine. My wildflower patch will be seen as weed harbouring.:o

I love cornflowers but haven't seen them in fields since I was a kid. You don't know what you have till it's gone, as they say.
We have the wrong soil for many of those types of wildflower but bluebells, snowdrops, primroses, wild garlic grow everywhere round here.

Davesnave

I think rhiwfield and maybe RAS would be your best bets for advice on wild flower seed, lir. I'm hoping our lower hedgerow will begin to flourish now I've opened it up to more sunshine, but I'll just see what comes up first.;)

We've had it very mild today, although I was breaking ice on the drinkers at 7.30 this morning.

I decided that I couldn't waste such nice weather, so dosed-up on paracetamol, I dug up all the baby beech trees I'd heeled into the veggie garden last year. Then, I took them up to the road hedge and filled-in the 8 metre gap there, where the rubbish came over.

My order from Premier Seeds came today, nicely packed, and the price was particularly pleasing.

lostinrates

rozeepozee wrote: »

Now I will pay even more attention.

Lol. You will be pleased in the end imo. It makes dealing with water hard, but your soil is improvable in beds. The long border today made me smile. Its clear its been garden before, possibly over hundreds of years. The soil is fantastic. The top dressing of manure i put a coue of ipnches thick on top in autumn has disappeared, and just looks like good, cared for loam where its been worked. Four feete away, dig a hole in the grass we have very shallow top soil and clay layer the depth of which made the architect look nervous before the deeper more stable sort of dark clay.

rozeepozee

I just want to get up there and get on with it now. Instructed a new architect and he's cracking on, so there's some hope

Davesnave

rozeepozee wrote: »

I just want to get up there and get on with it now. Instructed a new architect and he's cracking on, so there's some hope

Our new architect is coming to make a start next week too.

We're also having a meeting shortly with the folks who want to buy our old garden, not that I have great hopes for that. If they won't up their game, we have folks in place who'll rent it for a couple of years to grow veggies.

Two years of watching someone else enjoy it might help to concentrate minds.