Wildflower lawn anyone?

peachespeaches

In my new home I want to create a wildflower lawn in the bottom part of my garden. This is the furthest part of the garden from the house, it slopes down and I have some fruit trees planted in it. The garden is only a year old, so the lawn is fairly new and was turfed last year. I want to put some wildflower seed down and mow the sloped part of the lawn less than the upper formal part.

Has anyone actually done this? What seed did you use? How did you sow it?

conradmum

Yes, I've attempted this. Sorry, I can't remember where I got the seed from now, but you can, and should, get seed that's suited to your soil type and conditions if you're to have any chance of success.

The fact is that this is actually quite a difficult thing to do. Wildflower meadows used to be created by being grazed and mown but never fertilised, so that the soil got more and more depleted in nutrients. If the soil isn't relatively infertile grass will take over. Some people actually remove most of the top soil in order to create the right conditions.

As I said, I tried this at the end of my garden, sowing seed suitable to clay. The first year the ox-eye daisies took over. The next year a few other flowers became more prominent. Now, however, nine years later, the area is mostly rough grass. There are still one or two wildflowers that I encourage by giving them preferential treatment but my soil is simply too rich for a wildflower meadow.

It's still worth keeping the area as semi-wild, though, as long as you keep the brambles in check. I find my area supports frogs and at least one hedgehog, also crickets in the summer and probably a whole host of other wildlife that preserves a healthy ecosystem in my garden.

peachespeaches

I dont want it hugely wild, I want the kids and dog to be able to run through it. I think I just want longish grass with ox eye daisies and field poppies, maybe buttercups. I have been inspired by the grass verges locally which have been planted with swathes of wildflowers and looked absolutely stunning in the summer. Its a wonder I didnt have an accident through gawping at them!

I dont know whether to buy a seed mix or just buy the varieties I like. How much success will I have if I just scatter the seed on the existing lawn? Will I have to dress it with sand or compost to cover the seed? I dont think this lawn is particularly rich as the site was an old school which was demolished years ago and became overgrown, then a few new houses were built. The topsoil looks pretty thin, and if you dig down to plant a tree or shrub there are plenty of stones. Im a bit confused about the soil type though. Round here its usually clay, but our soil doesnt look like that when you dig a hole.

ixwood

Meadows rock.

It's not hard, but quite specialist, I think you'd be better googling meadows or getting a book and reading up on it yourself.

There's a few options. "Cornfield" and "flowering lawns" are easier to achieve than full
blown meadows.

If you just increase the mowing height and decrease the frequency, that'll be a good start. Always remove the clippings/leafs and never feed. Over time the fertility will reduce and the diversity will improve.

For a proper meadow, once you've got the fertility down, it's all in the mowing. You have to choose between a spring flowering meadow, or summer and mow accordingly.

hermum

http://www.poundland.co.uk/product-range/a-z/wildlife-mix---shake-and-rake/

For this price, it may be worth a try & see what happens. They have several different shake & rake tubs.

conradmum

peachespeaches wrote: »

I dont want it hugely wild, I want the kids and dog to be able to run through it. I think I just want longish grass with ox eye daisies and field poppies, maybe buttercups. I have been inspired by the grass verges locally which have been planted with swathes of wildflowers and looked absolutely stunning in the summer. Its a wonder I didnt have an accident through gawping at them!

I dont know whether to buy a seed mix or just buy the varieties I like. How much success will I have if I just scatter the seed on the existing lawn? Will I have to dress it with sand or compost to cover the seed? I dont think this lawn is particularly rich as the site was an old school which was demolished years ago and became overgrown, then a few new houses were built. The topsoil looks pretty thin, and if you dig down to plant a tree or shrub there are plenty of stones. Im a bit confused about the soil type though. Round here its usually clay, but our soil doesnt look like that when you dig a hole.

Throwing the seed on the lawn is unlikely to have much of an effect, as they'll sit on the grass, rather than on the soil, and also if they do manage to germinate they'll have to compete with the grass roots. You could try clearing and preparing patches and sowing the seed on that.

Try Googling 'wildflower seed uk'. That brings up lots of sites.

vl2588

To a fairly good extent just leaving it will encourage what is naturally present in the surrounding area to grow. However, it will be things like dead nettle and dock so maybe not the pretty flower garden you were after! Otherwise you could try local conservation groups for seeds? Also someone did tell me they got some somewhere like a garden centre - I am impressed they stock wildflowers

shughes44

Hi

We have also been trying to start a medow in an area on our school grounds, i dont know much about the subject but i do know that you have to mow the grass at certain times of the year depending on what type of medow you want spring/summer you then rake off all the grass to ensure the nutrients dont go back into the soil. You can introduce plugs and seeds but they need to be replaced every few years and you still need to follow mowing schedule and rake off grass,other wise corse grass takes over. Another costly way is to take off the top soil and buy a turf with wildflower seed in it but this is costly and alot of work. If you need the mowing schedule i could proably get hold of this for you.

peachespeaches

hermum wrote: »

http://www.poundland.co.uk/product-range/a-z/wildlife-mix---shake-and-rake/

For this price, it may be worth a try & see what happens. They have several different shake & rake tubs.

Youre right. Might as well.

emiliah

We had some wild flowers growing early in the year, and as they were so nice decided to leave a large patch and mow round it.

By the time these flowers had started to die back other wild plants were coming through, so we just left it.

Now 8 years on we have all sorts of wild plants in this patch. We're on the west coast of Scotland so the variety we have may differ from other parts of the country, but it's definitely worth it.

Em