Any advice on a wildflower area?

WeAreGhosts

I have an area of lawn that is difficult to mow, so wanting to let it do its own thing, and also perhaps introduce some native wildflowers. 
The area is around 8m by 3m and borders a beech hedge, part of it is in shade, part in sun.
Does anyone have any recommendations for plants, or do's and don'ts?

Justagardener

It always seems simple to grow wild flowers but when you are starting out they are as difficult to grow as any other plant...that said once a wild flower area is established you are away with very little effort! This is not advice but the way we have succeeded is ... we used a lawn aerator this made 1" holes , we then mixed the wildflower seed mix with potting compost and spread it over the whole area by hand, then gently raked it, hoping that the mix would end up in the holes made from the aerator. A word of warning, its easy to forget about it, if you have a dry spell be sure to keep it watered, otherwise your efforts will be wasted!

Davesnave

I can't be bothered faffing about with soil fertility and stuff to grow annual flowers in grass and wild areas, so I use tough perennials like: moon daisies, alchemilla mollis, geraniums, ajuga, veronicastrum, verbena hastata, Iberian comfrey and anything else that's a good doer. These plants can be mown flat at the end of the season, and with some, like geranium phaeum, in the middle of it as well!

I do get self heal, dandelions, daisies, scabious and cowslips naturally anyway, so things I add are a bonus.

So, the first thing to do is just leave a patch of grass and see what comes up. If it's ragwort and docks, I zap those. Can't be too kind!

MysteryMe

If you want to attract wild life as well as wild flowers a wildlife pond would be lovely and if you plant flowers that attract insects, particularly those that carry a scent at night then it really helps out bats who are on the decline
https://www.bats.org.uk/advice/gardening-for-bats

WeAreGhosts

I have a pond in a different area of the garden. Lots of frogspawn in it already!
Thanks for all suggestions. I have ordered some cowslip plugs as I don't have them occurring naturally and I think they're fairly idiot-proof, also bought teasels for some height. I have tried wildflower seed before, but it just got overtaken by the regular grass, but I've cleared quite a bit of it now, so will try again with seed.

MysteryMe

The finches will love the teasel.  I saw some movement in my pond earlier in the week, no spawn as yet.

sb159

I would just recommend clearing the area as much as you can, assuming things don't go terribly wrong and there's plenty of water it should be ok. You could maybe try a mix that's good for beginners just to get you started?
Good luck! 😊