Viewing 26 posts - 41 through 66 (of 66 total)
  • Making a wild flower (mini) meadow
  • portlyone
    Full Member

    I’m thinking of doing this with the front garden because I can’t be bothered to mow it of the poor bees.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    Bunnyhop, the plot was really poor soil as I used to site my bonfires there. There is also some spoil from when we resurfaced the drive, we thought it prudent to give them a little nutrients to give them a start. We’ll see, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    mcmoonter – looking forward to the outcome (as always).

    Macavity
    Free Member

    Bumblebees
    A Sting in the Tail by Dave Goulson
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sfnq9

    jp-t853
    Full Member

    We have a sort of meadow patch at the top of the garden. We tend to let it grow a bit wild in the early summer and then cut it to lawn in the latter half.

    The daffs look a bit poor this year so I think we should pull the non flowering ones out and put some wild seed down. We had a pack that we got from Jura house gardens years ago and it gives lots of wild flowers in the top section already but I will look in to the links above.

    Close up of meadow section but it is pretty poor quality (evening) photo and not much is coming through yet. The Bluebells are just starting about five weeks behind last year.

    globalti
    Free Member

    You need horrible dry poor quality soil otherwise the wild flowers won’t grow.

    qwerty
    Free Member

    We seeded our last year on a bank of clay we dug out of some footings, we had a fantastic display of poppies for a good while and a few other flowers, cut back at autumn, weeded in early spring, now have a really green bushy bank, hope to get a more varied selection this year as some varieties take a while to establish.

    Our contribution to the bees is to abandon all hope of ever ridding our lawns of dandylions.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Would it be a stupid idea to buy a load of seed and spread it along the local canal bank? Currently the area I’m thinking of is mud and patchy grass. Not worried about the legality more any moral or environmental issues that would arise from encouraging wild flowers where no wild flowers currently grow.

    Duane…
    Free Member

    Not read the whole thread, but when my parents moved into their new house a few years back, rather than having a large grass lawn, they put in a big oval shaped wild patch, allowed it to grow, planted some wild seeds etc etc.

    Looked nice, and saved having to mow the lawn. However, it soon became unruly, and weeds started to take over the rest of the garden.

    They now have an oval shaped pond…

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Seeds of local provenance would be the most appropriate.
    Dont need dry soil, wet soil is fine just would need different species.

    neilthewheel
    Full Member

    One way of reducing soil fertility ready for wild flower sowing is to grow a nutrient-demanding crop like potatoes in the soil the year before. Don’t manure them, obviously.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    or just keep growing the grass long, cutting it an remove the clippings, adding some carbon with help to, sawdust is a good bet.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    A couple of weeks after I planted the seeds, hundreds of tiny green shoots are popping up. Fingers crossed they flower.

    Elsewhere in the garden our first Meconopsis Poppy of the year burst into bloom. Some pretty orange and yellow Cambrian poppies are out in the greenhouse too.

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    jp-t853 – lovely meadow.

    mcmoonter – your poppy is stunning.

    Little showing of our wildflower meadow yet. However some of the foxgloves and cow parsley type plants are coming along nicely.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    My brother worked for an advertising agency. One of their projects involved poppies. They had thousands of packs of seeds they hoped train and car passengers would scatter from the windows. I don’t know how well the campaign did, but he was left with loads of seed packs left over.

    I’ve scattered some in front of the studio along with those I bought. We’ve planted out stuff brought on in the greenhouse and have popped a few poppy seeds with them. The soil is proper poor gravel scrapings from the drive, they appear to be loving it.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    We’ve managed to get a hose pipe up to the studio to help things along. It won’t take much longer before everything is out. Next year we will clear a little more scrub and plant some more.

    [img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/559136_10201625558465957_10988701_n.jpg[/img]

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    Ooooh lovely.

    Our’s has turned mostly to grass, however I did plant a few foxgloves from the other side of the garden and these gorgeous white and pink flowers have done rally well.
    Lack of water isn’t helping. Our 3 water butts have run dry as they get used for the veg patches

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    Poppy progress. Things are picking up after the rain, something new comes out everyday. There is a lot of cornflower and one or two marigolds in the mix. When they all come out and the barley ripens it will be really pretty. It’s great fun every morning looking to find what else has flowered. I felled a Laurel to clear a space to plant some more.



    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    A month on and things have really come along. I’ve pruned back more of the overhanging branches to allow more light in, the flowers seem to be enjoying it.

    solarpowered
    Free Member

    By George mcmoonter! That’s absolutely beautiful!!!! Thank you!
    You’re a lucky man…..

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Thats lovely and will be great for pollinators but I feel the need to point out that those are not meadow plants and that is not a wild flower meadow. Wild flower meadows are well nigh impossible to recreate once lost and 99% of them have been lost in the UK.
    Lovely though.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    You are correct of course, we’ve also used the spot for extra plants we didn’t have space for elsewhere in the garden. Amazingly the rabbits haven’t gone for them, but they are swarming with, butterflies, hover flies and bees.

    There was a piece in the Times the other day where gardeners were paying £8 for a nettle plant in a bid to preserve them. They were all the rage at Chelsea last year. I strimmed a path through ours at the weekend.

    jonahtonto
    Free Member

    my granpa once told me (he’s gone now so i cant check this, its just a childhood memory) that the dig for victory campaign wanted people to grow nettles to make rope and veg. turns out they are very hard to grow since they are a border plant so you need both the field and hedgerow to make em grow. £8 per plant was that? i have loads 😯

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    lovely mcmoonter.
    our garden has taken 6 years to become the bird, bee, insect and butterfly sanctuary that i was trying to create. finally it’s paid off. i haven’t seen as many butterflies or insects since being a child at my grandpa’s home in north wales. guessing the semi decent summer has helped.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    We came across this lovely border on this evening’s ride near the village of Cleish in Fife.

    mcmoonter
    Free Member

    This will probably the last instalment, I’m surprised they have even lasted this long. Next year we will clear more of the canopy away to let more light in. The whole experience has been great fun and its brought colour to a spot we never thought would never be cultivated.

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