Wild flower garden - first attempt

Richie · 20 Jul 2023 at 11:20

piggin said:
Thank you very much for the advice.
I will give this a go

Just make sure you plant them deep enough to stop the bulbs drying out. If you look at the stems of the "in the green" plants, they are white at the bottom and turn green further up.

Plant them deep enough so that the white bit is below soil level.

If you buy bulbs instead, just make sure you plant them the right way up (pointy bit up) and about 10-12cm below the soil level.

piggin · 20 Jul 2023 at 15:02

Thank you again Richie for all the help. In all honesty I don't have green fingers but with this information I will give it a go

Blackjack Davy · 20 Jul 2023 at 16:34

piggin said:
I have always wanted a wild flower garden and in memory of my father I would love it if I could have blue bells

They're pretty easy to grow buy from a wildflower supplier they're better "in the green" i.e. green leaves in pots rather than dry bulbs as they're often dessicated from sitting in packets for months they grow best where theres some moisture and part shaded is ideal they naturally grow in open woodland so if you can provide something similar its ideal but just avoid dry sunbaked spots really once they're established they'll readily spread either from offsets or seed

If you can go for native bluebells they have curved, nodding bells spanish bluebells and hybrids are upright with outward facing bells and are ubiquitous where they exist in gardens I've got them down the bottom of the garden in the beds under the shrubs and trees that hide the compost heaps and it started out with a few and now every spring its a swathe of blue they need very little maintenance and they hate disturbance so other than tidying up/weeding leave them be

piggin · 20 Jul 2023 at 18:05

Thank you Blackjack. Hopefully I can make a go of this as I remember going to my grandparents in Kent when I was little & my Dad would stop of at a place he called blue bell hill I always remember that place as it was just fields of wild blue bells. It was a beautiful sight

Richie · 2 Aug 2023 at 20:30

I have a hairy/hoard willowherb now... Not sure if I should leave it in. Apparently.can be invasive in a garden but not sure how bad it'll be.

Trying to get a wild area after all and it does look nice

Dis86 · 2 Aug 2023 at 20:44

I've got loads of problems with bloody creeping buttercup. Came in what was meant to be red clover, which clearly wasn't.

Richie · 2 Aug 2023 at 22:08

Yeah, can be a pain... Weedkiller with 2,4-D will get rid of it in a lawn without killing the grass but it'll also kill other broad leaved plants so it depends where it is

piggin · 2 Aug 2023 at 22:38

Richie said:
I have a hairy/hoard willowherb now... Not sure if I should leave it in. Apparently.can be invasive in a garden but not sure how bad it'll be.

Trying to get a wild area after all and it does look nice

That looks lovely and I would leave it

413x · 3 Aug 2023 at 09:47

Been away so haven't seen wild flowers for a week.
Just went out to have a look and 15-20 bees buzzing around the poppies.

Feels very rewarding even with my small patch

HanaWelsh · 3 Aug 2023 at 09:53

413x said:
This is a thread to track (for better or worse) my attempt at a wild flower garden.

I was quite sick earlier in the year so I've seeded much later than ideal so I'm not expecting a miracle.

Its a roughly 1m*5m (not measured) strip of land in front garden. Was grass.
I out carpet across the lawn over winter to kill everything off.
Then I turned the soil.. With a spade! Then heavy raked it.
Then watered, seeded, and watered again!

Seeded it last night.

Currently looks like this!

Update : 2nd July 2023

Update: 19th July.
Really looking good now. Didn't expect this on my first go. Clearing the grass made a huge difference!

Oooh! This is so pretty! I wonder if this would attract some insects like bees or butterflies.

413x · 3 Aug 2023 at 10:05

HanaWelsh said:
Oooh! This is so pretty! I wonder if this would attract some insects like bees or butterflies.

Loads this morning. Poppies are out in force.
Lots of honey bees, bumble bees (lots of species) and hover flies.
Its a cold day and it was buzzing with activity!

Richie · 3 Aug 2023 at 10:19

My solitary poppy plant in the patch is doing phenomenally well... About 1m tall with 4 flowers having fully bloomed and died back leaving large seed pods and I have one that bloomed today with about 4 or so still to open up.so should end up with about 9-10 big pods of seeds to help for next year.

The good thing is it is in the middle of the patch so the seeds should spread quite well once the pods open up (I may take a couple off and spread them a bit wider)

Got some self-heal starting to flower as well.

I don't think I'll get much more this year but it's set up for a good start for the following years

Blackjack Davy · 5 Aug 2023 at 02:25

Richie said:
I have a hairy/hoard willowherb now... Not sure if I should leave it in. Apparently.can be invasive in a garden but not sure how bad it'll be.

Trying to get a wild area after all and it does look nice

I'd leave it for now they're easy enough to pull out if it becomes a nuisance the real problem is the seeds of the rosebay willowherb or fireweed as its known in the US because it springs up after forest fires it produces masses of seed which flies everywhere and will come up everywhere its a common weed of disturbed ground, areas of demolished buildings that sort of thing where they readily form huge swathes

Richie · 5 Aug 2023 at 06:29

Blackjack Davy said:
I'd leave it for now they're easy enough to pull out if it becomes a nuisance the real problem is the seeds of the rosebay willowherb or fireweed as its known in the US because it springs up after forest fires it produces masses of seed which flies everywhere and will come up everywhere its a common weed of disturbed ground, areas of demolished buildings that sort of thing where they readily form huge swathes

Yeah I've seen the Rosebay stuff and it takes over unbelievably well....I'd definitely pull any of that out.

Richie · 30 Aug 2023 at 18:24

So the wildflowers are nearing the end of their flowering and have either went to seed (Buttercups, Poppy, Ribwort) or are doing it now

The Poppy that I didn't even sow has done remarkably well especially considering the site is not in the full sun all day.

It's still flowering and even has a couple of buds still to open up.

There are 10 seed pods with a further 5 flowers to go to seed and 2-3 buds to open up and then go to seed so I should have PLENTY of poppy seeds for next year

One of the pods is ripe. It's brown and the little windows have opened up at the top so I pulled it off, shook all the extremely tiny seeds into my hand and spread them about the rest of the patch in the bare areas. I'll do the same when so e others go ripe... Hopefully they'll come up next year throughout the whole patch as they bring a nice splash of red.

I'll give it until the 3rd/4th week in Sept or so and that'll be everything done so I'll cut the patch down to about 10-12 cm using long handled edging shears, leave the cuttings to dry and drop any remaining seeds then rake it all off and compost.

After that, it's time to wait till next Spring.

Jan/Feb should see the Snowdrops come back
Mar/Apr should see the Bluebells come back

Everything else should follow from there... I hope

zuludawn · 30 Aug 2023 at 18:56

Believe it or not this border at work was going to be a conifer/heather bed but got self seeded from else where and the poppy's went rampant this year.

Richie · 1 Oct 2023 at 18:18

Cut the wildflower area today for Winter. Anything that had flowered had went to seed a few weeks back and all the seeds seemed to be off.

Manual shears, raked up then over it with the lawnmower at highest setting.

I've got a small amount of various seeds still in their packets so, in Spring, I'm going to out them in plug trays and then transfer them as plug plants into the patch to fill.in any bare spots.

LeeUK · 2 Oct 2023 at 14:26

Don't know what's been happening but poppies have been rampant all over my town this year growing up all over the place, even had loads in my garden.

Blackjack Davy · 3 Oct 2023 at 09:49

zuludawn said:
Believe it or not this border at work was going to be a conifer/heather bed but got self seeded from else where and the poppy's went rampant this year.

Thats absolutely gorgeous looks like ox eye daisy too

Haze · 3 Oct 2023 at 11:24

Richie said:
Just make sure you plant them deep enough to stop the bulbs drying out. If you look at the stems of the "in the green" plants, they are white at the bottom and turn green further up.

Plant them deep enough so that the white bit is below soil level.

If you buy bulbs instead, just make sure you plant them the right way up (pointy bit up) and about 10-12cm below the soil level.

Rule of thumb is 3x times deeper than the height of the bulb