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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Wild flowers

170 replies

Tigger1895 · 26/06/2021 23:44

I live in an an estate. Everyone keeps their lawn and garden impeccably. Recently people have started wild flower gardens outside their property on the grass pathway. To me it looks unkept and unsightly.
I feel if you want bees to feed why not encourage them into your own garden instead of making the pathway look like you can’t be bothered mowing that piece of grass. AIBU

OP posts:
Thread gallery
20
Tumbleweed101 · 27/06/2021 17:24

Some of my wild flowers.

Wild flowers
Wild flowers
Wild flowers
GlassOnTheLawn · 27/06/2021 18:30

Is it yellow rattle seed that will take over from grass and spread like a flower lawn?

All sorts of wild plants pop up in our garden. I dig up the St. John’s wort and anything highly toxic/invasive but most plants I leave alone. Love in a mist has somehow seeded all around the pond, along with rock cress, creeping thyme, wild geraniums, wood avens, creeping buttercup, marsh marigold, creeping jenny. Many of these have grown up through a very thick weed membrane the previous owner installed and covered with slate chips. Wild plants do find a way! There are some massive ferns, a bleeding heart bush, periwinkle, many types of flag iris near the water. I’ve made a corner of chopped log pieces from when we had a tree trimmed, they mulch down eventually and provide habitats for insects. Those insects in turn attract birds, frogs etc.

We have grass that’s rather lumpy and yellow but I let it grow longish in between mowing. I think lush green lawns are over rated unless you use a lot of chemicals and weed killers.

Our neighbour has astroturf. His garden looks neat but rather bare; all their plants are in pots and he has to vacuum the ‘lawn’ and power wash it!

Nothing I plant seems to grow apart from mini conifers and winter flowering heathers, so I wait to see what arrives on its own each spring!

Sandsnake · 27/06/2021 18:43

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

BraveBraveMouse · 27/06/2021 18:43

I actually agree. My back garden is a haven for wildlife and looks messy as a result. However, neighbours have put wildflowers in communal areas and it looks a bit shite. The same neighbours that have done this all have immaculate astro turf lawns. It kind of annoys me they have made communal areas look a mess whilst keeping their own gardens barren yet pristine.

Onairjunkie · 27/06/2021 18:51

It’s joyful to read of how many people are looking out for the 🐝 et al.

mustlovegin · 27/06/2021 19:07

lawnmower bee murderers

Hmm
mustlovegin · 27/06/2021 19:12

Some of your pictures are lovely, but they seem to be meadows or part of the countryside.

The OP is talking about an estate and it is her business as they are communal paths.

If I saw a place that is so unkempt I would assume the house is empty or occupied by squatters.

Next we will all be walking with knee-long uncombed hair, long nails and unclean teeth in the name of nature.

But each to their own I guess....

megletthesecond · 27/06/2021 19:17

Yabu. Front lawns are best left to wildflowers.

I have a tiny courtyard front garden and have poppies, teasel and lavender in huge pots. I even leave the flowering weeds around the edges.

MoonCatcher · 27/06/2021 19:17

Bees, what did they ever do for us?
Apart from keeping the planet alive, that is.

aSofaNearYou · 27/06/2021 19:19

@mustlovegin

Some of your pictures are lovely, but they seem to be meadows or part of the countryside.

The OP is talking about an estate and it is her business as they are communal paths.

If I saw a place that is so unkempt I would assume the house is empty or occupied by squatters.

Next we will all be walking with knee-long uncombed hair, long nails and unclean teeth in the name of nature.

But each to their own I guess....

People need to look further than their own nose and see that them having to consider that a house in their street might be empty is not as important as allowing nature more space. Would you rather the whole world looked neat and all the bugs died out?
megletthesecond · 27/06/2021 19:23

Houses in an estate are still part of nature. It's not our space to fuck up and keep tidy.

I've been seedbombing our estate and hope some of them take.

IamMoana · 27/06/2021 19:23

How could anyone not love this sight? We have taken far more from this planet & the creatures that inhabit it than we can ever give back.

Wild flowers
Cassandraprobs · 27/06/2021 19:25

@mustlovegin

Some of your pictures are lovely, but they seem to be meadows or part of the countryside.

The OP is talking about an estate and it is her business as they are communal paths.

If I saw a place that is so unkempt I would assume the house is empty or occupied by squatters.

Next we will all be walking with knee-long uncombed hair, long nails and unclean teeth in the name of nature.

But each to their own I guess....

Uncombed hair, long nails and unclean teeth does nothing to help nature though (unless you're cultivating lice in the hair) and will always look awful. Wild gardens are fantastic for nature, which we need to live, and usually looks nice unless it's absurdly out of control. I don't see the comparison.
Hydrate · 27/06/2021 20:33

@Onairjunkie

You are being so, so unreasonable OP.

I have a farm and I’ve rewilded a six-acre paddock. With the tractor I have just cut a narrow strip/path through it so I can get through, but beyond that I’ve let it go. It is absolutely magical. It is full of deer, birds of every kind from tiny garden birds to birds of prey, rabbits and field mice. But they very best thing is the hum like a Lancaster bomber of the millions of bees flying from each of the beautiful wildflowers. How can that be a bad thing? I walk through it every day.

That sounds wonderful, love it! We had a wildflower garden in the late '90's. I did childcare, and my charge (5yrs old) picked a bunch on her mother's birthday for her, we put them in a small vase for when her mother came to collect her. Her mum just told her to throw those weeds out before you get in the car! Little girls face just fell. We had chosen the best blooms for her! Also, my husbands friend referred to ours as garden full of weeds. We moved that summer, we didn't do another one though I do have butterfly/bee friendly perennials in our tiny yard.
SallyCinnabon · 27/06/2021 20:34

@IamMoana

How could anyone not love this sight? We have taken far more from this planet & the creatures that inhabit it than we can ever give back.
That’s so beautiful ❤️
SunSeaSurfGin · 27/06/2021 20:37

Yabu

They look vibrant, attract wild life and her easier to maintain

TheoMeo · 28/06/2021 06:57

I was at a posh garden the other day and the gardeners had cut a foot strip at the edge of roads and drives - it meant the grasses and wildflowers aren't flopping over the roads. This would be a good idea along the edge of paths - most of the wildflowers preserved but tidy too!

ZaraW · 28/06/2021 07:22

YABVU. I had a neighbour like you, she was awful.

DontLookEthel · 28/06/2021 07:37

You'd hate to live where I am OP.
The council has a policy of leaving large grassed areas in parks and verges to grow all summer. There are neat paths mown through the long grass and flowers and the edges of verges. The different grasses blend in with the flowers and it looks amazing.

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