i want to encourage the wild bit in my garden, like weeds nettles and stuff

[nailpolish]

i have a quiet bit of the garden thats kind of hidden - its where i have the compost heap etc

i was just thinking of buying some packets of wild flowers seeds and chucking it around, how would that turn out do you think?

and how do i encourage nettles for the butterflies etc>

can you actually BUY packets of nettles seeds?

(dont laugh!)

You can buy packets of wildflower seeds specially mixed to attract birds and/or butterflies - some of them are RSPB or English Wildlife Trust etc flagged. Independent garden centres are more likely to have them than eg B&Q.

thanks mrsB ill have a look online

Mmmmm, not sure I would encourage too many nettles if I were you; they are a bugger to shift, spread like wildfire and would choke the life out of any other wild flowers you planted. You can buy "dead nettle" plants though, that have the leaves and flowers but not the sting - they make good ground cover but can take over the universe if you let them. I have some in my garden that needs stripping back - if you'd like some I can send you some.

Most garden centres, Woollies, Wilkinsons and places like that sell tubs of mixed wild flowers for scattering as you suggest, so I can't see that it would be such a silly idea to make up your own mix from packets. You can get some idea of the kind of mix you might like from websites like \link{http://www.wildflower.org.uk/smallmixes/wfsmallmixes.html\this one}.

yes i can see what you mean about the nettles, we have some already that i try and haul out but i stopped for a bit for the butterflies and i have even been able to show the dd's some butterfly coccoons (or whatever you call them)

i have decided to go to the garden centre today and buy some mixed seeds

ooh i like that website wbb, cheers

WWB not wbb, oops!

I think it's a fabulous idea - I've been looking at that website and thinking I might like to do the same. We have a patch at the bottom of the garden that we constantly struggle to keep clear and it might be easier just to throw some wild flower seeds at it and let it look after itself.

butterfly mix is halfway down \link{http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/list/good-for-wildlife\this} page.

can't lay my hands on the bird mix just at the mo - will post if it turns up

my mum was a crap gardener and its what she does in her garden or 'meadow' as she calls it

she refused to haul out weeds "its for the butterflies dear"

lol np.

I like the idea of the wildflowers etc, but in all honesty I'm faaaaaaar too anal about my garden, so a meadow just wouldn't work for me. I am planning to put plants in my beds that attract butterflies (that old favourite the buddleja) though, so I'm not a total loss to wildlife conservation . Get a shedload of birds in my garden too, I think they like the masses of worms I seem to be unintentionally cultivating !

butterflies are great - we have tons round here and dd and i try and identify them

If I chuck seeds on the unmown grass in our orchard *, do I have to water them??

• Disclaimer: This contains two apple trees, one pear and a plum. It's not really an orchard but it sounds posh :o)

ooh i love birds coming to the garden too

someone told me finches like thistle seeds, so i bought some, its taken ages for them to appear but they come regularly now (and i think they are nesting nearby)

although i do now have an attractive bed of thistles under the birdtable

oh soup ive just bought a crab apple tree and planted it, i shall call it an orchard too

apparently the birds love the crab apples

was that a serious question? i remember mum used to chuck packets of wildflower seeds on her garden every year, she had the most beautiful 'meadow', and it was never watered

but we get a lot of rain

she was quite good at using different types every year (althought the nettles remained)

Finches love teasels as well, if you've got room to grow them - we used to get a pair of goldcrests come to the teasels when I was a child, I've never seen goldcrests anywhere else.

They guy who lives over the back from us (the top of his garden runs at right angles to the top of ours), has a lot of mature wildlife-loving plants in his garden. I think that must be where all the birds and butterflies are coming from.

I think it's really nice that you are growing your garden for wildlife, np. I just like growing pretty things

There are loads of pretty things that you can grow for wildlife though, NDP.

It was a serious question :) I wondered if I'd need to water them to make them grow. This would be a problem here given the drought order. Once established, they'd fend for themselves but Maybe not initially.

Pretty, hard to kill and conservationally virtous ?! Like what, WWB ?

Soups, I wouldn't have thought you'd have to water them much (if at all) given that they are wildflowers

ndp, you can still have a neat and tidy garden and have plants and flowers for wildlife

there was a man in my street cutting his hedge to within an inch of its life yesterday i had to hold myself back from shouting
"no dont do that! bill oddie says you might disturb nesting birds!"

right enough chatting about it im off to the garden centre to chat to the nice man there

will report back

hahahahaha, np ! Love it. Didn't have you down as the gardening type, prob 'cause I always mentally picture you in heels and make up looking glam.

you are the glam one ndp

bet your garden is even glam!

i have dirty knees and hands with weeding already today