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!)

OK, off the top of my head, NDP ...

For birds, there's cotoneaster and pyracantha - they love the berries in the winter. They're also impossible to kill, and don't need much water. They also like roses (they can eat the insects) and honeysuckle, and like the fruit and flowers of flowering ivy. They also like thistles and teasels, and there are some nice cultivated varieties that you can buy. Sunflower and viburnum are good for attracting birds as well.

Bees and butterflies like ceanothus (which also looks glorious this time of year), philadelphus (mock orange), lilac, honeysuckle, buddleia, lavender, skimmia, aubretia, sedum, aster, golden rod.

If you want to attract ladybirds you have to attract greenflies - so things like roses, angelica, dill and parsley are good. Yes, you'll get the aphids but the ladybirds and lacewings will come and eat them.

Oooh, thanks for that list WWB, I'll deffo have a look at those.

NP, I am SO not glam. I don't even wear make up FGS !

I wouldn't recommend growing nettles in your garden. Unless you are prepared to sacrifice enough garden for a large nettle patch in full sun, the butterflies won't be interested.

Garlic mustard is a good weed to encourage if you want to attract orange tips - it's quite attractive as well. Likewise cuckooflower/lady's smock.

I signed up for RSPB "Gardens fit for Birds" and they sent me a free packet of wildflower seeds (as if my garden didn't have enough weeds already...). I scattered them and a couple of big fat woodpigeons came down and scoffed the lot.

I've let an area of grass gorw up in the bottom of our garden as a kind of meadow for butterflies and other insects. We've mown a couple of "secret paths" through it for DD - she has a whale of a time down there. I sprinkled some wilflower seeds down there a couple of years ago some took some didn't but its amazing the htings which have come up alongside the grass, ragged robin, toadflax, dead nettles, ox eye daisies, plantain, scabious, clover, buttercups, cranes bills - well allsorts really and it looks great. I'd definately steer clear of nettles though - they're a complete bugger to get rid ofand they spread like mad, even a tiny bit of root will spring forth a new plant, and its won't help your resale value. Butterflies like lots more than nettles!

hey thats a great idea sharklet about the secret paths!

i ditched the nettle idea, went to the garden centre and gots lots of seed packets

cheap, so if it doesnt work i doesnt matter!

and wwb, lots of good ideas