Robust Wildflower "meadow" - any ideas please?

[wickedfairy]

I am looking for some advice please! We have an area at the end of the garden that has the childrens swing in it and a pear tree. I want to plant something in it, mainly around the "edges" (not the swing area but surrounding it) and have an idea of a bit of a wildflower meadow type thing.

The end of the garden is shaded by leylandii and there is a (I think) horse chestnut tree next door that overhangs a bit, plus a few other bushes around the periphery. Do you think it would work? Or is it too shady and the children would trample it all? It does get full sun in the morning, but then turns into a slightly shady area in the afternoon. It looks a bit rubbish with just mud/ground.

I don't want bark, etc in case neighbouring cats poo in it. I think it would be too shaded for grass, I think it would turn to moss.

Any thoughts on the wildflower meadow would be much appreciated, or any other ideas, if you don't think that is a good one! Thanks!

suttons.s3.amazonaws.com/p/140140f_3.jpg

Good Lord upupandaway!
You ask on Mumsnet and you get.

I want to do a similar thing on a patch at the end of ours. I was told my last attempt at this didn't do as well as I'd hoped because my soil was in good condition and enriched with compost. The plants I'd tried thrived on poor soil.
I will try again in a different patch with those seeds upup linked to.

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for! The only thing is, the description on the site says there may be some flowers that are harmful if eaten.

The little ones are 4 and 1, do you think it would be ok, as long as they are told not to eat plants, or are some of them very poisonous?

Just a warning - wildflower meadows are notoriously difficult to create and keep going. You might find grass for shady areas an easier proposition. Why is it just mud at the moment? What weeds grow there?

I think that teaching kids that they must never, ever eat a plant or a berry unless you have said its okay is a very good lesson to learn. For that age, I'd go further and say that they mustn't touch garden plants unless you have said its okay as well. Your garden is probably already full of dangerous plants that you just haven't recognised. The seed pack linked to will be referring to the foxgloves (source of digitalin), but there may be other things there.

I'm pretty knowledgeable, and even I have screwed up a couple of times - once on touching, once on eating, and the results are painful! If kids get it wrong, they could be seriously or fatally injured.

However, I have a difficult area in my garden, and I've had terrific success with a shady border - lots of tough plants which love shade. The more specialist plants have struggled, but things like euonymus, vinca, ferns, spring bulbs, cyclamen, epimedium etc are thriving.

Hi All,

I was looking for something fairly easy to look after, so maybe not the wildflower garden!

Thanks for the suggestions of hardy plants for shady areas! I will look them up and then think about that instead.

I saw this idea in the potting shed thread, so it isn't mine... but what about planting a large 'fairy ring' of flowers around your swing area. Your name....