How do you get the "wild" garden look?

[skankywhitenail]

I have a fence that is awkward to mow against and horrid to look at. I have too many other beds to weed though. My solution was to just create a wild border? I dug it up vaguely, put some separated grasses in that I was moving, and then have just left it and mowed along the side of it.

The weeds have taken off in full force! It looks absolutely crap. How do I go about this? I accept the weeds but they are all the horrid weeds if that makes sense. Ive seen lovely wild borders and they look so pretty.

I had a look in there today and I think I see poppies. Lovely! Do I selectively weed the wild area? Get rid of the ugly weeds so the pretty ones can flourish?

I'm not good at wild gardening...should I buy a pack of wild flowers and sprinkle?

Get a Bee Bomb pack and sprinkle everywhere. However, they are all annuals, so you’ll have to mow it down/pull them out end of season and it will be bare all winter. Some of them will re-seed themselves so you’ll get new coming up next year.

How tall is the fence and how much room is there in front of it? (And does the fence have to stay?)

My first thought was that you need a more permanent visual screen. I’d suggest a Rosa rugosa hedge (but don’t know if that would duit your situation). You could scatter your wild seeds in front of that.

I was also going to recommend Bee Bombs 😊

Was also going to say bee bombs!

Ooo bee bombs will be ordered! Should I carry on trying to get rid of the uglier weeds? I don't want thistle or weeds like bindweed that will over run it all.

The fence is sadly my neighbours. It is a section of make shift picket fence that he slapped on (badly) to stop his dog getting through. It is only waist height but trees grow down and provide a barrier too so the wildflowers would look nice with that. Also I wanted to experiment with a wild border and this was a safe area to do that

Get some bulbs too- I love alliums!

Gardeners world did a section on this - you might be able to find it on their website? He selectively weeded to prevent anything he didn't want from seeding for the next year, including thistle.

They way to avoid weeding ime is to plant ground cover ,we have a big garden but hardly do any weeding as there's so many plants.

The Times Saturday newspaper had an article how to do this and all the benefits in the weekend section.
Il try to dig it out and post a photo

I hate gardening so have one and it looks ace if I do say so myself. I bought a pack of wildflower seeds and sprinkled liberally along with specific seeds for some of my favourites: red and Californian poppies, love in the mist, fennel, verbena and lobelia. The Californian poppies have excellent height but tend to take over so if you get those make sure you sow them at the back. I planted a good spread of mixed spring bulbs and some hardy mainstays (lavender and thyme) to keep the ground cover in between seasons. I also decided to build a bug hotel and put in a compost heap, a bird box, a bee hotel and a washing up bowl pond and sunken washing up bowl ‘bog’ spot. I get bluebirds nesting every year and the strip is absolutely teeming with bees, butterflies, lacewings and all sorts. It took a bit of effort to start off with but now it pretty much looks after itself. I get the occasional weed but there are so many other plants that it’s no bother to yank them out when they do come up.

Hmmm ok may be more work that I originally thought! I have ordered some different poppy varieties but I suspect it is too late for them this year. I will concentrate on getting the thuggish weeds out (joy!) and helping the grasses to establish. Good idea about the bulbs, will definitely pop some in later in the year!

How about doing a boarder of wallflowers?

Clear the weeds you don’t want and around the end of August plant plugs of wallflowers along the boarder. Space them out about 15 to 20cm apart and you can add some spring bulbs in the spacing and come next year you will have a full boarder of wallflowers that will flower from spring right through summer and will require very little maintaining and the bees will love it.
www.gardeningdirect.co.uk/wallflowers-guide

Ooo I like wallflowers! I've just been to do some weeding and it was worse than I thought...although a single red poppy has opened A few pretty weeds but mostly stingers, thistle and bind weed . It's a constant battle isn't it to get the balance right!

If it’s a border I’d scrap the idea of using annuals and put in some perennials- much easier to maintain and will give better ground cover. You can choose native British plants if you’re looking for a wild look, there’s quite a few to choose from eg primroses, cowslips, stinking hellebore, Solomon’s seal, meadowsweet (very in in Chelsea this year!), meadow rue, big daisies etc. For the fence, I’d plant a climber eg clematis Montana- it’s a v quick grower. You’ll need a trellis up.
Displays of annuals are really hard to maintain and weed so perennials with annuals to fill in the gaps are much easier.

I’d second aiming for ground cover. Plant a couple of perennial Cranesbill geraniums, such as Johnson’s blue or Rozanne. There are many varieties, some spreading and are very easy to look after. Persicaria is another spreading plant that has spikes of flowers, there are also many varieties, large and small. Vinca also spreads with white or blue flowers. Amongst these annual plants, such as Californian poppies, Goditia, Candytuft and Love in a Mist will happily grow.

Geraniums (perennial ones, not pelargoniums), geum, potentilla, foxglove are all great for a wild look that will help keep the weeds down and the bees will be happy. You should be able to find some quite cheaply in flower or ready to flower this year at a nursery or possibly the supermarket or B&M or similar.

You’ll need to keep on top of the bindweed. Vinca is beautiful, but some varieties are very invasive.

Yes yes to foxgloves. They are just as good in a wild border as in a more cultivated one and are brilliant for bees- plus, plant one and you'll have them forever and they require no looking after at all!