Wildflower patch

[Laurasanford111]

Hi all
Moved into a new house October had a generous grassy garden, at the back there is a patch of land with weed cover on, for this summer I wanted to use it as a wildflower patch. We hopefully will have raised beds added in at some point for those I've decided on cosmos, zinnia and cornflowers as I want flowers for cut and come again and bouquets, those flowers that I grow will be sown in greenhouse and planted out. For the wild patch I want seeds I can throw down and forget about, has anyone had any luck with them wildflower seed packets you buy and can recommend any? I'm fairly new to gardening, just want to throw them down and let them do thier thing and end up with wonderfulness! Haha thank you, also something that lasts most summer if poss

X

Well I've never had a dandelion flowering before my forget me nots. The earliest bee I've ever seen, not in my garden, was feeding on heather. Could also have lilac but that's dull most of the year, and primrose.

Well OP it depends what you want. A wild meadow needs poor soil - so we’re talking a lawn area (ideally for best results you need to remove the grass turf -which you can then stack and create banks with or compost down).
The other type is more a wildflower effect with loose planting and either annuals or perennials- but essentially it’s a border and needs good soil. Both have benefits for pollinators so whatever you do is positive. Don’t put standard annuals in a lawn area as it doesn’t work.

I did a wild meadow and it’s a joy. Hard work to first sow and after that I cut it and rake off all the cut stuff once a year (beginning of August). I shove a load of bulbs in mine too- Cammasias, left over bulbs from tubs, daffodil bulbs on offer etc. Emorsgate seeds are fab for a wild meadow and very reliable there’s a lot of info on their site and you can get mixtures for different areas- e.g shadier areas, different soil types etc I used the basic mix.
wildseed.co.uk/product/mixtures/complete-mixtures/general-purpose-meadow-mixtures/basic-general-purpose-meadow-mixture/ I rang them and had a chat before I did mine about 4 years ago.
i would recommend a perennial meadow because the beautiful poppies and cornflour types are annuals and you get diminishing returns unless you re- sow every year. However year one the perennial seeds are slow to grow so you also sow a “nursery crop” of the beautiful cornflower/poppy etc mix to stop the weeds getting in while the meadow establishes. You will get heart stoppingly beautiful results from that. The perennial meadow is less exciting but new things will keep popping up so bear with it- year on year I’m getting more cowslips and birds foot trefoil and the variety of butterflies and wildlife increases. It is a project but a good one.
As everything is new to you this year maybe buy some yellow rattle and choose a smaller patch - cut down the grass (but don’t remove the turf) and rake out the moss and sow yellow rattle (make sure the seed is in contact with the soil). As others said the yellow rattle stops the grass taking over and gives a chance for other wildflowers- and just see what comes up if you don’t mow. Or just do no- mow May. If you want to go for it then Autumn is a great time for setting it up properly. You’ll be onto the wildlife pond next😉
Happy gardening!

@feelinglikepeaches I do this too, though last year the grass took over towards the end as didn't cut it till late September. I love seeing what bulbs come up each spring.

That’s a lovely colourful border @Chrysanthemum5 , but it’s not a wildflower patch. I can see only one flower that is a UK wildflower - there’s a mallow at the back of the first picture. Still good for insects, so you could describe it as a wildlife friendly border.

This seems pedantic, but there is a serious reason for my concern. People being brought up with the idea that borders of annual flowers are what “wild flowers” look like will be seriously underwhelmed by the wildflower rich hay meadows of northern England, or wildflower rich limestone or chalk grassland, and it will be less easy to convince of the need to manage such areas favourably.

I tried to do this at our last house where we had filled in a pond. We did get some cornflowers, etc but it looked really weedy and scraggy.

We've moved and I'm trying a different approach. We have a grass bank between two levels of lawn. It already has some wildflowers in it. Last autumn I sowed two huge boxes of wildflower mix there. I'm waiting to see what it does.

Theremaybeyulipsahead- agree it’s easily done isn’t it and the grass is persistent! My hawthorn trees have grown up and shaded part of my meadow area so I’m still working that bit out! I love it though and don’t know about you but I find 100s of little frogs when it’s raking time!

Trouble is they don't like good soil, that's why they like rough verges that haven't been worked we had a good first year but the couch grass and docks take over, they are hard work.

Let us know what happens. It’s usually recommended to use plug plants rather than seed in grass because the seedlings can’t compete with an established grass sward, but clearly some must manage else lawn enthusiasts wouldn’t need to worry about “weeds”.

Just noting, this thread was reactivated by a spam post - we've removed the post by now but just thought we'd explain in case anyone's wondering why this old thread is at the top of the topic list.

Thanks for explaining.
I was doing the old "is it them or is it me?" thing.

I did this as a one off my first year in a house, we'd had a front border cleared so I scattered a load of wildflower seeds, it was beautiful - absolutely stunning.

I planted it up properly the next year so didn't have to maintain it....but that one year was beautiful.

We had one year when DH had been resculpting the front garden, and the whole garden was a mass of foxgloves (pedants among you will have realised it took us at least two years because foxgloves flower in their second year) - we had so many compliments from passers-by