Low growing lawn flowers

[whichwayiwonder]

I'm trying to create a flowery lawn which can be kept short (as opposed to wild flower meadow) so sowing Daisy (bellis perenis), clover and birdsfoot trefoil. Selfheal possibly. I've seen a tiny purpley blue flower in lawns before, does anyone know what it might be?

Depending on how much damage I end up doing with the digger, anything between an acre and 2...it's going to take a fair bit of seed! I was wondering where on earth I would source it.

Boston Seeds looks good for large amounts.

For that size garden you probably want separate areas of lawn, some which you allow to grow longer (not mow at all between March and late summer, ) and others that you keep short and sow mostly with lawn seed but then do what I'm doing at mix in some other species.

First it'll need levelling somehow, and then I really recommend hiring a mechanical seeder. It's a little petrol powered machine - you stand in the back of it and it evenly distributes the seed behind you.

Thanks for that. I'm still learning how this garden will work - my previous garden was shallow soil in the mediterranean so no lawn and everything died down over the summer. Several acres, but I didn't even own a mower.

Now I'm on heavy clay in a more mountainous (rainy!) climate and not sure how I'm going to cope with things not going dormant in the summer....this house came with not only a ride on mower, but also a tractor with several mowing attachments (which I have no idea how to use...)

Personally, I would turn it all to flowers and grass, and just mow paths through it, and round the edge where you have flower beds.

I always wondered why “summer” in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons sounded so bleak, until I remembered he was describing an Italian summer, with so many of the plants taking a rest.

I know the thread has moved on.. but have you thought about wild violet? Tiny little purple flowers. It's traditionally thought of as a rampant lawn weed, and my pils lawn is full of it. Luckily they and I think it's very pretty. It's flowering now, so looks pretty before the grass gets too long

Wild violet in a lawn sounds delightful

My kids want a bit of lawn (by which they mean something green and springy on which they can do their tumbling) so I'll keep some of that around the house I think. But the rest of it is definitely going to be a lot wilder than what the previous owners did (whose approach to gardening seems to have been to drive a tractor over the whole thing and cut everything down on a regular basis).

I'm a plant junkie so in the year since I've been here I've planted several hundred trees or shrubs and I'm only just getting started! (not as mad as it sounds, many were in two large hedges along the edges of the property, and 50 were fruit trees in an orchard)

I can vouch for that, there are loads of wild violets in my lawn. Very pretty.

My lawn is naturally species diverse. It's so
lovely to hear that others are moving away from using weed and feed treatments. I have loads of clover in my lawn which is great for attracting pollinators.
Just be careful in summer and make sure you're wearing shoes when walking on the lawn as I've been stung by bees several times after accidentally stepping on then .

I always find this weird to hear as I grew up with a clover and wildflower lawn, always was barefoot, and never was stung. Does that mean bees are more common on lawns than they were 60 years ago? If so, why? Are we growing fewer bee friendly flowers elsewhere?

I was stung by stepping on a bee on a lawn when I was a child (appprox 30 years ago). My parents lawn had lots of clover but no deliberate wildflowers.

I was stung by a lawn bee about 40 years ago when I did a handstand.

@MereDintofPandiculation that's a really good point. I only remember being stung once as a child (also barefoot!)

Thank you for this tread , Iv got a steep bank in our north facing clay back garden. I want some colour that I can mow , I was thinking creeping thyme ? There’s a well used foot path running along the top , so I’m going to plant some shrubs to help with the gold fish bowl effect. So I want something that doesn’t clash with each other?!? Any ideas gratefully received.

My dad’s lawn was mowed, well the aim was once a week, but it may have been more like once every 10 days. He had white clover, selfheal, hoary plantain, field woodrush, black medick, yarrow, mouse ear hawkweed.