Wildflower lawn mess

[MerylSqueak]

Could you please give me your short term solutions to this problem?

Last year we removed the top layer of our front lawn and decided to put down a mix of grass and wildflowers. We sewed a mix of grass and annual and perennial flowers. It looked amazing.

This year, it looks appalling. Nothing perennial seems to have come up, there are bare patches, dandelion and plantain that have come over from next door and some strange spinach looking thing.

I sewed some RHS lawn flower seed a few weeks ago. The only thing I can see happening is a new invasion of couch grass.

I think we'll have to strip the whole thing back again in the autumn and start again but we need to wait until then as DH is waiting for an operation and we don't have money to spend on it at the moment really.

What would you do to make the best if it for this summer?

The advice I got when I contemplated this was that it’s actually very hard work!
Have you thought about low a flowering lawn?
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4788091-low-growing-lawn-flowers?reply=125609493

Yes. I saw that thread, thank you, and I think that's what we'll do in autumn. I just can't see us being able to do it before then.

I just want to make it bearable for now!

You could just weed out the things you don't want and add a couple of plants from the garden centre to fill it out a bit. They did something similar on garden rescue last week where they planted some daisies and other odds and ends.

Thank you. I might do that. I've had a nosey around the garden centre but can't settle. They all seem too 'gardeney'. There's also a website that sells suitable plants but they're nearly £50 for the smallest amount, which seems a waste if we're going to get rid of it all in the autumn.

A good handful of poppy seeds or butterfly seeds will brighten it up a bit. There's not really much point doing anything else to it if you're digging it all out though.

I'd weed out the excess and chuck a load of grass seed down. It'll settle in time.
Nature looks after itself mostly.

Our local garden centre actually sells native wild flower plants, so you might find some in a garden centre if you keep looking.

My garden has clumps of primroses which look lovely. Don't know where they came from as they just appeared one year and have spread. I mow round them.

I’d direct sow some annuals, such as Nigella, Candytuft, Callendula, Californian poppy, Cornflower and Clarkia. They should fill the gaps and give the illusion of a wild flower meadow.

Yeah you need to weed out what you don't want regularly. Or else just start again and sow something more dominating and vigorous like rose campion, borage or feverfew

Can you overseed it?

www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk/pages/search-results-page

We are having our garden done and we are going to have this put in part of it. Maybe worth having a look at?

Thanks for your responses. My local garden centre had put out some native wildflowers so I've bought some ragged robin, poppies and camomile plus some seeds. If it works, maybe we won't have to redo it in autumn. Now the digging out begins!

Did you manage it properly to allow the seeds to come through? I.e cut it august/September and lift the cuttings? If you don’t the seeds get smothered and are outcompeted by the more aggressive species! The only thing really to do short term is to dig it out, if it’s already full of the competitive species the other ones won’t stand much of a chance!

I bought some mix of clover (red and white) and daisy seeds and used those to fill the patches on the lawn. They grew and covered the patches very quickly and are bee/ butterfly friendly and pretty…

Well it looks a right state now after digging out the perennial weeds and spinach looking things. Turns out, they're spinach looking things with mega roots.

You can buy wild flower turf , depending on your patch size it may be the answer

Thank you.

Have you considered a creeping thyme lawn?

I’d put some annual seeds in all the messy bits you’ve just dug up. Maybe strim round where the grass has got too long to give other things a chance. I think the wildflower meadows are quite labour intensive though.

Possibly goosefoot. There's several species and they are all good eating. But don’t eat yours without a firm identification!

Depends on preparation and getting the soil fertility down. A hay meadow involves grazing till beginning of May, shutting it up for a couple of months, taking your hay crop in the second half of July, letting the animals back in to graze on the “aftermath”. Not difficult to mimic this, and hay meadows persist indefinitely.

But if you have a high nutrient garden, you’ll be forever battling with the thugs that are adapted to such conditions

If instead you’re going for mixed annuals (what most people are thinking of as a “wildflower meadow “ you’re actually mimicking a cornfield, so it will involve “ploughing” and reseeding every year

We have a perennial wildflower meadow ( Pictorial Meadows woodland edge) and it was an enormous amount of work, so much hand pulling of weeds, I’ve only kept on with the damn thing because I’ve invested so much time and money. It does look lovely now though- after 5 years!

For the bare bits, plant some seeds that will suit your soil- but in my experience things like poppies only seem to grow for one year, the soil needs to be disturbed/ploughed for them to come back.

Well it certainly has been disturbed and ploughed yesterday!

In the midst of it yesterday, DH looked at me and said, 'Sometimes you have to look at your neighbours and realise there's a reason they haven't done something.'

Yet neither of us wants a conventional lawn and neither of us wants the kind of gravel and plant pot arrangement people seem to go for. It was great last year and all the neighbours stopped to compliment us and ask if they could pick flowers. I suppose we'll just have to look at it as a work in progress.

I have thought about a thyme lawn and turf but they're very expensive.