Any ‘wild’ gardeners here?

[Pleasedontdothat]

We moved into a lovely old farmhouse nearly three years ago. The first year was spent concentrating on the fields - mostly fencing - establishing a vegetable garden and planting more trees in the orchard. There’s a garden at the front of the house which had been formally planted - there are roses as a hedge around the perimeter and a few bushes dotted around. Unfortunately when the previous owners moved out they’d had a bonfire in the garden so much of it was covered in ash and bits of molten plastic and burnt rubble. We cleared that up as best we could then I chucked some wild flower seeds on and rather forgot about it. There’s first summer we were here it looked fabulous for a few weeks with poppies, daisies, cornflowers etc but then started looking sad as we headed into autumn.

Then my world fell apart as my husband died very suddenly and completely unexpectedly. I’m starting to get myself somewhat together - the unkempt riot of plants in front of the house feels quite like what’s going on inside my head … I like the wildness of it but realise it does need some maintenance to keep it healthy. Whatever I do needs to be relatively easy to maintain on my own (my daughter moved back in with me but she’s very busy with work) - I work 4 days a week, have two dogs and a horse so I don’t have masses of free time. Could anyone recommend any resources which would give me an idea of how to get started?

If you've got the beginnings of a wildflower meadow, I'd carry on with that. It takes a bit of work to keep poppies and other 'grain crop flowers', going, but haymeadow species are pretty easy once you have them established. We give ours a couple of mowings a year, and kick the yellow rattle a bit to try to distribute the seeds more evenly. Other than that it's just sporadic removal of dandelions to stop them taking over.

You can make it look much more deliberate by mowing a border round the edge and a wiggly path or 2 through the middle. We've also planted dwarf fruit trees in it to make a mini orchard.

Can you define in more detail what features you are looking for OP? I think people often think of 'wild' gardens as something that looks beautiful all summer with no work and are surprised that this is actual far more complicated to achieve than they imagined.

Patches of ground that are just left tend to end up covered in brambles, nettles, plantain and willow herb if you aren't careful, but with a little extra effort you can end up with a low maintenance patch which looks pretty and attracts lots of insects.

it looked fabulous for a few weeks ... but then started looking sad as we headed into autumn.
Are you wedded to the idea of 'wild'? Those sorts of gardens always look amazing for about three days in the summer but not so much for the rest of the year.
Would you consider 'cottage garden' instead. This is, basically, lots of perennials or self-seeders that look after themselves, and in such profusion that there is no room for weeds. It is also more of a year-round look.

It looked rather lovely a couple of years ago but it’s now just looking overgrown. I want it to be colourful and be a wildlife habitat - I’m just not sure how to get there!

@senua That’s exactly the kind of thing I was aiming for originally - any advice on how to create a cottage garden?

any advice on how to create a cottage garden?
Alexandra Campbell is good on Cottage Gardens, she has quite a few video on the subject.

I think the main tip is to not get fixated on high-summer flowers; have something for other seasons, too. You can have bulbs all year round, not just in Spring. You can have shrubs to give permanent structure to your design and winter interest (evergreen leaf, winter berries, etc). Think about the shape/form of plants. Think about their leaves: different shapes (linear, ovate, palmate, lobed, lanceolate), different colours, variegation. Think about other senses than purely visual (scents, sounds, taste, texture).
Then cram it all in. There is no 'wrong answer' with Cottage Garden because its down to personal choice. It's just lots and lots of plants where there is a mutual love affair - you love them and they love your garden soil / aspect.

Thank you - that’s really helpful ☺️

Have fun growing your garden, discovering what works and what doesn't.

Your "lovely old farmhouse" is indeed lovely but I think it needs something growing up the walls to emphasise the oldness and maturity. And I think a palette of of soft purples, blues and whites would look beautiful against the colour of the door / windows. With occasional pops of garish gold / orange to liven things up!

Get yourself over to Higgledy Garden! Link

There is a bargain bundle of seeds you can start now for early colour next year. They have a good blog and sowing advice too.

Chat gtp

Snap a picture of the space, add pictures of what you want it to look like, ask it to tell you what to do.

Fantastic resource

OP I just wanted to say how sorry I am to read that you've lost your husband recently 💐

I've no advice re gardening - I'm currently planting a cottage garden bit by bit. I've zoned it so I've veg patch, flowers and woodland area.

So sorry for your loss, OP. xx

My garden is kind of "insane cottage" in that I love cottage garden plants but my ideas of a beautifully planted soft palette of soft pinks, blues, lilacs and apricots never quite go to plan. This is mainly because I grow lots of things from seed, can't resist a bargain from the half dead section of the garden centre, and like sunflowers. And have self-seeded things popping up (e.g. red poppies, orange calendula) all over the place. So I tend to embrace the riot of colour and I love it. As do the bees.

My advice would be:

1. Get some perennials because these come back every year and you can propagate and divide them to create more plants. This doesn't have to be expensive. In autumn and spring you might be able to get some spares when people are dividing their plants (stalk your local FB garden group!) Hardy geraniums are pretty foolproof and come in lots of colours.
2. Grow things that self-seed! Foxgloves, forget-me-nots, borage, calendula, poppies, verbena bonariensis, for example. I bloody love a self-seeder. Pop up every year with little to no effort on your part. Winner winner plant-based dinner.
3. Another vote for to the Higgledy Garden seeds. Wallflowers are especially lovely because they flower early when not much else is happening (except spring bulbs.)
4. Sweet peas are fabulous cottage garden plants because they flower profusely and you have to pick all the beautiful amazingly scented flowers and put them in vases and jam jars all over your house so that the plants will keep flowering, so you get a bazillion fresh cut flowers all summer.
5. Have fun! Grow whatever you want to grow and plant close together so you shade out the weeds and get a lovely big colourful jumble. Don't be afraid to try things. If something doesn't work, it doesn't matter because you can just try something else. You don't have to do it all at once. Gardens/plants take a bit of time to establish. I think garden makeover type shows have given us a false idea of this.

Good luck, and enjoy yourself. xx

Sorry for your loss .

Although it's a lot of work initially, I'd look at planting some year round bulbs in part of the border and letting that naturalise and using that as a backdrop to fill in with wild flowers. I've faffed try to grow wildflowers and self seeders in larger borders, but I find some years hardly anything grows, whereas bulbs seem more reliable. Again, it would take some work, but I think a small wildlife pond would look stunning.

Oh, and aquilegia for spring.