Help the triffids are going to get me!

[rolloverbeethoven]

I've always lived in flats until recently, but have been in a house for a few years. There's a yard, which is paved but a few plants sprouted which I rather liked, and bees & butterflies were attracted, which was lovely. But it's got out of hand - and I just don't know where to start. I don't want to kill any insects, or plants really, but I suppose I'll have to pull some up. I've also no clue which are weeds and which aren't. I'm wondering whether I should pay a gardener to sort it out, leave it be, or move house! Any advice would be very gratefully received.

I'd suggest ox eye daisies OP, so easy to grow, come back every year and spread. Don't care what type of soil you have and are tall so will pretty up all the docks and nettles.

You won't pull the docks up if they've been there any time anyway, they have a large tap root and will just grow back. The nettles may come up a little easier if you want rid, but you'll need gloves obviously to avoid being stung.

I don't know, I'm a Londoner originally! Are you from around here?

@MabelAnderson's suggestion reminded me - you could buy a packet of poppy seeds from the supermarket, and scatter those around. I did that in a bare patch and it looked great. Shouldn't cost much more than a pound.

I'd just leave it and perhaps scatter a packet of wildflower seeds out there too.

It's much more green and interesting than plain slabs and I bet the pollinators love you for it.

@Agapornis I appear to have yellow poppies, is that a thing? @ChurchYardFromMyWindow some lavender has appeared! 😁

Poppies, Californian poppies, love in a mist, forget-me-nots, fox gloves and aquilegia all do very well as self seeding between paving slabs! I love watching the bees going in and out of the foxgloves 😍

Your yellow poppies might be Welsh or Californian poppies. All lovely and mine are absolutely buzzing with bees right now.

Can I add Alchemilla Mollis, Fennel, Erigeron and Honesty to @AltitudeCheck's great list of self seeders.

Green is better than sterile paving, but as others have indicated you can make it prettier and also more diverse with flowering plants.
I’d probably take a middle way and control the ranker growth (you don't have to do this all at once) and add other plants along the lines suggested, including some in pots. Many herbs do very well in containers, and are good for insects but also for eating and can be very attractive.

Yellow poppies are probably Welsh poppies, are you in Wales ? They come back every year once you have them.

Welsh poppies are quite common elsewhere in the U.K. - orange as well as yellow.

@rolloverbeethovensame county, not sure where exactly you are but it looks very familiar

In the northeast, nowhere near Wales!

Nowhere near Wales, but even further from California! 😂

California poppies go everywhere, I grow them too, they're often in wildflower mixes. If you upload a photo we can tell you which it is.