wildflower garden help

whelpy

okay this summer i'm planning to make a wildlife garden this summer at the backyard. I made one before with had all sorts of irish flowers like knapweed, cornflower, teasel etc. etc.
Really loved it and i would like to do it again. This time tho i'd like some advice, like for instance after the flowers have flowered how would you get them to grow there year after year (would i have to collect the seeds) and then there would be the care and maintance of it.

FYI the soil has lime and the area is in a north west direction

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I find it best just to let it go to seed. Cut back the growth. Give the debris a good shake to scatter seeds and then remove all the stalks and cuttings as wildflower prefer poor soil and you don't want to feed it with the stalks etc.

This might be answered better on the gardening forum.

whelpy

ill try that, i think the prob is that d soil is rich cos theres always big rich n lush weeds growing there

Velvet shank

Is it a wildflower lawn (i.e. area more or less dominated by grass) that you intend to create, or a more informal job, with stuff just fairly randomly sown or planted? May have implications for the management of the site...

whelpy

when i did it the first time, i divided the area in half; one for the wildflowers and the other as it orginally was (had the idea that that half would support the wildlife displaced from the area been worked on). At that time everything was grown randomly and i had thought that once i finished the planting job, nature would take over and grow there year after year.:rolleyes:
i might do the same again, im not too concerned about maintaince tbh, just let them grow n then cut them back at the end of the season.

thehairyone

As Srameen said, wildflowers prefer poor soil, fertile soil will encourage more aggressive weeds to grow.

I would recommend removing the topsoil entirely and growing on the subsoil. This layer of soil is more nutrient poor and therefore better for wildflowers. If this is not an option, I would suggest planting some plants that will take nutrients from the soil e.g. potato. It may take a few years to bring the nutrients in the soil down but in the end the wildflowers will benefit.

I would recommend against using any commercially available wildflower mixes as these are rarely of Irish origin and may contain non native species. Your best bet is to either let it naturally regenerate or source some straw from a local farmer and shake it out over the soil (using the same technique as Srameen mentioned above) and remember this will work best on subsoil. After each cutting, the cuttings should be removed to prevent any nutrient recycling back into the soil.

It is important to note that the best results will be seen over the long term rather than the short term. So the more time that is invested (many years) the better your wildflower garden will become.

Velvet shank

It can be interesting to see what turns up in your garden or lawn without any real intervention. After a couple of years of trying to reduce soil fertility (in the manner described by the previous posters) and leaving uncut areas during the summer, a few Pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) appeared in my lawn. The number of these plants in the lawn has steadily risen to about 60 over the last few years. So if ya feel like waiting a while....:)