Wild area in lawn

Ragnar Lothbrok

I've always fancied leaving an area of my lawn go wild and see what happens, so I finally portioned off a small area (about 3m sq) a few weeks ago.

I've got lots of daisies and buttercups in my grass all over and quite like the look of them so always felt a bit guilty mowing them down! These are growing well now but I want to add a bit more colour and variety to the area.

So now I'm wanting to sow/plant wild flowers such as poppies, foxgloves, bluebells and snowdrops, etc. I think bluebells and snowdrops can be planted around September so I'm looking for any advice about what seeds can be thrown into this patch and how likely it is that they'll grow.

If this works out OK, I'll probably extend the area.

baaba maal

Well done on trying it out! There are wildflower mixes available especially for bare patches of soil. some of the plants you list may not work out in a lawn situation. Poppies are annual, but realistically they will only flower in the first year, they need to have the soil turned to flower every year (why you see them growing as weeds in fields of cereal), foxgloves are biennials, meaning they need two years to flower ( so you can't mow them at the end of the first summer because they need to hang onto their big leaves), and bluebells and snowdrops like to be under trees or shrubs.
I leave parts of my garden uncut from April to October and, interestingly to me, more and more species have started growing over the years with only a little interference from me- and this year I ended up with two random wild orchids for the first time. So, if I could suggest you get some cowslips (not picked from the wild!, potted ones available early next year), and start gathering red clover flowers when they start to turn brown, along with oxeye daisies ( the really big wild daisies), rake the area after it is cut- really scoring the ground and scatter the seed in. You can start adding things like this over the years- the grasses will always dominate, but the wild flowers will survive (all this in my opinion of course).

Harry Palmr

First thing to do is buy a small packet of yellow rattle when that returns to stock in August/Sept. Just broadcast it over the area and wait for it to grow and flower. It'll thin out the grass sward and allow wildflowers to have the space they need to thrive.

looksee

Don't bother trying to plant snowdrop bulbs in autumn, wait until spring and buy a few pots of snowdrops in flower, or at least with green leaves, dig out a small hole and pop in the contents of the pot. They are more likely to grow from 'green'.

Ms2011

Also if you are planting Bluebells make sure they are the native variety and not the invasive Spanish variety.

There’s a website called http://wildflowers.ie/ which I find excellent. Unfortunately the site has closed down and they are redesigning it and there seems to be a delay in the relaunch. But the old site is still there for ideas and hopefully it’ll be up and running for autumn. I’ve also heard of a company called ‘seed bombs’ on Facebook but I never used them.

I would leave what you have now and enjoy it, then come autumn cut the grass as low as it can go, rake it bare, pull the normal perennial ‘weeds’ ( wildflowers), as lovely as they are they tend to suffocate the other flowers. As Harry Palmr said buy yellow rattle, but this can be got through the wildflower seed mixes. Go easy on it though if your wild area is near a proper lawn. Yellow rattle is very beneficial to wildflower meadows because it’s parasitic on grass so if it escapes your wild patch you could end up with a patchy lawn too.

Ragnar Lothbrok

This seems as though there's a bit more to it than I thought, but that's grand. I was hoping there'd be a more immediate return on this, but I'm happy enough to see it as a long-term project and wait for it to become developed in time. I'm definitely going to extend this area now.

I'm probably going to follow baaba maal's advice and leave well alone until autumn, then cut the grass short and rake it well.

Harry Palmr: I've never heard of yellow rattle but seems like that could be a good idea.

Thanks to everyone for their very helpful replies

magicbastarder

you need to buy a scythe now too. go all in.

Ragnar Lothbrok

magicbastarder wrote: »

you need to buy a scythe now too. go all in.

Rows Grower

I left a circle of about 8 foot of our garden uncut this year just to see what would happen naturally, the grass and weeds are about two feet tall now. There's a rose plant at the edge of it that has flowered away as normal and there's a nettle plant in there.

It's visible from our bedroom window and the one thing that can't be missed is the amount of small birds that feed around the edge of it and inside it every morning. It's like a tiny little nature reserve for them. The chickens love it too, usually they feed around it in the afternoon or just go inside and lie down for a cool rest in there on a hot day.

Frogeye

what happens if you let the grass grow long and go to seed and don't cut the it all? Does it just fall over and rot? die back during the winter?

How invasive is Yellow rattle?

I have an area, approx 400sqm planted with trees that er approx 2m apart and 4-6 foot tall. The grass is up to the smallest trees. There are some thistles, nettles, ragworth, docks, buttercup and others.

Should I just strim the lot or leave it?

I'm hoping that eventually the trees will shade out a lot of it and I'm planting more this winter. Maybe the yellow rattle is the answer.

Frogeye

looksee

If you don't want the yellow rattle to continue in your garden cut it before it goes to seed. Its an annual so it will just stop.

beggars_bush

magicbastarder wrote: »

you need to buy a scythe now too. go all in.

I've two in the shed
Take them out every Halloween

Reckless Abandonment

Drop some daffodils and tulips in to the area to.
They will add some spring interest and die back before everything else gets going. I've a 15x10m area done with them. But it's under two large willow trees so can't do a whole lot with it during the summer. I just let the grass and weeds go wild. (Not all weeds mine you)