Yellow Rattle 4 years on

tombrown

I tried to make a patch of my lawn into a wildflower area. I cleared it & sowed yellow rattle 4 years ago. It all came up well in the first year and since then the wild flowers have started to establish themselves .. some native and oome we bought (that I now regret … whats wild about bought plants?)

Anyway, the yellow rattle has come back every year & I really notice the difference in grass growth. This year, however, the yellow rattle only came back on about 1/3 of the area. The rest of the area looks great with lots of buttercup, oxide daisies, forget me not etc. But I am worried that if the YR is not present across the patch, the grass will come back.

I don't really understand why it has gone - I let it seed every year and don't mow until around October time

Should I sow new YR seed this autumn or is this normal and I should leave well enough alone?

Any advice would be welcome …

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058356148/yellow-rattle-4-years-on

Yellow rattle only thrives on dry well draining soil, it's highly.probable that the very wet spring has made conditions unfavourable this year. If your lucky it will come back next year if it's dry.

Jim_Hodge

If you've had reasonable growth of YR for 4 years it will have done it's job in impoverishing the soil at this stage. Relax and let the other wildflowers take charge.

Thargor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058356148/yellow-rattle-4-years-on

How did you go about clearing the patch of lawn in the first place if you dont mind me asking? Back to bare dirt or just heavily scarified?

tombrown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122275886#Comment_122275886

Sorry - only just saw this. I mowed it as close as possible, went over it with a strimmer with heavy line & then scarified with a spring rake. No digging involved :)

Just ordered this for sowing in September, hopefully a bit of a raking will suffice for preparation, it's mostly weedy ground so not much grass but if it helps the wildflower survive better then it will do the job. Did you sow both at the same time?

Thargor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369025#Comment_122369025

Thanks, any pics of the results?

Weedy Gonzalez

I cheated and killed the grass off with weedkiller in a large area. Waited for it completely die then raked it all away. Planted yellow rattle in October and have had a bumper crop this year.

Thargor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122447054#Comment_122447054

What was the weedkiller you used and how did you apply it?

Weedy Gonzalez

I strimmed the grass back as low as possible and removed it. I then used round up to kill off what was left. I raked that out about two months later. I went heavy on the yellow rattle in around October time. Makes a big difference scattering it on bare soil as opposed to sprinkling it on grass. The area is now absolutely full of yellow rattle resulting in very minimal grass growth in that area.