@Jellyfire - what are the purple flowers in your field (alongside the white alliums)?
Field! lol i wish! Red campion, they're various shades of pink rather than purple though, pics maybe making them look more purpley
They're lovely - very dainty! I assume they just sprung up or did you sow them? I have a lawn meadow which changes every year. So far just tall grasses and some bugloss (despite planting some new wildflower seeds). Usually there are some michelmas daisies...they may yet spring up.
A 'weed' is just a plant in the wrong place - subjective!
They're lovely - very dainty! I assume they just sprung up or did you sow them? I have a lawn meadow which changes every year. So far just tall grasses and some bugloss (despite planting some new wildflower seeds). Usually there are some michelmas daisies...they may yet spring up.
No I'd tried just adding plug plants and seed to the grass, but they always got swamped and it ended up as grass, so I cleared the ground on two big patches a few years ago, and grew annual mixes on them for 2 or 3 years to get the nutrients out of the soil, then sowed a perennial wildflower mix, (from Wildflower Turf - although I think they only sell the seed-only mixes commercially and just sell the turf to retail now).
It was a grass free mix, so the flowers have all got firmly established before some grasses have worked their way in. It mainly goes from these pinks to the white campion and oxeye daises coming through, but there are 20 or 30 other plants that crop up in it. Every year a few new species seem to pop up. It self seeds like crazy now so I lift a few spadefuls of turf every spring and spread them round the rest of the garden. The gaps fill in within a couple of weeks and the turf will grow a new patch pretty much anywhere (Useful for covering up all manner of sins!)
They're lovely - very dainty! I assume they just sprung up or did you sow them? I have a lawn meadow which changes every year. So far just tall grasses and some bugloss (despite planting some new wildflower seeds). Usually there are some michelmas daisies...they may yet spring up.
No I'd tried just adding plug plants and seed to the grass, but they always got swamped and it ended up as grass, so I cleared the ground on two big patches a few years ago, and grew annual mixes on them for 2 or 3 years to get the nutrients out of the soil, then sowed a perennial wildflower mix, (from Wildflower Turf - although I think they only sell the seed-only mixes commercially and just sell the turf to retail now).
It was a grass free mix, so the flowers have all got firmly established before some grasses have worked their way in. It mainly goes from these pinks to the white campion and oxeye daises coming through, but there are 20 or 30 other plants that crop up in it. Every year a few new species seem to pop up. It self seeds like crazy now so I lift a few spadefuls of turf every spring and spread them round the rest of the garden. The gaps fill in within a couple of weeks and the turf will grow a new patch pretty much anywhere (Useful for covering up all manner of sins!)
Thanks for your info. Yes, despite clearing a large patch (for the wildflower seeds) they have yet to emerge. I keep the area regularly watered but they are surrounded by now tall grasses. (Also did the same with some crocosmia bulbs - yet to emerge also!) I originally transformed my lawn over to a lawn meadow about 6 years ago and the mix of grasses and flowers was a success (although predominantly various kinds of grasses). When I see clumps of the original grass coming through I tend to yank it up. If I don't get a good ratio of flowers this year I may have to contemplate doing as you did although that is very hard work and not sure I could do it now (being 68 and with high blood pressure). Oh well!
A 'weed' is just a plant in the wrong place - subjective!
I think your method will work @wild flower, it’ll just take a few years to get the balance right. As the nutrients leave the soil the wildflowers should start to get a hold. Have you sowed yellow rattle to weaken the grasses? Taking the sward as close to the bare soil as possible when you give it its mow, and removing as much of the clippings as possible should help. If you decide to go for the quicker approach then you could always get someone in to take the grass away. I was ill when we did ours and one of our neighbours teenage lads cleared the ground for me for fifty quid, which was money well spent!
I think your method will work @wild flower, it’ll just take a few years to get the balance right. As the nutrients leave the soil the wildflowers should start to get a hold. Have you sowed yellow rattle to weaken the grasses? Taking the sward as close to the bare soil as possible when you give it its mow, and removing as much of the clippings as possible should help. If you decide to go for the quicker approach then you could always get someone in to take the grass away. I was ill when we did ours and one of our neighbours teenage lads cleared the ground for me for fifty quid, which was money well spent!
Yes, I know about yellow rattle although have never found it for sale on its own, i.e. it comes as part of a mixed packet of grass seeds etc. I do scythe the lawn meadow back once a year, after the flowers have seeded.
Here is a photo of my lawn meadow from a few years ago (I think I have shared it here - not sure). It depicts a profusion of nigella flowers that I sowed some 2 years before they came up! They are light blue but the light exposure doesn't show this. Michelmas daisies are in the background.
A 'weed' is just a plant in the wrong place - subjective!
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It was a grass free mix, so the flowers have all got firmly established before some grasses have worked their way in. It mainly goes from these pinks to the white campion and oxeye daises coming through, but there are 20 or 30 other plants that crop up in it. Every year a few new species seem to pop up. It self seeds like crazy now so I lift a few spadefuls of turf every spring and spread them round the rest of the garden. The gaps fill in within a couple of weeks and the turf will grow a new patch pretty much anywhere (Useful for covering up all manner of sins!)
My shady spot under a big Apple tree. Aquilegias, Solomon’s Seal, Astilbes and a Hosta.
Last of the Rhododendrons to flower, a mauve one (looks a bit pink on photo).