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wild flower plot problems

FireFire Posts: 19,096
edited May 2021 in Problem solving
We have a local wildflower bed, planted up last year, 3mx1m. The bed was cleared completely and new soil added. We added wild flower mix, which have done pretty well, but alleyways and untended front gardens close by are full of plants like chickweed and shepherd's purse, which take over, so we try to weed them out.

I want now to put in another round of wildflower seed, but it's tricky. With wild flower seed, you have to wait to see with the emerging plants will be and it will be hard to weed out chickweed while need seeds are trying to grow.

In my small home gardens, front and back, I mulch deeply, don't dig, and my neighbours have just lawns they mow; so I have few weed problems. But this local wild flower bed is a whole other kettle of onions. There seems no way to preference the seed we choose. If chickweed is going to rampage continuously, and tangle in with everything else we want to grow, it seems like the 'wild flower seeding' approach isn't going to work. I wonder if we should go with putting in grown plants and mulching....

I'd like to hear your thoughts on possible solutions to this particular scenario or approaches you have heard of. Thanks.


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  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    edited May 2021
    Could you use perennial wild flowers - grow them to a reasonable size in plugs and then you'd have identifiable plants to weed between?
    The only other option would probably be to sow the new seed in a defined pattern - grid or lines. The grown plants will fill out so you don't see the lines, but you can hoe between the rows when they are babies. A bit laborious though
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited May 2021
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  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    I ended up buying wildflower turf in the end tried seeds plugs which were £1 each,hired a turf cutter,removed the grass,laid the wildflower turf removed some grass,first lot I Bought was an 80%20% mix grass to flowers,grass takes over, tried yellow rattle for years, didn't work,then bought ,100% wildflower turf,you still get grass we add perennials
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We have tried so many times to create wildflower meadow.
    Decided to sow a small area of corncokle in the garden last year. Collected the seed and sowed seeds this year in different areas.
    Looks good for germination and hopefully this will allow us to have more seed to sow in other areas next year.
    Yellow rattle...have done all that we should but no success.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    My area is not a wildflower meadow, just a bed, no grass.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Follow up: I have decided to try a change of tack and go for around ten major plants for the plot and not go for broadcasting wild flower seed so much. This will enable people in the wider tending group to be comfortable to IDing the ten plants and not worry about pulling out the wrong thing. Some have no experience with gardens at all. I have to plan for continuity if I or other instigators move away.

    If things like ground ivy pop up, then that's nothing to worry about. Chickweed is more of a problem because it tends to get large and tangly. We have a lot of wild plantain which can get quite large and I understand, spreads from tiny pieces of broken root.

    There is a lot of nonsuch (Medicago lupulina). It blows in from surounding gardens and tree beds. It seems to be favoured by many types of butterfly, so we won't worry about it.  It's much like an oxalis, in leaf, but tall. Does any one have experience of this?

    The brief for the plot is: good for sandy soil, drought tolerant, full sun, hardy or self seeding, looks after itself - so kind of a unwatered gravel garden type affair. We don't have problems with things like grass, docks, dandelions etc. Has to be easy for non-gardeners to feel confident to look after. Cat crapping is a problem, dogs not so much.

    Thanks



  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    What about Aquilegia, Linaria and ox-eye daisies, all resilient, easy to identify, look after themselves and loved by lots of insects.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    We have aquilegia in but it's done nothing much. Linaria and ox eyes are too tall for the space, but I have them in my own garden and love them
  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    I sowed yellow rattle on my wildflower patch end of last year and I honestly didn't expect it to germinate but it has and I've got three patches of it. Pleased and surprised.

  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    Fire said:
    We have aquilegia in but it's done nothing much. Linaria and ox eyes are too tall for the space, but I have them in my own garden and love them
    I found the ox eyed too tall yes in the wild locally they are only about 20cm.too much nutrition in the soil I suspect. 
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