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Planting wild flowers

dianabriggs2002dianabriggs2002 Posts: 4
in Wildlife gardening
We have a holiday home on a cliff top and just beyond the boundary before the cliff falls away, it is covered in long grass and a variety of other wild plants, most not particularly interesting - thistles, ragwort etc. I would like to try increasing the diversity by tossing in some seed either that I've collected myself or a wild flower mix that you can get from a garden shop. Can I just chuck it into the long grass and hope some will eventually make its way down and germinate, or do I need to be more intentional? The cliff falls away quite steeply quite fast so would much prefer the former method! Thanks for any thoughts!

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I don't think you're supposed to do that.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • dianabriggs2002dianabriggs2002 Posts: 4
    Sorry, do what?

  • Chris-P-BaconChris-P-Bacon Posts: 943
    edited July 2021
    If it's beyond your boundary it isn't your land. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2021
    You might not find thistles and ragwort particularly interesting, but they’re an important good source to many types of birds and insects. 

    Scattering random seeds, some of which may not even be native or suitable for the area, could wreck the ecology of the area.  

    It’s not a ‘garden’ … it’s a wild area … wild areas are important because they are ‘wild’ and not interfered with. 

    And anyway … it will belong to someone … everywhere does. 
    😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • dianabriggs2002dianabriggs2002 Posts: 4
    Just for clarification, the plants I'm thinking of grow on the cliff anyway, just not where we are. I would certainly check with the council before doing anything and it is a very small area. I was thinking biodiversity, not introducing non-local species to make a garden.
  • rachelQrtJHBjbrachelQrtJHBjb Posts: 819
    I understand your desire to enhance the biodiversity but the current plants on the cliff are probably playing an important role in preventing cliff erosion. If, for example, you added yellow rattle, it could enjoy the spot just too much, over colonise and weaken the grass roots.

    Would it be possible to plant things in your garden that frame the view and mimic the planting beyond? Yellow daisies to mirror the ragwort, eryngiums to pick up the blue in the thistles?
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