I have two separate areas where I have encouraged meadow grass, wild flowers and yellow rattle. Both areas abut neat lawn. Yellow rattle is annual, so I guess it is killed/stopped from seeding by close mowing.
One area is showing masses of new ratlle seedlings. The other has lush grass and I have only been able to count 3 rattle seedlings; it had plenty of rattle plants last year. (Sweet violet is just finishing and cowslips starting.)
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Well @Fairygirl the yellow rattle seems to be parasitic on flower roots as well as grass, particularly the early summer flowers, so I just want less of it. What I leave will undoubtedly self seed all over the area, so there is no chance of getting rid of it, which I don't want to do.
I have read somewhere that yellow rattle is parasitic on other plants, not just grass, clover especially.
Monty Don said this recently. but presented no evidence. This repeating of information without personal evidence is wide-spread in gardening. Now I've sown it, I have to live with it, but from my experience only the grass looks weakened (and only in one of two sites). If I go off it (not yet) I should be able to interrupt its annual habit.
I gathered the seeds in two widely separated regions )Surrey chalk and Clay-with-Flints Oxfordshire. In both locations, the grass was weak but the other wild flowers abundant. When I return, I will look for clover.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I still don't really understand - perhaps I'm being dense. If you want rid of the yellow rattle, you'd need to keep mowing it and not letting it seed. That means getting rid of everything else too of course, and starting again. Perhaps the only way to proceed. Or - remove all the turf in the area, so that there's no grass at all, and go from there.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Collareddove if you want a wildflower lawn you still have to do some ‘management’ with it. You need to be raking it. This will remove any dead grass swards and help get rid of the moss. Allowing the moss to stay will only create problems for you. Any annual wildflowers that self seed won’t be able to as the moss will stop the seeds from having contact with the soil.
I have two books on Meadow Gardening. The mowing timings are critical to the species you want to encourage. In both books there are examples given, but you are left to choose your own regime. Both books favour animals carefully chosen for selective grazing.
I mow my two meadows (that is a grandiose name. - a meadow proper should be at least an acre) twice a year. The one invaded by sedge I mow first in late June(ish) and hope that seeds come in from the outside (I did get an orchid, but it didn't stay). The other I mow in August (or when the cowslips and yellow rattle have ripened). I give a final mow to both in late October. Roe deer visit, but I don't think they help with the grazing. In fact they graze the flowers and seed heads of fritillaries, sorrel, and meadow buttercups I am trying to encourage.
My abutting fine lawn I mow weekly or more. So the rattle should not survive there.
From the sedge "meadows" I have the grassbox on for both cuts. From the other, I delay the raking up of the first cut for a while.
Carol Klein tells me that seed will germinate even if picked unripe.
Moss is not so apparent in long grass. Any seed will get rain-washed down, I assume, to germinate in a nice protective bed of moss..
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I agree with @rossdriscoll13 - these still need managed, they aren't completely maintenance free, or straightforward. I'd also say that if you have the right conditions for grass to grow well, it'll tend to just take over and smother a lot of the flowers anyway. That's exactly how nature will throw itself at you. If you want flowers to dominate, there's a fair bit of work to be done. Everything has to suit the conditions/climate you have
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I totally agree with @Fairygirl, @rossdriscoll13 and @bede, wildflower areas are anything but maintenance-free. In fact they involve much more hard work than just regular mowing of a normal lawn. As mine is a summer-flowering patch, I mow a couple of times after winter, up until mid-April, then, apart from mowing paths through the area, no more mowing until late September/early October when I use a scythe mower to take down the height. Thereafter mowing on a high regular mower setting, then a couple more mowings on reducing settings to get it to a manageable height, but not as short as a regular lawn. This is when I start the really hard work of raking the moss and generally scarifying the 'meadow'. The whole procedure takes me about a month. Even then there is an area of rosebay willow herb that I don't get round to clearing until the winter or early spring. The easy option this is NOT!
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One area is showing masses of new ratlle seedlings. The other has lush grass and I have only been able to count 3 rattle seedlings; it had plenty of rattle plants last year. (Sweet violet is just finishing and cowslips starting.)
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I gathered the seeds in two widely separated regions )Surrey chalk and Clay-with-Flints Oxfordshire. In both locations, the grass was weak but the other wild flowers abundant. When I return, I will look for clover.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
If you want rid of the yellow rattle, you'd need to keep mowing it and not letting it seed.
That means getting rid of everything else too of course, and starting again. Perhaps the only way to proceed.
Or - remove all the turf in the area, so that there's no grass at all, and go from there.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I mow my two meadows (that is a grandiose name. - a meadow proper should be at least an acre) twice a year. The one invaded by sedge I mow first in late June(ish) and hope that seeds come in from the outside (I did get an orchid, but it didn't stay). The other I mow in August (or when the cowslips and yellow rattle have ripened). I give a final mow to both in late October. Roe deer visit, but I don't think they help with the grazing. In fact they graze the flowers and seed heads of fritillaries, sorrel, and meadow buttercups I am trying to encourage.
My abutting fine lawn I mow weekly or more. So the rattle should not survive there.
From the sedge "meadows" I have the grassbox on for both cuts. From the other, I delay the raking up of the first cut for a while.
Carol Klein tells me that seed will germinate even if picked unripe.
Moss is not so apparent in long grass. Any seed will get rain-washed down, I assume, to germinate in a nice protective bed of moss..
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I'd also say that if you have the right conditions for grass to grow well, it'll tend to just take over and smother a lot of the flowers anyway. That's exactly how nature will throw itself at you. If you want flowers to dominate, there's a fair bit of work to be done. Everything has to suit the conditions/climate you have
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As mine is a summer-flowering patch, I mow a couple of times after winter, up until mid-April, then, apart from mowing paths through the area, no more mowing until late September/early October when I use a scythe mower to take down the height. Thereafter mowing on a high regular mower setting, then a couple more mowings on reducing settings to get it to a manageable height, but not as short as a regular lawn. This is when I start the really hard work of raking the moss and generally scarifying the 'meadow'.
The whole procedure takes me about a month. Even then there is an area of rosebay willow herb that I don't get round to clearing until the winter or early spring.
The easy option this is NOT!