What and When?
devonhendy
Posts: 1
Hello lovely Gardeny people... We have a newly landscaped area in Devon. It was a paddock that was planted with conifers. We have permission for a campsite and have done all the main infrastructure now, all the groundworks and drainage. We have 2 reed beds feeding into a pond and it's all looking very bare. Which way should we go about this? We're thinking rotavate it, rake it - get rid of all the stones, then in September sow with woodland flowers in the shady bits, wild flowers / meadow seed mixed with grass in the clearings and maybe some wet / pond loving flowers near tghe soggy bits. OR should we just let it grow now, spray it (I know - I may get hung drawn and quartered for this, but we would only do it once) in late August then sow it. Or just let it go until next spring? We're novices. All advice gratefully received. 
Posts
I'm a bit confused. Is this area for camping on? With tents?
Or is it an amenity area next to the camping bit?
If it's the second ,then you can make it pretty in any way that seems worthwhile to you, but children will probably run about on it without much regard for the wildflowers.
If it's the first, then all you need is a decent, hardwearing grass mix. Wildflowers won't enjoy being covered by groundsheets and you will need to keep the grass mown to keep the campers happy, so they won't get much chance to flower unless they are lawn daisies or similar. You could plant a border of hedgerow flowers or cornfield weeds along the perimeter where they will not be disturbed.
As a former camper, I hope there are not too many 'soggy bits'