Following my blog last week about forsaking the mower for a while and letting the lawn live a little prompted some people to get in touch to ask how could they then add some colour.
The Advanced Level technique is to strip off the turf and topsoil to get rid of the nutrient-rich level and sow wildflower meadow seed.
But I know that many people just don't have the time, energy or funds to try this. So this blog ISN'T about the full-blown, 'remove the top soil, sow wildflower seed' meadow-making technique. This is all about the little things you can try with your existing lawn just to make it far more interesting to wildlife.
The good news is that, unless your lawn is recently laid, it probably already has plenty of plants in it already that are just itching to be given the chance to flower. You actually need to do very little except give them chance to flower once in a while.
There are probably clovers in there, such a brilliant nectar plant...
Self-heal is another plant whose rosettes of leaves can survive the passage of the blades, but whose pink flowers are delightful if given the chance.
You may have the purples of Ground-ivy waiting to bloom...
...or the intense blues of Germander Speedwell.
But if you want to be proactive and add yet more colour, then this autumn you could plant bulbs into the lawn for a 'spring meadow' effect, such as Snake's-head Fritillaries.
Or buy some plug plants to add into the lawn right now. They can be really cheap - as a rule of thumb, good value plugs are a pound or less each. Most of the flowers above are available, as are Cowslips, such as these that I photographed last week on a grassy bank in a garden...
With such a palette of possibilities, wouldn't it be lovely to think that the typical lawn of the future will be technicolor.
And on our Give your Mower a Rest webpage, I've set out the ways to create a spring or summer meadow. But if it is just a case of leaving the lawn unmown once in the season, then that's a great start,
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
hi Dotty
I've never heard of Cat's-ear going rampant like that - it is normally well behaved. But one of the hawksbeards is a possibility - I just haven't come across them taking over a lawn in this way before, and it is certainly not something one would ever expect to be in a seedmix, so I presume it is wind blown seed from nearby. Obviously the key thing for you is what you are going to do in the future. If you wanted further chat about that, do feel free to email me on adrian.thomas@rspb.org.uk