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I thought it would be a good idea to get thinking ahead to what can be planted now to help the first emerging insects like queen bees and our hibernating species of butterfly like peacocks, small tortoiseshells and commas.
So, what are your favourites? I'm a big crocus fan, I think the display of colour you can get in a lawn or border is a great way to liven up the garden after a long winter and the nectar they produce is popular with bees. What bulbs or other early spring flowering plants will you be adding this winter or what do you have already?
As always, any pictures of your spring displays are welcome!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Good to know there is hope for my Astrantias H! My pic is not exactly growing in the garden ... first wallflowere on cliff face of chalk quarry which I can see from my double doors
There will be many & they look so pretty & colourful ..... as do your lovely Dandelion pics!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
They're lovely, What's the story behind them? Have they been planted, found their way there or are they a native version of the wallflower?
Can't have been planted H as it's a sheer chalk face about 60' high but quite craggy with it so I presume they are wind/bird borne! That pic was taken on full zoom with power shot sx40 so that's as much detail as I can get, they are growing at about 30' high! Birds are always foraging & my Kestrels stash food behind bigger clumps & many Butterflies go after them too!
It's amazing how plants will reach and inhabit the most unlikely of places isn't it?
How are your Kestrels? Did they breed again last year?
The Kestrels in the boxes on our reserves failed to breed last year and I have noticed that they have declined terribly with only the odd glimpse over winter when prior years you couldn't go out without seeing two or three!
I'm only seeing one young female also so I do hope that it's just because they didn't have chicks/young to feed and teach hunt so haven't needed to hunt so much...
What else is growing on the cliff face at the moment?
Best
Higgy
I currently have a thread running 'Kestrels in the Quarry 2014' in Wildlife forum & there is a link below which takes you to last year's thread & if you ever get five minutes you will be able to read what a travesty it turned out to be, culminating in having to organize rescue of last remaining chick & subsequent care! Many pics also on my Flickr @ eff37. Very lucky to be able to chart the progress of these lovely birds H & to witness their hunting exploits at the Airport over the road & in surrounding fields & road verges!
I will take some pics of growth in the quarry to show you ... am surrounded by all sorts of things, a lot of which I don't know names of!
Was reading Carol Klein article in DM this weekend where she was featuring Wood Anemones, early blooming, White, insect friendly & extremely pretty ... sourcing some of these is my next task, do you have these in your garden?
Lovely dandelions! I just googled them: symbol of survival.
I'm keeping track of everything mentioned here.
I persuaded the head gardener of the social housing group our building is part of to let part of our back lawn grow without mowing. This bit has always been a lawn, since the building was erected around 1850, according to maps. It has amazing little flowers in it, blue, pink, white (short daisies) and yellow (bird-foot trefoil). And others! All sorts. I imagine they didn't mow lawns back then? So maybe they grew short plants instead? The gardener is as interested as I am in finding out what happens if we leave them alone for a while, but he then wants to establish a wildlife meadow! (Only, he wants me to buy the materials--I can't afford to. Anyone have any ideas?) All of these little beauties must be good for beneficial insects?
The lawnmower was invented around 1830 so it might have been a lawn back then. It is hard to establish a wildflower meadow but I think you can certainly add to the diversity of what's there. It sounds as if you have a mixture of what are called lawn weeds!
The wildflowers grow best from seed in impoverished soil but if the site is adjacent to an existing lawn, any chemical treatments for feeding the grass may be a problem. Could the gardener dig out some of the turf here and there? Even using a bulb planter to create a space with no competition from the grass.
Higgy grows seeds in plugs so that the plants are underway early. This is not an expensive way to add to the flowers if you have somewhere to do this. I grew wildflower seeds from a packet in a bed last year and got quite a display. There were some perennial yellow ox-eye daisies which I've kept there. I think some of the annuals - poppies and corncockle may grow there again.I may move in some clover. A mixture of perennials and annuals will give me a longer flowering time.
I've moved some cowslips in there this year and am about to transfer some of the wild foxgloves I've let seed around the place. My father bought some cowslips which seed freely. I just dig them up if they grow somewhere I don't want them am move them somewhere else.
Yellow rattle is a plant which affects the growth of grasses, making it less vigorous but this might affect the lawn area. The area may need to be cut back at some point after plants have seeded.
Lots of people have posted about lawns going wild; if you search you may find something useful. Good luck!
Hi Karin,
It doesn't have to be expensive and creating the right area for them can be quite easy.
You can buy wildflower seed quite cheaply and as Grandmamac says I just use normal soil (not compost) with some small grit mixed into it, fill up a small pot (my local garden centre gives these away as they are to small for reuse by them!) and then just sprinkle a pinch of seed on top of the soil and I then put a really light sprinkle of grit on top. From an ordinary packet of wild-flower seed (99p-£2 depending on size) you will get 20+ pots with 2-3 plants in each.
Once the plants reach 6-8inches in height dig a hole in the lawn and plant them in. They will continue to grow and eventually flower.
There are two ways that you can do it. Perennial or Annual...
Seeds for Perennial plants might not give you much flower this year but will flower next year and continue to flower for years to come.
Seeds for Annual flowers will give you a mass riot of colour this summer but will need re-sowing next year and future years although a few seeds from the flowers will germinate if your lucky.
My way!! I do both!! I plant perennial plug plants but ten sow some annuals over the top! This isn't really the way to do it but it works for me and seems to generally give me a good return.
Here are a couple of pictures to show you what I've achieved from seed, be it sown or grown on and planted as plugs...
There needs to be some preparation of the ground first and this can be as simple as raking the area vigorously to get out any moss and actually creating bald patches in the lawn to sow your seeds on!
The other way is to take the turff off, rake it flat and into a fine tilth ad sow your seeds onto the prepared area.
This is the same area as above but prior to planting/sowing...
However you decide to proceed this needn't cost the earth. just buy a couple packets of mixed wildflower seed and see how you get on!
Any problems come back and ask on here and someone will point you in the right direction.
Hope this helps?
That looks really pretty H, bet all the pollinators love it ... no wonder you get so many Butterflies!!
I think the combination of wild flowers and the perennial borders really packs a punch and does get the pollinators in on mass!
Last summer I experimented with different combinations of wildflowers and cultivated perennials mixed together and this was a magnet for bees and hoverflies.
My best results have been with mixing Knapweed, Corn Marigold and Scabious in amongst my perennials so far...
Knapweed mixed with Helenium gave very good results!...