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Unknown said: Has the Yellow Rattle grown, MarJus?
Has the Yellow Rattle grown, MarJus?
As usual I was impatient to get going with the pack, but the instructions were to sow in autumn as the yellow rattle apparently needs a cold spell for germination. I could have tried a few days in the freezer but thought better to let nature work it's magic!! So hopefully by next spring I'll see some signs! :-)
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr
Hello All,
Thanks for the kind comments they are appreciated as always!
Stich, I say just go for it or if you want it to look less 'scruffy' just do the edge of the grass or alternatively a patch of wild flower grass in the middle of the lawn and keep the outsides mown and edged? Cutting paths through it can also help to make it look somewhat 'managed'???
Mick, Kind offer as always and I might just take you up on that..... You will have to let ,me know if I can return the favour with seeds/plants etc??
Hi Caroline, Poppies make a wild flower meadow somehow don't they? I scattered plenty of seeds but only have half a dozen which have actually grown and flowered in my patch! I'm hoping that these will shed their seeds and produce a few more as the years go on!!?
Cheers
Higgy
Hi Higgy. Loving it!
And I agree with your encouragement to Stich - mowing straight edges around a longer grass area can look really formal and 'tended'. Stich - is there any way you could communicate in advance what you'd like to do (to neighbours AND the Council), so that 'curtain twitchers' aren't alarmed?
Adrian
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
Like most I have always had the standard green lawn. I have been cutting as normal this year then thought I would just let the wild flower grow a little. Now I have great colours and I don't have to mow. Seeing your post makes me feel a whole lot better as I'm now doing it for the wildlife.
Here is a picture that I hope captures the beauty.
Robert
Robert, that is beautiful; made a lovely start to the day- thank you! I can almost hear the bees buzzing in it :) Why can't more local councils see the value?
Robert, one word - wow! Looks like you've got White Clover, Self-heal and Bird's-foot Trefoil. If you live anywhere near 'wild' or 'wasteland' habitat, you could easily get Common Blue butterflies taking advantage - as you may well know, Bird's-foot Trefoil is the caterpillar foodplant. Don't worry if when you cut later in the season the area looks a little yellow - it will soon green back up.
Thanks Adrian but the less cutting the better.
Most of the garden is about 4 inches high and only needs a trim in parts. The strange thing is that the birds have made their own pathways between the feeders at the front and the back of the garden.
Anyway it's so much nicer than just green.
Oh, even better then Robert if you don't need to cut :-)
Robert that looks fantastic and I bet it's buzzing with bees on all that clover! Great to hear that that the birds are also making the most of it!
My patch has literally been covered in Meadow Browns this weekend and if I go out on a wet night (most nights at the moment!!) there is often a fat toad enjoying the plentiful supply of slugs!!...
When I get the chance I'll post up another picture of how it looks now as It's coming on better than I'd hoped and doesn't look too bad! Most importantly is attracting massive numbers of insects/bees/butterflies etc....
Wow. All these photographs are just beautiful. I'm really new to gardening but so far I've not had too many problems and I have a small lawn area (that used to be grass but it's died off now) that I want to be more useful than just boring grass. Can I put wildflower seed down there? It might look a bit odd as it is a quite small area (about a hundred and thirty square feet total) but, frankly, my whole garden does as all I plant for, and the only reason I plant, is bees. I also tore a whole chunk out of it to fit more salvia in so it's a really weird shape now as well. My soil, as mentioned in the advice earlier, is pretty poor in this area so I know that's a good thing and it's fairly neutral too which is also good I think (somewhere just over 6.5 heading to 7 and I recall reading somewhere this was a good range).
I'm just wondering if I scatter some seed about would that be ok or should I put plugs in instead? I have a few links to wildflower specialists that offer the plug plants but I'm not sure if it would be too late for this year and it would just be easier to scatter seed. This area also gets quite a big amount of sun too (hence ripping some of it up for the flowers) so I could put in a fairly good range.
Hi Beenaut
I'm sure some wonderful advice will come in from our wonderful community, but just to say that I'm planning to do a bit of a blog about flowering lawns & meadows this Friday, so stay tuned.... :-)