Selfsufficientish.com

The house I'm living in at them moment is privileged to have a pretty large garden. Part of it is empty at the moment and, realistically, won't get a huge amount of work this year (we'll be concentrating on developments on the veg patch). Therefore, we are thinking about seeding it with a wildflower meadow mix. Rather than leaving it bare for whatever happens to arrive it will be beautiful and a good habitat for all sorts of helpful beasties but I'm anticipating that it won't take a huge amount of work or cost so we won't lose too much as we do gradually work on developing areas of it.



I've not done this before though so would welcome thoughts and comments (including any recommendations of where to get seed and when it should be sown).

Thanks,

Wulf

Most important thing with developing a wild flower meadow is to reduce the nutrients in the soil, usually this is done by removing the topsoil or 2nd best inverting the sub-soil and topsoil. Either way this is a lot of work and a long term effect.

If as you imply this is a temporary measure and will be gradually converting the area to a more conventional (veg growing?) garden then this is not going to work. Hate to say it but a well mown lawn is the best thing for later converting to a veg plot because nasty weeds are unable to get a foothold.

You could plant things like tulips into grass - check out Christopher Lloyd (recently diceased) at Great Dixter, he did great things with flowers in meadows.

It's all pretty dead at the moment. It had been overgrown with a japanese knotweed problem; last year it was treated multiple times and the knotweed seems to be gone but all the grass is dead, too. I'm not after a long term meadow; more of a short term cover. The ground is also pretty uneven with lots of rubble buried in it so I was thinking of longish grass and flowers to blanket that.

If a proper meadow is out of the question, what kind of things could be broadcast sown to give us ground cover, preferably with some flowers and variety, and without being too pricey. What about something like chamomile with a few other seeds mixed in?

It's a pretty big area to cover with membrane and I'd rather have some living things (but not open ground for bindweed and brambles).

Wulf

Sorry Wulf but that knotweed will be back, sow a lawn and keep it mowed and mowed.

plant oreganum officianulus - true greek oregano - its rampant smells and tastes beautiful, easily mow able and fairly shallow rooted when you come to dig it out (as long as you aren't on clay) perhaps drop a load of sharp sand on the area first regardless of what you plant?

The problem with mowing is that the ground is very uneven. What I'm seeking is something to fill the gap before work begins to level it. Oregano (which I've grown a different version of before) sounds like a good contender, being both fragrant and edible.

Wulf

It has been dealt with professionally - that's why nothing else got done in that area last year and all the grass is dry and dead in that picture. Don't worry - we didn't just chop it down and throw in the garden waste bag!

Wulf