On 15/11/07 19:56, in article op.t1um0lziaiss39@localhost, "Larry Gagnon"
wrote:
We live in an area where our back garden backs directly onto a natural
forested area, without any fences or obstacles between our garden and the
natural parkland. Part of the garden includes a grassed area measuring
about 6x8 meters. The grassed area has not been well looked after by
previous owners and hence has some weed and poorly growing grass. I have
recently aerated and fertilized and am continuing to rid the grass of
weeds and to reseed the weed holes, so I hope to have it back to a
reasonable patch of grass by next spring/summer. The natural parkland does
have some weeds in it as well.
It is our idea to naturalize this grassy area with spring bulbs which we
have from previous garden changes (including snowdrops, bluebells, crocus,
grape hyacinth). I am aware that the area cannot then be mowed until the
latest bulbs have flowered and 6 weeks after that. Our concern is that
with the nearby "weed seed" generator of the natural parkland nearby, that
it might be difficult to maintain a nice naturalized grassy bulb meadow as
we envision due to the influx of weeds (which will be difficult to weed
out when all the bulbs are growing.
Anyone out there who has had any experience naturalizing with bulbs a
grassy area where weeds could be a problem please let me know your
experiences and suggestions. Thanks!
Larry
I have no experience of this but I'm left wondering if what you worry might
be 'weedy' would be what other people would plant as a wild flower meadow,
spending money on special seed to do so! In your shoes, I think I'd be
inclined to just let it do its own thing and simply mow paths through it to
areas where you can put a seat and table, for example. IOW, turn it to your
advantage and make a special feature of it rather than struggle with it. To
me, this would be much more interesting than a lawn that just never really
made it as a lawn because of the competition. Would that work for you?
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'