"Phil Gurr" wrote in message
o.uk...

"mark" wrote in message
o.uk...


I've decided to help the bees and make a wildflower garden.

Action taken so far is to identify an area of back lawn for the project
and this has been culled using glycosphate but needs redoing to get the
bits I missed.

I've got a few packets of wildflower seeds courtesy of Coppella at the
Hampton Ct. Flower Show. I've also collected a few seeds myself: poppy,
ox eye daisy etc., and am on the look out for other suitable seed heads.
The plan is to sprinkle these about in September.

Never done this before so would appreciate any dos and don'ts etc.

First and foremost - try to reduce the fertility of your soil as much as
possible and NEVER add fertiliser. Wild flowers do best in a poor soil.
Some of the seeds that you mention are annual wildflowers and will only
flower next year. You will only see them again if you disturb the soil
every year and this will 'upset' the perennial wild flowers such as the
oxeye daisy. Remember that grasses are also wild flowers and should form
part of the mixture. You can try to disturb small patches of the area if
you want to see poppies, cornflower and corn marigold ever year - if you
have moles, they will do a good job of this for you!
Be patient, a wild flower meadow takes at least 10 years to establish and
cut the area in the autumn and remove the cuttings to reduce the fertility
even further.
These are just the basics, wild flower growing is a very complex subject.


Thanks Phil. No fertiliser, scythe and remove cuttings in autumn.

mark