On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:32:27 +0200, harry wrote:
You must mow your grass and take the grass cuttings
(and thus the nutrients) away. This needs to be done once a year
after flower seeds have fallen. The grass wil be weakened by this
treatment. You can't do this with a domestic mower, the grass will be
too tall and tussocky.
The alternative is not to have it grazed. Animals crap, putting the
nutrients back into the ground which defeats the object.
You will get "wild fowers" OK but probably the weeds growing in your
garden, ie loads of thistles, nettles, buttercups, dandelions, docks,
sorrel, clover etc. Very few of the "pretty" flowers.
If you want to know what will grow/appear, have a walk on your patch
and
look at the weeds there. You will just get lots more of the same.
Makes sense don't it?
These "Wild flower meadows" you see on the TV are complete Bull S***.
They are no more wild than your vegetable plot.
The flowers aren't wild either being from imported seed. Most of the
seed you buy is from E. Europe and is actually damaging to our
environment.
If they were to be benificial to the environment, there would be no
planting of non-local seeds/plants. People in the UK are too idle to
collect our wild flower seeds, a very tedious job. You could collect
your own locally.
So, either you damage our environment or you just get a weedy patch
that's benificial but not like the crap you see on the TV.
You need to realise that 90% of TV gardening is complete BS.
If you need advice, speak to a local person that's doing what you
want
and is manifestly successful at it.
If they're planting seeds in a "Wild Flower Meadow", they are
failures.
Whilst I agree with some of the above, I suggest that a positive approach
can yield worthwhile results. There are reputable suppliers of wildflower
seeds in the UK (I use Naturescape who grow most of their own products and
obtain some of the species from Wales and Scotland but do not import
any). Good seed is quite expensive but a little goes a long way (I allow
around 4 grams per square metre). To achieve success you do need to
select the seed mix that will perform well in the area you have chosen -
for example it is no good sowing meadow plant seed in area that is
predominately in the shade. One of our wildflower patches is permanently
in the shade of a stand of oaks so we went for woodland plants which has
worked well. Another patch is much more open and meadow type plants such
as corn marigolds, ox-eye daisy, cornflower and field poppy grow happily
alongside the perennials. Some of our experiments have not been a success
- vipers bugloss and kidney vetch have been a disappointment (too wet) but
others such as the very successful transplanting of common spotted and
pyramidal orchids from our lawns to the wildflower patches have been a
bonus.
It can be a lot of hard work preparing wildflower areas. Initially we
sprayed the grass off, decided that this was not going to be good enough
and then scalped the area which was backbreaking work - I have now
discovered that there are simple turf lifting machines that can be hired
which I will bear in mind for the future. Our areas don't need a lot of
maintenance, cutting back the annuals at this time of year, removing any
plants that have turned out to be thugs and threaten to take over, sowing
seed for next year's growth. 'How to make a wildlife garden' by Chris
Baines is a worthwhile read if you are serious about gardening with
wildlife in mind and there are several useful free down-loadable
information notes on the NE website at
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/adv.../booklets.aspx
--
rbel