Wildflower woes.
 

GF had neighbor mow our front lawn, half of which I had seeded with
wildflowers ~1 month ago. Many of them had started growing, up to ~6"
tall. Do you think they'll come back? Prettymuch ruined my day when I
saw this.

Wildflower woes.
 

On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 19:56:40 GMT, Whit wrote:

GF had neighbor mow our front lawn, half of which I had seeded with
wildflowers ~1 month ago. Many of them had started growing, up to ~6"
tall. Do you think they'll come back? Prettymuch ruined my day when I
saw this.

Why did GF do that? (Rhetorical)

I think you should be okay. The ones which were 6" tall may have been winter
flowering wildflowers, but if you have bluebonnets, cosmos, Mexican Hat in the
mix, they should be okay come spring. If the ground gets hard, make sure you
water the lawn over the winter to help with later germinating seeds.

V

Wildflower woes.
 

animaux wrote:
Why did GF do that? (Rhetorical)
She was trying to help, and forgot :o(


I think you should be okay. The ones which were 6" tall may have been winter
flowering wildflowers, but if you have bluebonnets, cosmos, Mexican Hat in the
mix, they should be okay come spring. If the ground gets hard, make sure you
water the lawn over the winter to help with later germinating seeds.

V

I was really looking forward to some color, maybe the plants will just
think a deer ate the tops and will come back. Ahh well, c'est la vie.

Wildflower woes.
 

can i seed with wildflowers to have them grow nice "lawn alternative?"
our plan is to do that in Maine ..this spring

Whit wrote:
GF had neighbor mow our front lawn, half of which I had seeded with
wildflowers ~1 month ago. Many of them had started growing, up to ~6"
tall. Do you think they'll come back? Prettymuch ruined my day when I
saw this.

Wildflower woes.
 

On Thu, 14 Nov 2002 18:01:02 GMT, Whit wrote:


I was really looking forward to some color, maybe the plants will just
think a deer ate the tops and will come back. Ahh well, c'est la vie.

You will see color. If you are that worried, why not reseed it again with some
more seeds, keep moist, and nothings lost. It's not too late to seed with
wildflowers for spring.

Wildflower woes.
 

On Thu, 14 Nov 2002 13:00:54 -0500, Adam Webster wrote:

can i seed with wildflowers to have them grow nice "lawn alternative?"
our plan is to do that in Maine ..this spring

To really get a wildflower "lawn alternative" you have to establish a certain
set of circumstances. Many wildflowers have a symbiotic relationship with
certain other native grasses and actually need those to survive. A wildflower
field is an evolving process from day to day, month to month. One thing
flowers, another takes its place.

Do some reading up on it before you go about it.

There is a fantastic book which was written by the Wasowski's about prairie
gardening. Look it up on www.amazon.com It's their newest book.

Also, Sara Stein wrote a wonderful set of books:

Noah's Garden and Planting Noah's Garden.

These two books are more guides to setting up ecosystems in your region, but the
writing is wonderful and she tries to teach gardeners to become "un-gardeners."
Wonderful works.

Victoria

Wildflower woes.
 

Great advise but I'm doing it the bonehead way, for now. I got tired of
mowing the weeds in half our small fromt lawn so I shaved it down and
threw out some seed, I plan to get some bluestem and other grasses out
there ASAP. The other half of the lawn is still St Augustine and is in
almost constant shade.

Wildflower woes.
 

On Thu, 14 Nov 2002 21:47:39 GMT, Whit wrote:

Great advise but I'm doing it the bonehead way, for now. I got tired of
mowing the weeds in half our small fromt lawn so I shaved it down and
threw out some seed, I plan to get some bluestem and other grasses out
there ASAP. The other half of the lawn is still St Augustine and is in
almost constant shade.

I actually like the way that looks. I have a friend who did the same thing, but
up on Long Island. He shaped the bed using French curves, which made it look
really natural. He still has that section.

Wildflower woes.
 

On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 19:56:40 GMT, Whit
wrote:

GF had neighbor mow our front lawn, half of which I had seeded with
wildflowers ~1 month ago. Many of them had started growing, up to ~6"
tall. Do you think they'll come back? Prettymuch ruined my day when I
saw this.

While a lawn mower's not exactly analogous to an antelope, most of our
wildflowers did evolve in the presence of grazers...

OTOH, it's not quite too late to plant wildflowers, assuming the
recent pattern of mild winters holds. Had good success planting
bluebonnets this time a couple of years ago. Wouldn't wait any longer
though..

Wildflower woes.
 

Terry Horton wrote:

While a lawn mower's not exactly analogous to an antelope, most of our
wildflowers did evolve in the presence of grazers...
That's what I'm hoping, maybe this will turn out to be a *good* thing
:o)


OTOH, it's not quite too late to plant wildflowers, assuming the
recent pattern of mild winters holds. Had good success planting
bluebonnets this time a couple of years ago. Wouldn't wait any longer
though..
I'll throw some out tomorrow, thanks