Hi Everyone,

In early June I asked people here about fox-gloves: whether I should let
them rage through my garden or not. As a result of the replies I learnt
I am extremely lucky: deep purple fox-gloves want to pop up EVERYWHERE
in my garden while other people with different environments can barely
encourage a few to take root.

Things have moved on. My lawns are large and sloping, sometimes
steeply, and cutting them, even with the blades always at high level, is
extraordinarily exhausting as well as demanding three hours every two
weeks!

So I have started to combine the above two factors. Last weekend I
mowed only a series of nicely curving paths through my grass and I am
going to let the rest grow wild like the adjacent farmland. Thistles
will dock will no doubt eventually appear and I will just cut them out,
but wild-flowers I want to encourage.

My soil is quite acidic. English Nature recommends twenty or so
wildflowers for acidic soil. Over the next few years I intend to insert
them as "plugs" higgledy-piggledy into small holes in the lawn. The
proper method to create grassland is to completely remove your lawn (!),
till the top few inches of remaining soil, de-nutrify it as much as
possible for a few years by planting it with Yellow Rattle, and then
sprinkling it with a mixture of all the wildflowers and wild grasses
that love acid soil. Well, I cannot be doing all that. Too expensive
an operation for one thing.

I would love to hear from anyone else who has tried (and hopefully
succeeded) in turning the odious task of lawn-mowing into enjoyment of a
profusion of simple wild flowers.

Below is English Natures recommended list of wild flowers for acid soil.

Ellie.

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1. wild flowers which germinate easily over a wide range of conditions:
oxeye daisy leucanthemum vulgare,
butter cup ranunculus acris,
yarrow achillea millefolium,
self-heal prunella vulgaris.
2. wild flowers suitable for acid soils:
Campanula rotundifolia
Centaurea nigra
Hieracium pilosella
Hypericum pulchrum
Hypochaeris radicata
Leontodon autumnalis
Plantago lanceolata
Potentilla erecta
Potentilla sterilis
Rhinanthus minor
Rumex acetosa
Rumex acetosella
Stachys officinalis
Succisa pratensis
Vicia cracca * = legume (use native strain only)
Viola riviniana* = legume (use native strainonly)
Lotus corniculatus * = legume (use native only)