Often there is not enough room in our gardens to create wildflower meadows, but there are ways to bring a bit of wildflower colour into your garden.
Try making a small meadow area in your lawn. If you have not been using lawn weedkillers there may already be some wild plants in your lawn. Leave a patch un-mown for a few weeks and see what comes up. You might find daisy, meadow buttercup, dandelion, cat’s ear, black medick, speed-well, plantain or clover. You can add additional flowers in two ways:
- Cut the grass as low as possible then rake away the debris, which will leave a few bare patches of soil. Sow your seeds in the bar patches and rake or sprinkle some soil over them. While the flowers are establishing, mow the grass with the blades on the highest setting to prevent the grass swamping your flowers.
- Grow wildflowers from seed or buy ready grown in pots. Plant into the bare patches of your lawn. Again, be careful when mowing, so as not to ruin your new plants.
If you don’t feel like you can fit in a wildflower meadow, why not try growing some wildflowers in your borders? Primrose, ox-eye daisy, foxglove and meadow cranesbill are all showy enough to earn a place in a decorative border. Annuals such as cornflower and field poppy are also worth sowing. For a perennial border you can also try lily-of-the-valley, cowslip, bugle, red campion, musk mallow and greater knapweed.
Enjoy your flowers.
Cuckfield Local 