Back in the autumn of 2022, I decided to turn over a small patch of my garden to grow wild flowers in the hope of encouraging wildlife into my garden. They grew well, and last year, I had a wonderful display of cornflowers, chickory, poppies, and numerous other flowers. They looked great. However, I was reluctant to cut them down. This year, only two species came up. Clover and chickory.
The clover was a thug of a plant and smothered out most of the other flowers. So I cut the plants back and sowed some more wildflower seeds where I had cleared.
As for the chicory, I wasn't sure what it was. All winter, it grew and looked like some type of leafy salad, although I wasn't sure what it was, so I thought it best not to eat any of it. Then, around late April, it started to send out shoots, which reached about 8 feet tall and flowered. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, they were blown over by the wind.
So I cut them back hard and planted some more wildflower seeds in the spaces they were covering. The chickory has grown a few more flowers since then, but these are much lower, and the plants aren't dominating the whole patch of the garden.
It has taken a few weeks, and because I reseeded quite late, I wasn't sure if any of the seeds I planted would germinate in time for summer. But I needn't have worried. Over the last few weeks, they have germinated, grown, and started to flower.
There are still a few patches of bare earth in the area, with small seedlings, but I'm hopeful that they will grow to maturity before the cold weather arrives. What I have learnt is that if I want to have a good diverse display of wildflowers, strangely, I will need to garden the wildflower patch. Either by removing and cutting back the more thuggish plants, digging up small areas and reseeding, or by being brutal and cutting the area back hard after the plants have gone to seed and raking over the ground. I haven't decided which option to take yet.
As for attracting more wildlife, that will have to be the subject of another post.
Photo Credit: All photos were taken by me using my Galaxy phone.
Growing veggies and wild flowers this can never go wrong. Great job! 💪
I love all the photographs you have posted. I am captivated by the beauty of the wild plants. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Thank you for your comments
So beautiful flowers 🌺🌹
Thank you
This is amazing, I salute you👍
Thank you
You're welcome.
Wild gardening it's always a pleasure to leave some space for blooms to grow of their own accord. As you mention some plants simply take over it is necessary to cut or remove to generate new.
Refreshing having wild flowers around the garden too.
My dad would have called them weeds, but times have changed, and there are so few wildflower meadows here in the UK that it makes sense to leave an area in the garden for them to grow.
Leaving flowers in the meadows feeds so many insects and birds in lean months.
I stopped 'weeding' lawns during winter, actually stopped cutting lawns June to September for same reason here in the South.
There seem to be very few insects around these days. At one time, the car windscreen would be covered in splatted insects at this time of year, but that doesn't happen anymore. And there used to be plenty of bugs in the garden. I'm hoping my wildflowers will attract more insects and provide food for their lavae.
Not using any form of pesticides in the garden, most plants indigenous, water-wise, more bushes like hedgerow of UK, ten years later rewarded with more insects and birds. This took twenty years to accomplish, patience they will arrive !LOLZ
lolztoken.com
Prism, it's a light sentence.
Credit: reddit
@kaazoom, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of joanstewart
(1/8)
Farm LOLZ tokens when you Delegate Hive or Hive Tokens.
Click to delegate: 10 - 20 - 50 - 100 HP
Wow, what beautiful flowers these are. And you have also photographed it very well which makes it look even more beautiful. Nice
Thank you.