Wildflower seed help

[IanA2]

rxe said:

We got our rattle from the local golf course - the groundsman had established a meadow over about 20 years. We spent a Sunday morning there 6 years ago gathering bin bags full of the stuff. We’ve now got several huge patches of it which are gradually covering the entire 7 acres.

The groundsman retired 2 years ago and the golfists decided the meadow was untidy and sprayed the lot off. tts.

Miriam Rothschild used to be our neighbour who was so keen on wildflower meadows that she produced her own seeds.

An interesting laldy, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Rothschild .

Her mix is still being sold, see: https://canceraction.org.gg/miriam-rothschilds-wil...

Edited by IanA2 on Saturday 5th June 13:50

[bigpriest]

Doesn't seem to be a common one in gardens but Thyme is great for bees - loads of small flowers, nice smell and handy for cooking.

[How u doing]

bigpriest said:

Doesn't seem to be a common one in gardens but Thyme is great for bees - loads of small flowers, nice smell and handy for cooking.

Agreed re thyme. Herbs, alpines all play a great part.

The really cool thing is just let stuff grow, for free.

From valerian (hummingbird hawk moth favorite)



To those little (who knows what) weeds in the path. (actually thyme is good and will creep across paths too)

Edited by How u doing on Saturday 5th June 13:28

[Wish]

Thanks all some really interesting links.

[Evanivitch]

Turn7 said:

Have a read of this, doesnt have to be wildflowers per se...

https://www.bbka.org.uk/gardening-for-bees

Edited by Turn7 on Saturday 5th June 19:28

One thing that does miss is the importance of trees. Some good early flowering tree flowers really kick off the season.

But also the June-gap (though it was May this year) is notorious amongst bee keepers as the early spring flowers drop off ahead of the summer flowers.




Back to the OP, the basics are:
Low nutrient soil. Let the grass grow long, cut and remove clippings. Do not feed.
Scalp and scarify the grass and then spread yellow rattle in autumn.
Next spring you could put some wildflower plugs in, raised in trays.over winter.
Following autumn the yellow rattle should give seeds a fighting chance.with your plugs helping by naturally seeding too.

Edited by Evanivitch on Sunday 6th June 07:02

[Wish]

Thinking of shelling out for this ?

https://thegrasspeople.com/meadow-magic

Wrong time of the year to seed it, but could get ready for Sep / Nov.

So any ideas how to keep the birds off it for the couple of months it needs to establish ?

[ATG]

I happened to be standing next to some yellow rattle while reading this thread. Small world etc.

[Boosted LS1]

Wish said:

I’ve got a section of my garden that I want to change to a bee friendly, wildlife friendly.
Ideally I want to buy wildflower seed and spread it over the area.

Has anyone got advise on the best seed to use, that won’t break the bank.
Also have I missed the ideal time to seed this year ?

Any advise would be great.

I nearly fainted. You mean you don't want to cut trees down, hammer copper nails into them, poisen the roots with chemicals? shoot pigeons and anything else for an excuse? You don't want to slab over your space, park a Kia on it and cover the rest with decking and plastic lawns/hedging.

Get a grip of yourself, at this rate you may help ecology! :-) You're a star really :-)

Edited by Boosted LS1 on Sunday 6th June 21:59

[mike74]

I'm also in the process of removing a ''lawn'' to reseed as a wildflower meadow although I'm happy to leave the seed sowing until September, I was planning to net the whole area to deter birds from nicking it all but I'm wondering if there are cheaper and easier options to deter them.

Would stringing horizonal lengths of that reflective holographic tape across the seed bed be enough to deter them?

Edited by mike74 on Saturday 12th June 15:10

[Wish]

That’s what I’ve purchased from Amazon to give a go.

Going to scatter plant canes everywhere with tape flapping from it.

[craig1912]

Not seeds but turf

https://www.wildflowerturf.co.uk/

Quite expensive but ours was superb in our last house. Can seem to find in full flower but about 30 different species, so something flowering from spring through to Autumn. Strim in the autumn and up they pop the following year

[Cheib]

Buying a house with an uneven/sloping paddock which has a pond at the bottom….would love to so something really positive for the local wildlife whilst also making it nicer to look at. It’s a decent size so some of the prices for wildflower seed makes that an unrealistic option !

[Wish]

It’s crazy money isn’t it. However the result can last a lifetime.

[trando]

We use these. Love em...

https://www.beebombs.com/

[mike74]

Cheib said:

Buying a house with an uneven/sloping paddock which has a pond at the bottom….would love to so something really positive for the local wildlife whilst also making it nicer to look at. It’s a decent size so some of the prices for wildflower seed makes that an unrealistic option !

The price of wildflower seeds does seem to be exorbitant compared to regular garden flower seed prices.

Is there any justification for this or is it just price gouging?

[Paul Drawmer]

Simpo Two said:

Well I never... https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plan...

Thank you for the link!

I've been struggling with our front garden for years to kill off the grass, but it's been a real battle. I suspect that the seed I was buying was not fresh enough.
This year for the first time - I can see the yellow rattle, but the grass is huge this year, despite a massive mow, thresh and scratch session last September.

[mike74]

Paul Drawmer said:

Thank you for the link!

I've been struggling with our front garden for years to kill off the grass, but it's been a real battle. I suspect that the seed I was buying was not fresh enough.
This year for the first time - I can see the yellow rattle, but the grass is huge this year, despite a massive mow, thresh and scratch session last September.

I'm removing my grass by hand, it's so tussocky and overgrown even a petrol brush cutter couldn't get through the thatch.

On my hands and knees slicing through the base of the turf with a pruning saw and ripping clumps up, it sounds a hellish job but it's surprisingly therapeutic once you get in to it and just concentrate on doing about 1sq metre at a time!

Edited by mike74 on Sunday 13th June 08:32

[2354519y]

https://www.beebombs.com/

[ATG]

Cheib said:

Buying a house with an uneven/sloping paddock which has a pond at the bottom….would love to so something really positive for the local wildlife whilst also making it nicer to look at. It’s a decent size so some of the prices for wildflower seed makes that an unrealistic option !

It's a really cool thing to do. It's rewarding. It's likely to be a long term project, i.e. you'll see it changing and developing for at least a decade.

Might be worth having a read of the docs attached here: http://www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk/advice-guidan... and talking to your local Wildlife Trust. They may be able to put you in contact with someone local who is doing or has done the same thing. That would help you get an idea of what your local wild grassland plants are, and you might be able to get some seeds from a recent hay cut.

Generally speaking, a paddock is likely to have rather rich soil because horses will have been eating hay produced elsewhere and then pooping in the paddock. That'll allow rougher grasses, nettles, etc to out-compete the finer grasses and flowers you are trying to encourage, so you'll want to reduce the levels of nutrients in the soil by allowing stuff to grow then cutting and removing it. I wouldn't be surprised if it is good for your pond too as you'll be reducing the amount of nutrients leaching into it from the paddock.

I have to say the last thing I'd be looking to do is buy a big bag of "wildflower" seeds. Apart from the cost, the chance of it actually representing anything close to what would naturally occur on a site would, I would have thought, be slim. It's fine for a floral display in a garden, but if you're trying to establish something closer to the "natural" balance of your local environment, I'd avoid importing species. Your soil's seed bank may already contain a fair amount of what you want to encourage. You may find stuff naturally migrates from surrounding habitats. And then to help kickstart the whole process, I'd be using something like the "green hay" method mentioned in the link above ... i.e. getting a hay cut from someone near by with similar conditions so that you're getting a mix of local seeds suitable for your habitat.

[timmymagic73]

This is my wildflowerturf "enriched" turf from last year:


And so far this year it currently looks like this:


Has really taken off, great way to fill a space.