Are you going to re-wild your garden?

It is as much gardening as mowing your lawn.
And a lot more hard work M0nica!

We do have someone to cut the lawns and I asked him to avoid my wild part and a patch of violets I found last year. He laughs and says it's not a wildflower meadow, it's just a mess.
However, we have hawthorn, hazel etc in the hedge and some brambles from when it was a wild area which we've tended and they produce flowers which the bees love and blackberries for us if the blackbirds leave us any.

www.beebombs.com
I was given a small tin of these and did get a couple of wildflowers last year, including viper's bugloss.

Callistemon

^It's interesting seeing what comes up^
A huge number of dandelions.

I have tried this for 3 years now and have scattered wildflower seeds, scraped up soil and put in seeds, dug little holes and planted wildflowers, followed instructions, but it is nowhere near being a wildflower meadow or wildflower strip.
It is just a mess.

I could take up all the grass and put down turf with pre-planted wildflowers possibly. But will that fail too?

Those wildflower things are a bit of a con. You have to look at your garden as though you were doing any other kind of gardening....soil, moisture, aspect, microclimate, and then plant what will work. Before you do it to a lawn, same thing also you must REALLY trash the lawn first or it will choke out the wildflowers.
Its worth remembering that this isn't an all or nothing thing. Wildflowers can be grown in big tubs and if you do it this way, you can control soil and aspect and also the dear pets and the darling kiddiwinks cant trample all over them...I have got a clodhopping dog. Even trees can be grown in very big tubs. choose blossoming trees with single blooms and fruit...hawthorn, amelanchier, wild cherry....and when the leaves fall off, pile them into odd corners of the garden or onto the pots and leave them there.

I thought I might grow the poppies, cornflowers , daisies etc in a large tub this year greenlady because none came up despite my efforts. Of course, I realised afterwards that poppies at least do like ploughed soil, or at least softer soil

Our front lawn is, in fact, mainly weeds with scarcely any topsoil, but not the kind which makes for a pretty meadow.

Not a chance. Mind you my garden seems to have other more relaxed ideas in spite of my regular intervention. Just as well I'm up for the annual challenge.

I have got a clodhopping dog oh yes, me too, greenlady, I forgot about that!
Thanks for the tips about tubs, that might be a starting point.

Ellianne

^I have got a clodhopping dog^ oh yes, me too, greenlady, I forgot about that!
Thanks for the tips about tubs, that might be a starting point.

its amazing how well the tub thing works

Our little patch of mainly moss will remain, although DH has a plan to create a putting green ?

When we first started on our plot which was back in 2009 we laid out a formal garden which is fenced and then we had a pond dug at the bottom. I often sit on the bench there and just look at the water to see what's moving about and also the dragon flies. Sometimes there'll be a young grass snake swimming across - could be the reason why we don't have many frogs. Also because the newts eat the frog spawn.

When we started on the field we had it rotavated and sewed a wild flower mix. They came up, as did the thugs. The flower mix was a success at first but a lot of them didn't reseed and the following year there was a lot less. I did knock the heads off the thugs that I could get to before they went to seed and that helped. Just whilst I was walking about looking at things, rather than making a special effort.

We then decided to leave it and just have it cut. Someone comes with a ride on mower with a collecting box on the back. The contents are dumped around the edges to create homes for the wildlife. Some things do live in them because the dogs try to dig. Gradually the wild flowers started to come up without us doing anything - the numbers and varieties have increased over the years. Some spread but others don't. My OH cuts paths so that we can walk about without treading on anything. If there's something of interest he'll mow around it. Sadly the dogs don't take care and will trample something we're trying to keep.

I think that it was about 5 years after we started with the virgin plot that the field started to look really good. Now I drag people out to look at it.

My conclusion is that it's not as time consuming or as hard as some people think. Just let nature take its course and cut once a year. And don't leave the cuttings on the ground because they'll make the soil too fertile.

My lawned area is far too small for “wilding” or leaving in any way to its own devices. We have “wild corners” off the lawn where field poppies, dog violets, wild strawberries, birds eye speedwell and field scabious grow so we leave them alone and enjoy them. If anything new comes up, it’s a bonus! (I truly believe that these celebrity gardeners have absolutely no concept of what a small garden is). I like the idea that many municipal authorities are incorporating wild planting into some parks, into town centre landscaping, and even the grass areas that separate either side of some dual carriageways.

Jaxjacky

Our little patch of mainly moss will remain, although DH has a plan to create a putting green ?

Moss is very good, apparently it absorbs more CO2 than many other plants.
It's a valid reason not to scarify the lawn!

I have laid two turves in my courtyard garden and planted in then oxeye daisy, clover and daisy plugs. I will let them all grow as they wish. I also vowed not to buy any plants that don't flower and attract pollinators and have turned a raised bed into a wildlife pond.

What a lovely, heart-warming thread this is!

I tried to do this in an area of our huge garden years ago and we did have the most incredible display of wild flowers. Unfortunately we had the most awful collection of weeds to that would spread to the cultivated part of the garden and beyond. Our neighbour was apoplectic over our "offensive behaviour) and we had to give in because the unpleasantness was awful. However, when we left the house, I took great pleasure in leaving a huge thistle to seed (it was a beautiful specimen) and as we were packing the removal van the neighbour was still creating. It was the only time in my life that I told anyone to go forth and procreate.

icanhandthemback

I tried to do this in an area of our huge garden years ago and we did have the most incredible display of wild flowers. Unfortunately we had the most awful collection of weeds to that would spread to the cultivated part of the garden and beyond. Our neighbour was apoplectic over our "offensive behaviour) and we had to give in because the unpleasantness was awful. However, when we left the house, I took great pleasure in leaving a huge thistle to seed (it was a beautiful specimen) and as we were packing the removal van the neighbour was still creating. It was the only time in my life that I told anyone to go forth and procreate.

yes that's the other issue. My neighbours either side who are lovely people like traditional tidy gardens so i make sure that I limit what seeds. Windblown seed I harvest before it blows and poke into odd corners then remove the rest

I grew wild flowers from seed last year in a border and a small grass lawn. Very pleased all flowers bloomed. Easy to grow because the soil was not composted when moved here.

How WONDERFUL Applaud you so much for that..what an excellent example..

My lawn is far too small to become a wildflower meadow but I don't mow it too low as I quite like daisies and buttercups - not so keen on dandelions though. A properly manicured lawn is so artificial looking - I hate stripes, but each to their own.

Our grass ( not calling it a lawn) has been there for about 100 years. In the past the garden has been a traditional artisan garden with a third of it being the vegetable plot. Over the years it was grassed over. So the variety of grass grown is mixed and it is bumpy! Daisies and clover grow through it. Around the edges we encourage wild flowers mixed with crainsbill geraniums and spring bulbs.
We have a wildlife pond and try to plant the beds with insect attracting plants. Sitting out in the spring and summer is a delight.

Yes, I leave most of our garden to fend for itself.

I do however cut most of the grass, because I come out in lumps when it starts seeding if I leave it, but I only mow every six weeks or so from April to the end of September.

I have put wood chips down on the flower beds, which I weed once in the course of the summer and apart from that I weed the vegetable patch but nothing else.

We have a huge pile of brushwood for the hedgehogs and other animals to live under and have the apple trees pruned when they need it.

Here we call them natural gardens or insect-friendly.

It already has been

We have a small area behind our decking which is a 'no mans land' so this year I plan to put lots of wild flower seeds plus some grass seed. I also want to sink a small pond in there too.

Ours has always been wild.??

My garden is completely wild.
The only thing we do is mow the grass.

It’s totally unmanageable and I’ve now given up on it.

We only have a very small lawn as we've built a raised bed for veggies. The lawn is badly damaged by chafer grubs and hardly ever needs mowing too.

There's a large area on a shrub border where I removed a hebe which I plan to turn into a wild garden.

Anyone have any ideas on what to plant etc? We already have numerous lavenders.