Creating Wild Garden

My wife has decided she wants some of the back garden made into a wild garden so I have cleared it and put down eight bags of compost and now need to know what plants to grow and when and is it better to get plants from the garden center or sow seeds.She wants the grass to grow so the plants would need to be big enough to be seen.May put a few rocks in there as well.Anybody got any suggestions.Thank's

 

It sounds like you don't really know what you want. What is 'wild' to you? 'Wild' can mean many different things. I'm guessing that you don't want an impenetrable jungle but probably do want to attract wildlife. But what wildlife specifically? Butterflies....birds....frogs? Or maybe a wildflower meadow. Making a pond is the single most wildlife friendly thing you could do.

I recommend this book. Gardening for Wildlife explores creating different habitats within gardens to attract different or specific species.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RSPB-Garde...&qid=1502348749&sr=1-1&keywords=adrian+thomas

 

Sorry, I used a link to the edition not yet published. Here is the link to the first edition.



https://www.amazon.co.uk/RSPB-Garde...&qid=1502349925&sr=8-4&keywords=Adrian+thomas
RSPB Gardening for Wildlife: A Complete Guide to Nature-friendly GardeningHardcover – 28 May 2010

 

Hi Paul, I would hazard a guess that she wants a meadow type thing being as you say she wants the grass to grow ?


The first thing to remember is that those type of plants require ( mostly ) a well drained poor soil so the compost won't actually help. What I would do now is thin it out a little by adding some sand and then digging it over ( if you can't remove it... Sorry ).

There are companies on the tinternettywebbythingy that sell rolls of " Meadow Turf " that already have everything planted , you just have to lay it.

However, the most satisfying way ( and cheapest ) is to sow your own.....

The next month or so is the best time of the year to get started as the seeds will germinate and get a good root system going through the Winter ready for earlier flowers next Spring.

The most obvious ones to try are......

Cornflower, Corn Poppy ( the red Poppies used for Remembrance Day ), Ox eye daisy, various Lychnis/Silene varieties, Phacelia, Birds Foot Trefoil, and Calendula . You can always add other Grass family plants to it such as Barley and Wheat.

It's too late now for sowing this year, but, in the Spring you can buy some Primrose, Cowslip and Oxlip plants to plant as well.

 

I have two bag's of sand in the shed left over from some building work we had done would it help if I spread a bag of sand on the compost and raked it in and maybe rake some soil conditioner in as well.As for sowing wildflower seeds can they be sown now in trays if so do they need to be heated.My wife got a couple of packets wildflower seeds.One is Edelweiss and the other is Corn Cockle.There is a third packet but cannot find it.

 

Just found this on Google
/www.seedparade.co.uk/wildflower-seeds/421-wildflower-mix-clay-soil.html

 

Hi @Paul Blackburn once you take the soil back to the subsoil by removing the compost don't waste that good soil pop it in bags for use elsewhere in your garden or use it to plant up some miniature daffs ,crocus and grape hyacinths bulbs in pots for Spring flowers which early slumbering Bees will appreciate when they stir from their long Winter snooze - then use the seed varieties recommended by KFF in the post above - Add the packets of seeds which are hardy annuals to a tub with a good few handfuls of sand mix well in the tub, as that way helps the seed disperse more evenly and the seeds to make good contact with the soil, all wildflowers will be naturally self-sowing at this time of the year and they don't as a rule need a great deal of heavy soil to cover them just imagine they would in meadows just have the hoofs of grazing animals to press them down into the soil - water the prepared ground not too wet but make sure its nice and damp and scatter the seeds very lightly over the prepared ground /bed then very lightly rake riddle the soil- No need to water again once you've scattered the seed as there very small and can easily be washed into a clump in uneven pockets of the ground. Just keep an eye on the ground -And just water very lightly with a hose or rose sprinkler only if there's no rain- with the weather becoming more showery you may not need to water too much, but always make sure the ground doesn't dry out completely and you should have the same effect that is in the video link - the principle is the same only a slight variance on flower species- this can be done now in the Autumn and you'll be enjoying blooms late Spring early Summer - You then can repeat sow the hardy annual seed again in the same flower bed in the Spring to extend the flowers blooming throughout the Summer-The seeds mentioned above or mixed packets of those Hardy Annual seeds can be bought from Wilkos very cheaply especially now at this time of year- hope that helps
And please let us know how you get on

​

 

BeeHappy

You"ve gone into the detail perfectly.