Turning lawn into a wild garden, while stopping it from going feral

My new garden in Devon is quite large and what goes under the name of lawn is in large parts more like a field - more buttercups than grass and certainly more moss than grass at this time of year! Admittedly we only moved in in late September and with the mild autumn and one thing and another it wasn't cut enough last year.

I don't mind - will aim to keep the front lawn reasonable and aim to reduce the amount of lawn cut regularly, at least over time. Can you recommend flowering plants that would thrive in what is quite a strong-growing greensward? In addition to buttercups, daisies and dandelions which seem to thrive...

Soil is loam over clay mostly, but must admit now so wet that it all seems to be clay!

 

Hi Tor,

Depends when you are going to cut it really, are you going to let it set seed and make hay in the summer?

Or were you just thinking of a high cut most of the year round?

 

Good question!

I don't know - one of the many things I haven't thought enough about so far.

Probably at least partly to hay as I certainly want naturalised daffs, camassia, etc.

But a high-cut lawn with flowers in addition to daisies would be nice. Plenty of spacer - and even more once I've doen battle with the edges of the lawn - brambles, nettles, etc

 

Amenity Seed Products - Wild Flowers: 100% Wild Flower Mixtures | BSH

 

Might be worth considering a mown path thru it then, leaving bits to grow to maturity.

In the hay meadow, i'd consider Hay Rattle, Corn Cockle, Marjoram, Oregano, Snakeshead Fritilary, Salad Burnet, Horehound, Yellow Archangel for starters.

In a high cut lawn, Thymes, Chamomile, Kidney Vetch, Rest Harrow, Bugle,
Eyebright and so on.

 

So what do you actually do with the hay after its cut........?
Just curious....

 

Feed it the Osses I Think

 

and if they don't want it - or if I don't have any (don't tell my daughter) - I'll compost it - can't rot any slower than my ample supply of oak leaves!

Or an autumnal bonfire?

 

The Oak leaves, similarly to Beech, take forever to break down.
If you have access to a Garden Vac then sucking them through that will chomp them down to small bits.
They can then be used as mulch, or will be less of a problem in compost - although they still take a long time to break down completely.