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Wildflowers In Your Garden

Malva moschata

Do you want a patch of wildflowers in your garden? The right answer! I think they can look lovely; some are long flowering too, like this mallow in the gravel by our back door, and of course they're all good for wildlife.

I'm talking here about wildflowers on their own, not mixed with grasses, which will give you a wildflower meadow. This will require a different management regime. I'm also talking about British wildflowers.

Whether you're growing a meadow or just wildflowers, you will need a nice clean seedbed before you start. Only sow onto bare earth, clear of weeds and grasses. I can't stress how important this is! A little time preparing will save you hours of labour later. The wildflowers will spread out over time and suppress any weeds that try to get established.

Leucanthemum vulgare and lavender on a windy day!

They will do better in a low fertility growing medium. I know this sticks in the throat of some experienced gardeners, who have spent many hours improving their soil with manure and compost. It's not that wildflowers don't like high fertility soil; it's just that everything else - dock, nettle, thistle etc etc - likes it more. Wildflowers are - by definition - very hardy, so don't need a great deal of tender care. This all means that they will sit uneasily in your beautifully improved flowerbeds, and most likely need a spot of their own. Having said that, we use them in blocks in their own beds (Red campion is an easy favourite), and the wildflowers in your garden will provide a lovely contrast with the more "exotic".

In practical terms, if your wildflower patch is small you can reduce the fertility of the soil by adding something like horticultural or sharp sand to it. If you're sowing them onto a planter or raised bed, use sand and topsoil mixed together at a ratio of something around 1:3 (that's not a scientific calculation, by the way!). I would also put some cardboard underneath a raised bed sitting on soil, which will rot away over time but prevent any really hardy weeds making a nuisance of themselves.

We talk elsewhere about the relative merits of seed, plugs and turf , but I'm concentrating here on the cheapest and most diverse approach - seed.

When you come to buy your seed we would of course prefer you to buy it from us (!). If you don't, please make sure the species in the mix are sensible, are UK wildflower species (you laugh, but many seed mixes aren't!), and that the seed comes from plants in the UK. If it's not stated that it does, the chances are it hasn't. This can be a problem in terms of biosecurity and hybridisation, among other things.

Echium vulgare: biennial king of bee plants

The wildflower only seed mixes we sell are generally perennials, but they do have some biennials and annuals in them too. The annuals will flower very quickly - around 60 days after seeding, if sown in spring - to give you a sense of achievement!

The optimum time for sowing is September - October. The books all say you can sow in spring too. Having said that, with the weather the way it is, the rule book is being reinvented - we have successfully seeded wildflower meadows from March until November. You just need warm moist soil. Conditions vary so much across the UK now it's hard to generalise. I wouldn't sow in spring in East Anglia, for example, whereas in Wales I might sow all the way through the summer, pretty much.

Anyway - where was I? - oh yes - seeding. Once you have your seed, pause. Your patch will only need seeding at a very low rate. It's more like carrot seed than grass seed. We recommend our mixes are sown at 1g to 2g per square metre, which really is not a lot. Don't chuck down loads of seed - the quicker growing species will just crowd out the others. Mix the seed with some of your sand if you're nervous, which will bulk it out and make it easier to see where you've sown.

Don't cover the seed once sown. Just lightly roll or tread in, and maybe water if it's dry.

You will notice the annuals in the mix, like poppies and cornflowers, which germinate very quickly - that's their strategy. The perennials will be much, much slower. If you sow wildflowers in your garden in September, some won't even germinate until the following summer! They won't generally flower in their first season.

Make sure you keep an eye on the seedlings as they do develop. Weed out anything you recognise that shouldn't be there - take no prisoners! You may find thistles appearing, which are bad - not in themselves, but they can quickly take over. If you really can't bear to hoick them out, then deadhead them before they set seed.

The timing of tidying up your wildflower area is less mission critical than it would be if you had a meadow. If it's small you could deadhead individual plants, or leave seedheads on. Alternatively you could take a pair of shears to it in late summer/early autumn. Remember that all these plants will die back and would be perfectly happy if grazed all winter. You could do the equivalent if you wanted, but don't once you notice new growth starting in March.

I think that's about it. I hope you enjoy your new wildflowers in your garden - they'll look good as well as do good!