Having faith - and a little patience

[HeyWayne]

Not sure if I've posted this in the right place - mods feel free to move where you see fit.

Several months ago I decided that last year my plot looked a bit too green and I considered planting some meadow type flowers to attract wildlife and give the bees a bit if a helping hand.

Anyway, on a visit to the Eden project the year prior I picked up some seeds for said meadow flowers and I created a "bed" for them outside the plot boundary (fence). Planted the seeds and covered them over with branches and chicken wire to keep the birds off, then sat back and waited.............and waited......................and waited

I thought that despite my best efforts the birds had managed to clear the area of the sown seeds.

However, the last couple of weeks there seemed to be quite a bit of growth in that bed, so I watched, and waited some more.

This Saturday whilst I was there harvesting and watering I noticed some splashes of colour in amongst the greenery.





OK, so it's hardly the explosion of colour I was hoping for, but there is hope after all...

[blue411]

Snap! gave up on my budleia that i bought off ebay, and i had basically written it off, but now its about 9inches tall and about to flower!

[Flummery]

Good oh! That looks great. And with a following wind as they say, some of these will self seed and you'll get a sustainable wild flower bed.

[lynda66]

i bought a box of mixed wild flower seeds, some have grown, others are a bit wimpy, i got fed up waiting, for them to get going, so i added the rest of the box, it said covers 50 sq m .... the second lot are all starting to come up now, but they have been a bit disappointing, i thought they would encourage bees and stuff, but it isn't working yet, i've about 8 with anything like foliage and flowers .... wish i'd planted more black flowers in there instead now lol

[nilling]

I finally had a good show from my wild garden last year - if i can find photos I'll post them up. I sowed the seeds in the shape of a cross so I had a better chance of identifying them.

I had bought seeds from various places Woolies and Lidl. But watch out as some of the varities included can be evasive (large seed producing large heart shaped leaf) which I dug up as soon as they appeared.

It must have been good as I had field mice in it

[Headfry]

That looks loverly!!! well done!

How can you get meadow flowers in grass that already growing?

[HeyWayne]

That looks loverly!!! well done!

How can you get meadow flowers in grass that already growing?

I'd just broadcast the seeds and water in really well.

I'd sown the seeds quite sparingly in another part of teh plot, but they must have been eaten/blown away. This bed was (like lynda) sown a little more liberally - if you have to many....oh well.

[nilling]

found it...

[HeyWayne]

found it...

Now that's what I was hoping for! Looks cool nilling.

[lynda66]

Now that's what I was hoping for! Looks cool nilling.

yeah i was hoping for that too .... check mine out, not happy, especially when you look at the one with loads of foliage next to it which is my front flower garden (think i'd better trim my bush)...... i'm wondering if the back garden soil is a bit dodgy the soil in the front looks the same (fairly crap) but i used weedkiller in the back garden 2 years ago, i wonder if it might be still having an effect?? woohoo i worked out how to get thumbnails

[zazen999]

We always like a wild flower section, and broadcast sow poppies/cosmos and various others - this year the cosmos was rubbish. The poppies have now all gone and the flax is just out. My avatar is from last year's display taken in October.

I bought my OH one of those large hibiscus plants last year which did absolutely nothing all year - and I mean nothing. Didn't grow - didn't die. It could have been plastic. So we gave up and cut it down. It has grown back this year so maybe one day - we'll have a big hibiscus flower to show off.

[Flummery]

That looks loverly!!! well done!

How can you get meadow flowers in grass that already growing?

You need to sow them in small pots Headfry - then take out a plug the size of the pot and replace with the contents of the pot. A bulb planted is co-incidentally the size of the most common pot I use!

[ScottyW]

Looks good, I bet they'll start to flower more and it'll look even better when and if it self seeds.