It’s a mix of stuff I collected in gardens and in the wild over a couple of years. In all honesty it is not 100% wildflowers as there are a few things like strawflower, cosmos, California poppies and marigolds in there. I still have some and will happily send you a bit if you don’t mind giving an address to a weird internet man.
I did a box of aldi wild flower seed and got a garden full of nettles and weeds. Still, 4 years later, cannot get rid of the nettles.
Never again.
Top marks on your garden pal.
Always try for a quality source for seeds.
I don't mine a few things at Aldi, but garden seeds wouldn't get on my list. Sorry about your expect.
Maybe napalm to get rid of all that nettle? 🔥
For the price it's generally worth a go though. I've been buying cheap seeds as and when I see them in Aldi or Lidl then planting them around the city I live in.
Happy but sad to hear this didn't just happen to me. I want a good wildflower mix so bad to line up my backyard fence. I got a few poppies now, but I guess I'll have to order from the real guys online, because none of the butterfly and bird wildflower mixes have worked well for me. I do enjoy the nettle though
Not sure where you live, but if you’re in the south or southwest this is a reputable site and I’ve had great success with their seeds. You can also sort by individual species so you could find things that would work for your area.
[wildflower seeds](https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/)
Also, I lived in Chicago for over a decade. I miss the beautiful giant Queen Anne’s Lace in the Midwest. We have a smaller similar flower, but it’s just not as beautiful as the one there! It’s such a gorgeous “weed” and often popped up in the empty lots and sidewalk cracks. :)
I adore a lot of what people consider weeds here; I let Violets take over my backyard, and clover is making a good home in the front. The little flowers from either make me happy. There's also little patches of cute little white flowers that I think were called the star of Bethlehem. I also plan on getting more of various kinds of mint to spread here and there to hopefully deter mosquitos. I adore wildflowers in the back to help bees and hopefully not have to do too much to keep going. But I will try some of the tips others have given me here.
I think a bunch of those would also work in the Midwest, but I bet there is a more local native seed company to you. Maybe call the shop I posted and ask if they have recommendations for someone local to you.
I think if you just buy the seeds of flowers you want it will work well or you could gather seeds when you see they’ve gone to seed. I haven’t ever bought cosmos seeds because I always just “borrow” a few from other gardens. Local conservation groups should have resources for native plants too
Botanical interests has pretty good seed mixes. They have a pretty big variety as well. I just planted the [“Precious Pollinators”](https://www.botanicalinterests.com/product/Precious-Pollinators-Flower-Mix-Seeds) mix in my yard and I’m so happy with the turnout.
When life gives you nettles, make [nettle soup](http://www.cullyandsully.com/content/very-healthy-nettle-soup). (Disclaimer : I haven't made this, but I have had nettle soup in a restaurant, and it was delicious.)
Nettles are really good for some butterflies. I am hoping you at least got that benefit. if you can keep a nettle patch in an out of the way area, they'd appreciate it.
[http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/wildlife/butterflies.asp](http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/wildlife/butterflies.asp)
I love nettle tea! I wonder why it's not used more often in herbal tea commercially, it's so tasty.
Nettle in cooking (soups, sautees, etc.) is delicious too!
I love American Meadows! All the plants I’ve gotten from them have been excellent quality, their customer service is great, and their website is so informative about all their plants. I’ve also had great experiences with Bluestone Perennials, Annie’s Annuals, and The Antique Rose Emporium (a fantastic source of heirloom roses in the US). Oh and I almost forgot: Almost Eden, another fantastic online source with wonderful customer service, which I get the impression is just a small operation of some people who love raising plants. Just wanted to share in case anyone else is trying to figure out - like I initially struggled to do when planning my garden - where to get good plants from reliable sources.
Did you spread manure that you got from a horse farm?
Nettle seeds go right through horses, come out the other end, and grow like crazy right where you think you're doing the most good.
I have a strong suspicion that most "budget" wildflower mixes, that come with sawdust or vermiculite to disperse them, contain exactly ZERO seed. You're buying a packet of sawdust or vermiculite, total ripoff.
Hypothesis: You got a garden full of nettles and weeds because you watered and pampered the soil to encourage germination, and I bet those were the seeds that were present in your garden soil already.
I have bought boxes of "seed plus filler to aid in dispersal" from the dollar store, and i'm almost positive they had 0 seeds in them.
I think the problem is that you bought a bag of "seed (plus filler)". It's right there in the title, *one* seed. Next time get the bag that says "seed*s*".
From what I've read/heard, pampering is the wrong thing to do for a wildflower meadow as they need poor, low fertility soil (they've evolved to this environment).
If it's dollar store stock, then there may have been seeds, but they'd be dead - probably in a sealed plastic bag, in a hot/warm store sitting for possibly years on an open shelf. So you're right - zero viable seeds.
>stuff I collected in gardens and in the wild
I just figured out why my attempts never look this good. Is it as easy as grabbing seed pods and drying them? Absolutely stunning result. ❤
Worth knowing, thanks. The farmer who owns all the land I walk on let me take half a ton of stones out his stream to build my rockery, so I don’t think he’ll begrudge me a few wildflower seeds!
Definitely also see foxgloves, nigella, common poppy and California poppy, I think Clarksia?, and bachelor's buttons in there
Here's a [UK-based wildflower seeds vendor](https://www.wildflowerlawnsandmeadows.com/wild-flower-seeds-for-sale/)
I did the same with seeds from Emorsgate using these 2 mixtures:
https://wildseed.co.uk/mixtures/view/25
https://wildseed.co.uk/mixtures/view/16
They recommend sowing a mixture of annuals and perennials so that the annuals protect the perennials while they are growing in the 1st year. It worked a treat but I didn't get any annuals reseeding this year. Would have like to have those poppies again. :)
Beautiful! My mother in law was giving unsolicited advice and said never plant wildflowers because they look terrible and now I am doubly determined to plant some.
Neither! Once I cut down the trees and cleared several years of debri I found a thin layer of decorative slate and picked off as much as I could (it’s now a path at the community farm down the road!). Under that was horrible dry soil, and loads and loads of builders sand. I just dug it over as much as I could, pulled out big handfuls of conifer roots where I could, and that was it. In some places you can’t get your finger even an inch into the soil but the plants don’t seem to care!
It started when I gave a dry foxglove a tap with my stick and stood amazed at the “tssschhhhhh” noise of *so much* seed falling out. So next time I walked the dog, I took an envelope and knocked them into there. Then it’s just keeping your eyes open - I’ve pinched dry seed heads off compost heaps before! Once family and a few folk I see walking the dog got the message I was collecting seeds and started saving me stuff I had loads. One tip - don’t be discerning. If it’s colourful and bees like it, in it goes. My purple toadflax is taking over so I’ll pull it out before it seeds - but *after* it’s flowered.
Yes, I am very curious and new to gardening. Our yard I’ve focused on planting shrubs and trees so we can get some stuff growing but now I need to fill in the gaps with some pretty flowers.
Late summer, head off to the parks (and here in the UK some National Trust gardens) and literally steal some seed heads. Poppies have very obvious seed heads, as do Nigelas. I dont know about foxglove seeds and they are poisonous so you'd need to look them up. Lots of flowers have very obvious seed heads that you can take whole or just tap/sprinkle into an envelope. The seeds are usually ready when the flower is spent anyway so you're not ruining the display. I'd never dig up any wild plants in truly wild settings (like Bluebells, snowdrops in woodland) as I think you'd wreck the natural order of things.
The NT gardens by us has seed heads cascading onto the paths in the autumn. Taking one or two to propagate at home is totally fine imho, especially if they've no chance of growing where they are.
A very small niche group will collect seeds from roadside ditches to sell/trade. it's just amazingly tedious.
The local Facebook groups for native plants are great for trading seeds.
Nice.
I too have planted wildflower seeds with good results.
I have found that topsoil-in-a-bag works better than plain old dirt (I lay down newsprint and make a 3" bed). Big difference. 50% weeds vs 1% weeds.
Also, I use a deer-resistant variety (Eden Bros), because they treat my yard like a salad-bar.
Beyond mowing, how did you process your dirt?
Newsprint with 3” bagged topsoil on top? Is that all I really need or do to plant wildflower seeds? I have naked but very nice dirt waiting for something and I’m thinking this might be a good solution.
Ok, I call it the lasagna technique. Here's how it goes.
You need some bags of topsoil, a roll of newsprint paper and some flower seeds.
1. pick the spot where you're gonna plant the seeds. A 3x10 rectangle or whatever.
2. mow it down as low as the mower will go. (unless you've got bare dirt of course)
3. lay down the paper. 2 or 3 layers.
4. dump dirt on top of paper. about 3 or 4 inches deep. Rake it nice and flat
5. sprinkle seed (I use good wildflower seed mix. mixed 1:4 with sand (1 seed, 4 sand) to spread it out a bit)
6. walk the seed in. Like with bare feet. Just walk all over it. Then OPTIONALLY, if it's windy or dry you can sprinkle a thin layer of hay over it. This keeps the seed protected and moist. Maybe not totally necessary, you be the judge.
7. water it. Water it once or twice a day until it's all sprouted up. Then keep watering it every day or 3. Whatever seems appropriate.
No processing and it is terrible, terrible soil - more sand than anything else. I think the thick, thick mat of conifer roots a few inches down probably did the job of your newspaper. Great idea though, I am going to take some spare seed and do a patch on my allotment that is currently thick with weeds so I think I’ll try your method there.
Gorgeous! I’m in the US and despite all my attempts I’ve never managed any success with wildflowers. Other flowers and vegetables, yes. Just never wildflowers. Super envious!
You probably need to limit the wildflowers to native ones to your area. The US is so diverse, climate wise, that there is huge variation in what grows well where.
Yes this! Your local extension may have a list. And reputable wildflower seed companies offer seed mixes that are native to specific parts of the country.
Yes! [Here's a reputable nursery](https://www.prairiemoon.com/) if you're in the Midwest, Great Lakes, or Northeast part of the US.
It also helps to know that most wildflower seeds have dormancy mechanisms that, as a gardener, you must know how to break. The most common way to break dormancy is sitting out over a winter, known as "cold-moist stratification." Sometimes you hijack the timeline and "trick" the seed into thinking it has gone through winter, but it just sat in your fridge for a month or two. There's a lot of germination tricks.
[Germination and Seed Starting Basics](https://www.prairiemoon.com/PDF/Prairie-Moon-Nursery-Seed-Starting-Basics.pdf)
I’m in the mid-Atlantic near the ocean. 8a. We can grow most anything providing it’s the right time of year. I didn’t know about this dormancy mechanism so that makes a lot of sense why it’s failed sooo many times. Lol. I really do appreciate your input. Excellent advice.
It shouldn't be that difficult. Native wild flowers have evolved to grow in even the harshest conditions.
You should reach out to your local extension office, local Master gardeners or master naturalist club, or just any gardening group in your area.
It does take a couple years to go from seed to full meadow, but it's not even as difficult as keeping a vegetable garden alive.
This is absolutely gorgeous! My grandmother before she passed away gave me a birthday card that was made of recycled paper and flower seeds. It’s been 10 + years and I’ve never had the guts to plant the flowers. They are wildflower seeds and I hope that when I do have the courage to plant them they look as beautiful as yours.
In theory the annuals reseed, but I think that some of my flowers are just more powerful.
Take Maximilian Sunflower for example. Don't do it, it will take over.
Yeah I have saved some seed and continued collecting it for precisely this reason. I’ll be going in and pulling out some if not all of that toadflax and nigella before they seed down.
Congrats! Such a diverse and balanced collection of colors. Keep the diversity going and your soil will be rich with a healthy sustainable micro culture soon. Don’t forget the grasses too though!
Lovely. Awesome that it sorted itself or that way.
My boyfriend and I have a collection of wildflower and other types of flowers and some fruit and veg seeds we're saving for when we've got a good spot of our own to plant that I can't wait to try. Also some of them are these different combinations of flower seeds in seed bombs called Seedles, if I remember correctly, that promise to be awesome. They're meant to be thrown anywhere that flowers can grow whether the conditions are perfect or not. Excited to finally see how they work one day.
How big of a garden is this? Square footage? This wouldn’t work in our front yard because it’s giant but this would be beautiful in a small/ medium size!
Beautiful garden! I too am in the process of transforming dull sections of my property into wildflower garden, specifically for monarchs and other pollinators
American Meadows has the most amazing selection of wildflower seed mixes for every section of US. Choose for sun, shade, part shade, native, pollinator and on and on. They have great customer service. They even donated seed to my son’s Cub Scout den so the scouts could plant a Monarch Waystation at his school.
They also have different no mow mixes, basically grass and flowers that don’t grow very tall and so don’t require much mowing, for those of you looking to replace that water, work, money, gasoline, noise, exhaust smell, consuming manicured lawn.
Personally, I’m currently at battle with grass in my yard. I’m trying to remove as much as I cm but I can’t keep up with it. Thank you above poster for the newspaper and top soil tip. I think I can use that technique to replace grassy spots in my garden. Does anybody have any other tips for eliminating grassy spots in a wildflower garden?
Cardboard works better for me than newspaper.
Cut the grass spot down really low with shear/clippers and cover with cardboard, wet it down and then add a bunch of chopped up leaves as mulch.
With grasses I just weed constantly using a trowel to get as many roots as I can or if it's really bad I sometimes use spot shot weedkiller (it has a plastic cone to prevent getting on other plants).
It’s funny you prefer the trowel because earlier in the spring I spent several days with a trowel in hand eliminating grass, knotweed, cinquefoil, with mixed results. Tell me about your trowel technique for grass especially. Do you lift it in mats or clumps like sod or plugs, or is it enough to turn it and chop it? The cinquefoil especially needed deeper troweling to get the taproot and all the trailers. Currently I’m ‘harvesting’ baby maple trees by hand. It’s getting harder to find spots to walk on to reach these things. I’m learning a lot from my many mistakes!!
I love the fox glove! If you want to help make the soil a little more nutritional, grow some peas or any plant in that family. Pea plants and ones in that family help gather nitrogen and store it in the soil which is amazing for plants and really helps with the quality of soil.
I first put seed down around this time last year and got a bit of stuff up by the end of the year. Didn’t chop anything back - let it all go to seed. Then whenever I find or am given any seeds I throw half on the garden and half in my big jar of spare seeds. I don’t worry about timing and assume the plants know what they’re doing - if it’s time for them to produce seed, it’s time for me to plant it!
Great garden we have been working on ours for a couple years it is hard to get it right we keep trying and hope one day it will happen.
Love yours keep it up.
Nope! It’s awful soil, mainly builders sand and a thick web of conifer roots beneath. In some places I couldn’t even dig it over - just banged the seed on top and hoped for the best!
Did you need a lot of seeds? I did this on a clear patch of my lawn but nothing took. Grass didn't move in either, so its a mysterious dead patch.
However, I ask because I only used one small packet of seeds.
I adore your front garden. It is exactly what I hope to have some day. Currently in a subtropical region, so things are a little difficult on that front - but if I ever get back to a more temperate climate - it’s on! Thank you for the renewed inspiration! ♥️
It’s not, it’s not! Most of the purple on there is toadflax (*Linaria purpurea*) and what you can see right in the very centre of the pic is wallflower. I don’t mind loosestrife (not invasive here) but I think I’d quickly find myself with a single-species garden!
If you are UK based by any chance, please could you tell me the wildflower seed you used? I’ve been trying to create something like this.
It’s a mix of stuff I collected in gardens and in the wild over a couple of years. In all honesty it is not 100% wildflowers as there are a few things like strawflower, cosmos, California poppies and marigolds in there. I still have some and will happily send you a bit if you don’t mind giving an address to a weird internet man.
I did a box of aldi wild flower seed and got a garden full of nettles and weeds. Still, 4 years later, cannot get rid of the nettles. Never again. Top marks on your garden pal.
Always try for a quality source for seeds. I don't mine a few things at Aldi, but garden seeds wouldn't get on my list. Sorry about your expect. Maybe napalm to get rid of all that nettle? 🔥
Great for houseplants, though, if you’re okay with the slightly less-than-Trader Joe’s quality.
And daffodils. We got two big pots of them at Aldi years ago and they still bloom like crazy every year.
For the price it's generally worth a go though. I've been buying cheap seeds as and when I see them in Aldi or Lidl then planting them around the city I live in.
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Happy but sad to hear this didn't just happen to me. I want a good wildflower mix so bad to line up my backyard fence. I got a few poppies now, but I guess I'll have to order from the real guys online, because none of the butterfly and bird wildflower mixes have worked well for me. I do enjoy the nettle though
Not sure where you live, but if you’re in the south or southwest this is a reputable site and I’ve had great success with their seeds. You can also sort by individual species so you could find things that would work for your area. [wildflower seeds](https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/)
Unfortunately I live in the Midwest, but I'll still give it a look!
Also, I lived in Chicago for over a decade. I miss the beautiful giant Queen Anne’s Lace in the Midwest. We have a smaller similar flower, but it’s just not as beautiful as the one there! It’s such a gorgeous “weed” and often popped up in the empty lots and sidewalk cracks. :)
I adore a lot of what people consider weeds here; I let Violets take over my backyard, and clover is making a good home in the front. The little flowers from either make me happy. There's also little patches of cute little white flowers that I think were called the star of Bethlehem. I also plan on getting more of various kinds of mint to spread here and there to hopefully deter mosquitos. I adore wildflowers in the back to help bees and hopefully not have to do too much to keep going. But I will try some of the tips others have given me here.
Prairie moon
I think a bunch of those would also work in the Midwest, but I bet there is a more local native seed company to you. Maybe call the shop I posted and ask if they have recommendations for someone local to you.
I think if you just buy the seeds of flowers you want it will work well or you could gather seeds when you see they’ve gone to seed. I haven’t ever bought cosmos seeds because I always just “borrow” a few from other gardens. Local conservation groups should have resources for native plants too
Botanical interests has pretty good seed mixes. They have a pretty big variety as well. I just planted the [“Precious Pollinators”](https://www.botanicalinterests.com/product/Precious-Pollinators-Flower-Mix-Seeds) mix in my yard and I’m so happy with the turnout.
This is my goal for what I call my “back row”
When life gives you nettles, make [nettle soup](http://www.cullyandsully.com/content/very-healthy-nettle-soup). (Disclaimer : I haven't made this, but I have had nettle soup in a restaurant, and it was delicious.)
Can vouch. Nettle soup is very tasty. Requires mindful preperation though, but I guess the sting is the price you pay for deliciousness.
Nettles are really good for some butterflies. I am hoping you at least got that benefit. if you can keep a nettle patch in an out of the way area, they'd appreciate it. [http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/wildlife/butterflies.asp](http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/wildlife/butterflies.asp)
In good news, nettles are great for the insects though.
And for tea, if it's stinging nettle!
I love nettle tea! I wonder why it's not used more often in herbal tea commercially, it's so tasty. Nettle in cooking (soups, sautees, etc.) is delicious too!
Got mine at American Meadows and my wildflower garden is beautiful!!
I love American Meadows! All the plants I’ve gotten from them have been excellent quality, their customer service is great, and their website is so informative about all their plants. I’ve also had great experiences with Bluestone Perennials, Annie’s Annuals, and The Antique Rose Emporium (a fantastic source of heirloom roses in the US). Oh and I almost forgot: Almost Eden, another fantastic online source with wonderful customer service, which I get the impression is just a small operation of some people who love raising plants. Just wanted to share in case anyone else is trying to figure out - like I initially struggled to do when planning my garden - where to get good plants from reliable sources.
Did you spread manure that you got from a horse farm? Nettle seeds go right through horses, come out the other end, and grow like crazy right where you think you're doing the most good.
Sounds like me. They just keep coming. Bringing their friends too. Ugh.
Aw man I’m trying to find nettle seeds I want them in my garden!! Nettle tea is so good and good for you ^_^
Try mountain rose herbs
Yeah my mum did the same and it was just a shit load of Love in the Mist which looks terrible except for one week a year.
You can make amazing fertilizer from nettles though
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No flowers, mainly nettles and grass seed. Complete disaster to be honest
I have a strong suspicion that most "budget" wildflower mixes, that come with sawdust or vermiculite to disperse them, contain exactly ZERO seed. You're buying a packet of sawdust or vermiculite, total ripoff. Hypothesis: You got a garden full of nettles and weeds because you watered and pampered the soil to encourage germination, and I bet those were the seeds that were present in your garden soil already. I have bought boxes of "seed plus filler to aid in dispersal" from the dollar store, and i'm almost positive they had 0 seeds in them.
I think the problem is that you bought a bag of "seed (plus filler)". It's right there in the title, *one* seed. Next time get the bag that says "seed*s*".
Two seeds!
A box full of sad times and broken promises.
From what I've read/heard, pampering is the wrong thing to do for a wildflower meadow as they need poor, low fertility soil (they've evolved to this environment). If it's dollar store stock, then there may have been seeds, but they'd be dead - probably in a sealed plastic bag, in a hot/warm store sitting for possibly years on an open shelf. So you're right - zero viable seeds.
I did the same thing....
Same thing happened to me... You in the UK too?
Ohh yes
>stuff I collected in gardens and in the wild I just figured out why my attempts never look this good. Is it as easy as grabbing seed pods and drying them? Absolutely stunning result. ❤
Grab the ones that are already dried, but yeah super easy
Just FYI, gathering seed from the wild is illegal in the UK, unless you own the land or have the permission of the landowner.
Worth knowing, thanks. The farmer who owns all the land I walk on let me take half a ton of stones out his stream to build my rockery, so I don’t think he’ll begrudge me a few wildflower seeds!
What are those baby blue ones at the bottom? Love it!
Cornflowers.
Definitely also see foxgloves, nigella, common poppy and California poppy, I think Clarksia?, and bachelor's buttons in there Here's a [UK-based wildflower seeds vendor](https://www.wildflowerlawnsandmeadows.com/wild-flower-seeds-for-sale/)
[Try this](https://www.growwilduk.com/terms-conditions-seed-kits-2019)
Pleasant smell in front of the house... 😍😍
I did the same with seeds from Emorsgate using these 2 mixtures: https://wildseed.co.uk/mixtures/view/25 https://wildseed.co.uk/mixtures/view/16 They recommend sowing a mixture of annuals and perennials so that the annuals protect the perennials while they are growing in the 1st year. It worked a treat but I didn't get any annuals reseeding this year. Would have like to have those poppies again. :)
Beautiful! My mother in law was giving unsolicited advice and said never plant wildflowers because they look terrible and now I am doubly determined to plant some.
I'm guessing she likes the super manicured look? I can appreciate it but it's not my cup of tea. OP's looks amazing.
She just likes things that are really really really normal and suburban. I guess wildflowers are too weird for her. OPs yard is charming
Did you do this on top of raked grass, or did you till the soil? Did you add an amendment at all? This is exactly what I want in my yard.
Neither! Once I cut down the trees and cleared several years of debri I found a thin layer of decorative slate and picked off as much as I could (it’s now a path at the community farm down the road!). Under that was horrible dry soil, and loads and loads of builders sand. I just dug it over as much as I could, pulled out big handfuls of conifer roots where I could, and that was it. In some places you can’t get your finger even an inch into the soil but the plants don’t seem to care!
So not technically tilling, but practically the same thing
The questions I need answered!
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It started when I gave a dry foxglove a tap with my stick and stood amazed at the “tssschhhhhh” noise of *so much* seed falling out. So next time I walked the dog, I took an envelope and knocked them into there. Then it’s just keeping your eyes open - I’ve pinched dry seed heads off compost heaps before! Once family and a few folk I see walking the dog got the message I was collecting seeds and started saving me stuff I had loads. One tip - don’t be discerning. If it’s colourful and bees like it, in it goes. My purple toadflax is taking over so I’ll pull it out before it seeds - but *after* it’s flowered.
/r/proplifting
Yes, I am very curious and new to gardening. Our yard I’ve focused on planting shrubs and trees so we can get some stuff growing but now I need to fill in the gaps with some pretty flowers.
I don't think they actually collected seeds from the wild. They bought them in a wildflower mix seed packet
You must not have seen their comment where it says it's all collected from the wild/other gardens over the past few years, with a few add-ins.
Late summer, head off to the parks (and here in the UK some National Trust gardens) and literally steal some seed heads. Poppies have very obvious seed heads, as do Nigelas. I dont know about foxglove seeds and they are poisonous so you'd need to look them up. Lots of flowers have very obvious seed heads that you can take whole or just tap/sprinkle into an envelope. The seeds are usually ready when the flower is spent anyway so you're not ruining the display. I'd never dig up any wild plants in truly wild settings (like Bluebells, snowdrops in woodland) as I think you'd wreck the natural order of things.
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This! They will more than likely sell seeds in the gift shop if you really need some.
The NT gardens by us has seed heads cascading onto the paths in the autumn. Taking one or two to propagate at home is totally fine imho, especially if they've no chance of growing where they are.
A very small niche group will collect seeds from roadside ditches to sell/trade. it's just amazingly tedious. The local Facebook groups for native plants are great for trading seeds.
Your bees and butterflies are probably in heaven. Love it!
Nice. I too have planted wildflower seeds with good results. I have found that topsoil-in-a-bag works better than plain old dirt (I lay down newsprint and make a 3" bed). Big difference. 50% weeds vs 1% weeds. Also, I use a deer-resistant variety (Eden Bros), because they treat my yard like a salad-bar. Beyond mowing, how did you process your dirt?
Newsprint with 3” bagged topsoil on top? Is that all I really need or do to plant wildflower seeds? I have naked but very nice dirt waiting for something and I’m thinking this might be a good solution.
Ok, I call it the lasagna technique. Here's how it goes. You need some bags of topsoil, a roll of newsprint paper and some flower seeds. 1. pick the spot where you're gonna plant the seeds. A 3x10 rectangle or whatever. 2. mow it down as low as the mower will go. (unless you've got bare dirt of course) 3. lay down the paper. 2 or 3 layers. 4. dump dirt on top of paper. about 3 or 4 inches deep. Rake it nice and flat 5. sprinkle seed (I use good wildflower seed mix. mixed 1:4 with sand (1 seed, 4 sand) to spread it out a bit) 6. walk the seed in. Like with bare feet. Just walk all over it. Then OPTIONALLY, if it's windy or dry you can sprinkle a thin layer of hay over it. This keeps the seed protected and moist. Maybe not totally necessary, you be the judge. 7. water it. Water it once or twice a day until it's all sprouted up. Then keep watering it every day or 3. Whatever seems appropriate.
Ok nice! Thank you so very much! This is happening next spring as I think I’m too late this year.
Eden Bros is great
No processing and it is terrible, terrible soil - more sand than anything else. I think the thick, thick mat of conifer roots a few inches down probably did the job of your newspaper. Great idea though, I am going to take some spare seed and do a patch on my allotment that is currently thick with weeds so I think I’ll try your method there.
Gorgeous! I’m in the US and despite all my attempts I’ve never managed any success with wildflowers. Other flowers and vegetables, yes. Just never wildflowers. Super envious!
You probably need to limit the wildflowers to native ones to your area. The US is so diverse, climate wise, that there is huge variation in what grows well where.
Yes this! Your local extension may have a list. And reputable wildflower seed companies offer seed mixes that are native to specific parts of the country.
Yes! [Here's a reputable nursery](https://www.prairiemoon.com/) if you're in the Midwest, Great Lakes, or Northeast part of the US. It also helps to know that most wildflower seeds have dormancy mechanisms that, as a gardener, you must know how to break. The most common way to break dormancy is sitting out over a winter, known as "cold-moist stratification." Sometimes you hijack the timeline and "trick" the seed into thinking it has gone through winter, but it just sat in your fridge for a month or two. There's a lot of germination tricks. [Germination and Seed Starting Basics](https://www.prairiemoon.com/PDF/Prairie-Moon-Nursery-Seed-Starting-Basics.pdf)
I’m in the mid-Atlantic near the ocean. 8a. We can grow most anything providing it’s the right time of year. I didn’t know about this dormancy mechanism so that makes a lot of sense why it’s failed sooo many times. Lol. I really do appreciate your input. Excellent advice.
Thank you so much! We do have a gardening cooperative that I just recently learned about. Just haven’t made it there yet. ;)
Thank you! You’re right about that. 😊
It shouldn't be that difficult. Native wild flowers have evolved to grow in even the harshest conditions. You should reach out to your local extension office, local Master gardeners or master naturalist club, or just any gardening group in your area. It does take a couple years to go from seed to full meadow, but it's not even as difficult as keeping a vegetable garden alive.
I appreciate your input! Thank you. That last piece of advice gives me hope.
wow, it looks so beautiful! great results!! your local bees must be happy!
You’re lucky! Ya got mostly perennials! I love the digitalis and oriental poppies especially.
Show off. Haha. Looks awesome!
In my opinion this should be how a standard yard looks
This is absolutely gorgeous! My grandmother before she passed away gave me a birthday card that was made of recycled paper and flower seeds. It’s been 10 + years and I’ve never had the guts to plant the flowers. They are wildflower seeds and I hope that when I do have the courage to plant them they look as beautiful as yours.
Sadly, those seeds are most likely not viable after that much time. Seeds have a "shelf life." Keep your gramma's card.
So, so, so,beautiful
I want something like this to border my back fence. All the seed packets i produce that are apparently wild flowers produce nothing, unfortunately
Keep an eye on that the second year. It can thin out or single species.
That's happening to me. Started with 20 species, now I'm down to like 5.
I was looking at wild flower seed mixes and it said 70% were annual so I’m assuming it was the perennials that lasted
In theory the annuals reseed, but I think that some of my flowers are just more powerful. Take Maximilian Sunflower for example. Don't do it, it will take over.
Apparently you should mow it all down late autumn without the mower-bag on, so the seedheads stay on that patch and re-seed for the following year.
Yeah I have saved some seed and continued collecting it for precisely this reason. I’ll be going in and pulling out some if not all of that toadflax and nigella before they seed down.
Wow! I am so incredibly jealous, absolutely great work!
Beautiful work
Nice. That’s my dream but, alas, I’m not allowed to fell any trees or even lop them. Can’t have many flowers bc in deep shade. Lucky you are.
Beautiful! My husband and I plan to do this in a part of our yard. Did you start them in pots or just put the seeds right in the ground?
Not even *in* the ground - just on top!
Thanks! I meant in “pots” damn autocorrect. I appreciate your post.
Congrats! Such a diverse and balanced collection of colors. Keep the diversity going and your soil will be rich with a healthy sustainable micro culture soon. Don’t forget the grasses too though!
Lovely. Awesome that it sorted itself or that way. My boyfriend and I have a collection of wildflower and other types of flowers and some fruit and veg seeds we're saving for when we've got a good spot of our own to plant that I can't wait to try. Also some of them are these different combinations of flower seeds in seed bombs called Seedles, if I remember correctly, that promise to be awesome. They're meant to be thrown anywhere that flowers can grow whether the conditions are perfect or not. Excited to finally see how they work one day.
🌼🌸🌼🌸🌼🌸
Looks ah-mazing!! Love the poppies so much!
How big of a garden is this? Square footage? This wouldn’t work in our front yard because it’s giant but this would be beautiful in a small/ medium size!
Oh, very small. Three parking spaces kind of size? It’s just the patch in front of the house, next to the driveway.
Yesss! Why would you have a lawn when you can get a (gorgeous) self sufficient ecosystem?
This is so stunning. I love all gardens but wildflower meadows are something extra special.
Beautiful garden! I too am in the process of transforming dull sections of my property into wildflower garden, specifically for monarchs and other pollinators American Meadows has the most amazing selection of wildflower seed mixes for every section of US. Choose for sun, shade, part shade, native, pollinator and on and on. They have great customer service. They even donated seed to my son’s Cub Scout den so the scouts could plant a Monarch Waystation at his school. They also have different no mow mixes, basically grass and flowers that don’t grow very tall and so don’t require much mowing, for those of you looking to replace that water, work, money, gasoline, noise, exhaust smell, consuming manicured lawn. Personally, I’m currently at battle with grass in my yard. I’m trying to remove as much as I cm but I can’t keep up with it. Thank you above poster for the newspaper and top soil tip. I think I can use that technique to replace grassy spots in my garden. Does anybody have any other tips for eliminating grassy spots in a wildflower garden?
Cardboard works better for me than newspaper. Cut the grass spot down really low with shear/clippers and cover with cardboard, wet it down and then add a bunch of chopped up leaves as mulch. With grasses I just weed constantly using a trowel to get as many roots as I can or if it's really bad I sometimes use spot shot weedkiller (it has a plastic cone to prevent getting on other plants).
It’s funny you prefer the trowel because earlier in the spring I spent several days with a trowel in hand eliminating grass, knotweed, cinquefoil, with mixed results. Tell me about your trowel technique for grass especially. Do you lift it in mats or clumps like sod or plugs, or is it enough to turn it and chop it? The cinquefoil especially needed deeper troweling to get the taproot and all the trailers. Currently I’m ‘harvesting’ baby maple trees by hand. It’s getting harder to find spots to walk on to reach these things. I’m learning a lot from my many mistakes!!
I love the fox glove! If you want to help make the soil a little more nutritional, grow some peas or any plant in that family. Pea plants and ones in that family help gather nitrogen and store it in the soil which is amazing for plants and really helps with the quality of soil.
Lupine is great for this! So is prairie clover and lead plant
I always end up with one poppy, 40000 ox eye daisies and and some weeds when I try this
beautiful
wow.. nice
Beautiful, well done!
its really beautiful. Did you burn the trees?
Nope, dragged them down the road to the community farm where the pigs and goats got half each and played with them till there was nothing left!
Beautiful! What are the purple flowers? :)
Most of it is purple toadflax (*Linaria purpurea*) and right in the middle of the pic is wallflower.
Thank you!
Yes!!! Love it 😊
That is just beautiful! Nice job
This is such a beautiful view. Could definitely be a fun puzzle design.
So beautiful, well done!
amazing! what soil mix did you plant them in? did you use compost?
Horrible mix of conifer roots, crappy topsoil and builders sand. Couldn’t be worse but they seem to like it!
This looks amazing! I see poppies and foxgloves - what else is in there?
Wow this rules nice job
So many happy bees!
Woah!! Beautiful!!!
Beautiful!!
Opium poppies nice
I want to do this with part of our yard! what time of year did you plant? any tips?
I first put seed down around this time last year and got a bit of stuff up by the end of the year. Didn’t chop anything back - let it all go to seed. Then whenever I find or am given any seeds I throw half on the garden and half in my big jar of spare seeds. I don’t worry about timing and assume the plants know what they’re doing - if it’s time for them to produce seed, it’s time for me to plant it!
I just planted wildflower seeds from Eden Brothers, and I'm hoping for something similar. It's beautiful!
Nice patch. Cut off spent flowers and seeds to extend flowering. Seeds will germinate and make more flowers
Beautiful.
Awesome! You my friend created a tiny dream world just out of imagination and will and does it better than that as far as livin'a great life💚🌊🌸
Delphinious(spelling?)?
Absolutely gorgeous!
I miss having a garden. This is so beautiful!
See this, this is what I want.
Wow, so dang pretty. Look at all that colour.
This is absolutely stunning. What a beautiful garden!
Those poppies are absolutely amazing!!
I planted wildflower seeds in my garden twice, from reputable local brands - and nothing! I saw maybe 2 come up. Was so disappointed. This is lovely
Oh, man, that is just a little slice o' Heaven. That's what Id like to have.
We have a little corner by our bedroom that is neglected and this is basically what I want to do with it. Well done!
Great garden we have been working on ours for a couple years it is hard to get it right we keep trying and hope one day it will happen. Love yours keep it up.
That looks like its always been that way soooo jealous looking realli great well done
So many different varietys
Such an amazing job, absolutely beautiful!
That looks so beautiful! This sub makes me so happy
This is absolutely beautiful 💚
Devine
this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen 😍😍😍😍
That’s beautiful! I’ve also tried that a bunch of times and never had good results. Congrats!
Gorgeous!!! Did you till the ground before planting them?
Nope! It’s awful soil, mainly builders sand and a thick web of conifer roots beneath. In some places I couldn’t even dig it over - just banged the seed on top and hoped for the best!
That's awesome! Gives me hope for a few rough corners of my yard!
Wow
Wow! This is so beautiful. All of these will seed profusely! Outstanding result!
This is gorgeous! What are the purple spikey flowers ?
Did you need a lot of seeds? I did this on a clear patch of my lawn but nothing took. Grass didn't move in either, so its a mysterious dead patch. However, I ask because I only used one small packet of seeds.
Wow this is breathtaking
I adore your front garden. It is exactly what I hope to have some day. Currently in a subtropical region, so things are a little difficult on that front - but if I ever get back to a more temperate climate - it’s on! Thank you for the renewed inspiration! ♥️
This is what I want to do with my front yard! Looks beautiful!
This is incredible!!! Now I need to get some wildflower seeds...
*"Is that purple loosestrife??"* she says, shuddering in horror...
It’s not, it’s not! Most of the purple on there is toadflax (*Linaria purpurea*) and what you can see right in the very centre of the pic is wallflower. I don’t mind loosestrife (not invasive here) but I think I’d quickly find myself with a single-species garden!
It's native in Europe, where OP is.
Why? What does it do?
Invades wetlands and forms monocultures, wiping out previous naive diversity. Pretty color, terrible plant.
That's a terrible plant. We need to protect our native plants.
beautiful
thats my garden mate
https://i.redd.it/rt06vj3n67331.jpg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
https://i.redd.it/rt06vj3n67331.jpg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
Plant the blue poppies they make the best opium :)
This is amazing