Wildflowers in clay soil

Hi,
We’d be really grateful for a bit of advice on what do at the bottom of our garden . It was a load of nettles and brambles which we have cleared to bare soil but it’s heavy clay. We would like to do a wildflower area but I’m not sure how feasible / easy this would be or whether we would be better off with some flowering shrubs. One of the challenges is there is a stream just to the left which is full of nettles (we don’t own this) so they constantly come across into our garden . So we need something with good and ideally quick ground clearance . Being realistic as well we don’t have a huge amount of time to dedicate to it .
So I guess I would be grateful on advice on if the wildflower meadow idea would be possible or recommendations on wild looking shrubs that like clay soil which could give a similar effect . Thanks !

 

Bringing just to the top, because no reply in 5 days.

The only thing I can contribute is that wildflowers and clay soil can work, but I would suggest you have a walk in your area and see what grows naturally. In my garden, ox-eye daisies don’t bother clay, but quadruple inside a year.

 

You will have two problems , at least. May I refer you to my contribution to the thread regarding Yellow rattle.
If your ground grows nettles it is high in nutrient; good soil.
If your ground was formed by or has received deposits from the stream, it will be high in nutrient.
If you decide to go the 'wild flower meadow route' you will need to engineer poor soil conditions.
It occurs to me that the area depicted might lend itself to planting with 'edge of a wood ' vegetation where you collect seed from local sites of similar outlook, and build up the natural progression of wild flowering plants to your taste. Yes , some might think they are weeds but in the right place....

 

Clay can be very difficutl for many wildflowers as it's too rich, so other plants - ie grass, can easily outcompete them. As @infradig says, you'd therefore have to create an area of poor soil. That's not easy, and it's always better to work with what you have in terms of conditions, rather than fighting it.
The better solution is to have shrubs, with some perennials mixed in as well, which can definitely be low maintenace, and then see if anything else seeds in. Things like Centranthus, for example, are often seen as weeds because they seed readily, but they're excellent plants for an area like that, and cope easily with clay soil. Oxeye daisies would fill that whole area in no time, and can get very large if the soil's moisture retentive

It's always worth looking at plants in your area, but also having a trawl through the various seed suppliers' sites, and see if there's plants which will work in the site.

 

thank you !

 

thanks - that’s really useful info for us .

 

Thank you - think we’ll go with the shrubs . Oxeye daisies a good idea

 

The good thing about ox-eye daisies is that they are easily removed if they spread too much. No deep roots and a pleasure compared to some other wildflowers.

 

Well, I can tell you some of the wild flowers in my garden. I didn't plant any, they just arrived. Most I leave in peace. One or two, I hoik out.
Linaria, centaurea, primula, daisies, buttercups, dandelions and several other yellow dandelion type fowers I can't identify. Same with umbellifers, oxalis,ivy leaf toadflax, iris foetedissima, wild strawberry, centranthus, fox and cubs, enchanters nightshade, Arum maculatum, geum urbanum
These are ones that spring to mind but there are many more. Not sure if aqueligia counts but there's lots of that too. And sticky willy and violets
I'll stop now but you can see that there's plenty of wildflowers that'll grow.

 

We have clay soil and our "lawn" is filled with bugle, daisy, speedwell, hawkbit and others.
In our orchard we cut paths but leave the rest to grow and only cut back in the autumn. Out there we have oxeye daisy, red campion, vetches, creeping buttercup, birds foot trefoil, black medick, hedge parsley, corn cockle, betony, corn marigold, corn poppy, knapweed, bugle, primrose, lesser celandine, scarlet pimpernel, red and white clover and a host of different grasses. We have tried yellow rattle many times but with no success even though we have followed to the letter the instructions.

 

@On the Levels you've mentioned several I missed

 

There's also a huge difference between something naturally seeding or creeping into a site, and actively planting them. That's what makes it difficult because it can take a long time to judge what will work and what won't.
The combination also matters because some plants will absorb more nutrients and water, and get much bigger, while others might do the opposite. We have plenty of small plants in the grass [not really a lawn!] but in a border, they'd get crowded out by other things - especially something like the oxeye daisies which grow huge here as the conditions and climate suit them so well - too well at times!