Lawn - Grass Free & Full of Flowers

Interesting. I think you should follow suit, rather than clear patches and seed them. My reckoning is that the seed trays will have no competing weeds, and when planted out will be ahead of any weed seed that then germinates

 

I like it, but as ARMANDII says its nothing new.

Sedum turf has been around for a while for flat roofs, and wildflower turf has been around for a while for lawns. Rockeries and flower beds have been around forever. All this chap has done has designed a patch that takes from all these things and is hardly a huge leap from any of them.

Still, good lad for doing it. If park managers all over the country follow suit, it would be pretty amazing.

 

I'm still worried by the amount of effort that the folk at East Ruston Old Vicarage put into their wildflower meadow. It looks a picture, but it doesn't look after itself. I had a hunt for a link to an article but found nothing, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading something. The place is now so popular that all Google results are full of Tourist Links, rather than more informative articles.

 

Right, experiment time. Back in a minute....

 

I have a nearly dead lawn out the front, which I had planned to remove and do something else with.

I also had two boxes of random flower seed mix.

Lets see what happens over the next few months.

 

I've been looking into this(-ish) just now. I was thinking of simply buying some seeds for Selfheal, White Clover, Lesser Trefoil and maybe some others and sowing these in the lawn. I would like lawn that it is a bit more biologically diverse, not just grass.

Would it be similar to over-seeding a lawn?

 

Provided what you sow is strong enough to compete with the grass.

Conventional wild flower "meadows" need all the goodness sucked out of the soil to stop the grass taking over. Usually by letting it all grow long, and then (after the wildflowers have self seeded, and at a suitable time of the year to suit the wildlife) it is all cut down and all raked off and removed - if left in situ and/or mowed and left then the nitrogen in the grass etc. is available back to the plants, which is too rich.

But dunno if that includes the species you are thinking of?

 

Hmm...in my last lawn it was covered with the wildflowers I've previously quoted. These, as well as the grass, all survived fine when growing less than an inch high so I'm confused. How did they get there in the first place then?

 

I think there was chatter earlier in this thread about growing the wildflowers in seed trays, and then removing a similar sized "tile" of turf and planting the tray of wildflowers, whole, in the space - that might give them a kick-start, although it will look patchwork-y of course. Do some-and-some perhaps?

 

Oh Cool, I remember it being mentioned on Beechgrove, or GW and I'm looking for more inflorescence on my grass so thanks for posting.

Well done on your Chelsea silver!