Wild flowers in my garden

Hi

Growing in my garden are:
Honesty
Forget me nots
English bluebells
Creeping Jenny

and another on with a small yellow flower which I'm not sure what it is, will take a photo when it flowers.

What do you all let grow in your garden? and do you think it's a good idea or not?

Stingo

 

comfrey..angelica..mullein..lavender..marshmallow..purple loosestrife..mint ..milk thistle..sage ..thyme..chamomile..valerian..bergamot..hyssops.oregano..tarragon..oxeye daisy..ladys mantle..eucalyptus.. .cardoon..honesty..and about a 100 wild flowers..and a hawthorn tree and several elderberry trees..and dog rose..all the usefull things..the best thing about my garden is i dont have to weed often as the borders are full to bursting...so except for chick weed which haunts me not a lot else can get in..i just scatter lots of packets of wild flower seeds and hope for the best at least its cheerfull..and i have also mixed in peas and runner beans for height..it looks like a jungle..i dont have many man made plants..but i do have a gunnera which is still young that i love..and if i buy a plant it has to fit in with what i have got allready...i will harvest a lot of my plants and make things with them...it all depends on peoples tastes some of the gardens on here are really tidy with plants of their choosing..all down my road the gardens are like clones ..pink busy lizzies ..geraniums..pansys.."pass the sick bucket"...i cant even bring myself to look at them as they look insipid..yet they all hang over my wall looking in at the giants growing..and foxgloves everywhere..and a million ox eye daisys..with grasses to show them off..i even have a fruit corner..its not very big only 6x6 but i have loads of things cramped in their..except for leaving the dog a lawn to walk on i have virtually dug and planted the whole of the back garden to my tastes..i have bought the countryside to the city..and the garden is full of birds and bees and butterflys and something that bites me ..every time i go out..

 

Ah Wildflower - your garden is just my sort of heaven! Natural plants and herbs are so much more interesting than "man made" sterilities.

In answer to Stingo - yes I grow those that are happy on my soil and that I am happy with. I guess we would all welcome primroses and bluebells in our gardens, but feel differently about ground elder and creeping buttercups. I particularly welcome our native geraniums, campions, Welsh poppies, marsh marigolds and many more because they are such good garden plants and don't become nuisance. Once common annuals like corn cockle and cornflowers are now quite rare as farmers have sprayed them out of existance in their fields. If we can grow them as annuals in our gardens, we can help save them from total extinction. There are wildflower seed and plant nurseries. It is illegal to dig up any wildplant.

 

Your garden sounds fab Wildflower, agree with you on most gardens looking the same issue, soo boring and I hate pink busy lizzies!!

Yourself and Hornbeam have both mentioned a few more that I didn't realise were wild that I have also:
welsh poppies
comfrey
ladys mantle which I love it is even growing inbetween paving stones.

Unfortunatly I also have spanish bluebells (didn't realise what they were untill I joined this site) but they do look really good at the moment

Stingo

 

You two are inspiring me to grow more wildflowers
I am getting bored with the same old thing and need a challenge

Stingo

 

i woke up in the night last night thinking about the ones i didnt include in my list such as st johns wort and echinacea..and clary sage and old mr borage...the comfrey is usefull as you can make plant food and ointment from it...i have a lot of poppys also..the bus stop is outside my house and the people hang over the wall looking at what is appearing!!i shall be moving in 2008 and i will then need to ask you all for help in either taking cuttings or moving things..i am going to get a new garden then and if its full of nasty plants they will be pulled up..i have bought a lot of ivys this year to cover the fences and one of them in particular..padys pride ....i wont want to leave...stingo i think you should grow some wildflowers you will be amazed at what appears i buy collections from suffolk herbs..birds..butterflys ..bees...hedgerow..and just scatter them...i also have some corn cockles..all my seeds are through now..and all the colours just blend in together...I loathe busy lizzie...the people that sell the bedding plants around here just sell the same old things every year ..and when they put them in the borders they all look lost and little..they dont give any height..or interest..

 

I planted from seed red poppies in all my large containers they are popping up all over along with forget-me-nots. looking forward to seeing them in full bloom

 

Hi rosa

That's a good idea, what compost did you use in your containers?

Stingo

 

your garden sounds my kind of garden, sounds great. I laughed when I read your hate of Busy Lizzies, some of my neighbours planted Tulips all in a straight row...standing like soldiers :( My all time worst plant has to be the Giant African Marigolds..Yuk

 

I try to plant 'useful' specimens - herbs & healing plants that I know, wild ones that I borrow from stony ground which matches mine, I'd never ever have neat prim rows of decorative flowers, the wilder the better for me!
I know what grows wild in my garden now, and what to pull as soon as it comes through and what to leave to bloom.

 

Love your wildflower garden - exactly what I am trying to develop. I especially like daisies - they look so cheerful. Can forget-me-nots be given a haircut when they grow leggy and will they produce new flowers.

 

When the forget-me-nots stop flowering and go leggy like now, just pull them up and stick in the compost bin or wherever.

Give them a shake before hand which will disperse the seeds and you should get another lovely display next spring.