Wildflowers

jamesharcourt

I sowed some last Autumn and they came up nicely.  All quite big now and even a few blooms (apart from the ones tramples by the dog / cat / hedgehog / unidentified nocturnal creature(s)). 

But just wondering - what do you do to maintain / preserve these?   I saw on Gardeners World Monty Don mowing them down and sowing new ones, but some of them were perennial I thought from the mix I bought.  And I guess there might be an element of self-seeding too.

I want to expand the area this year and wondering about whether you re-sow the whole thing each time or sow thinly to make up losses?

Guernsey Donkey2

You have raised some good points here James and I am wondering the same.  We have a mix of annuals and perennials here on our wild flower bank and I was thinking to allow all of them to flower, drop their seeds and then mow - so possibly late Sept or October. Just one mow, leave the cuttings in situ for a few days for the seeds to drop onto the soil then rake up and dispose of the cuttings. If there were any bare patches of soil I would then lightly scarify the soil and sow more seeds or you could buy/grow some plug plants to put into any bare patches. Whatever I decide to do will be a trial and error effort. I hope this helps. Good luck.

Loraine3

In the Devon and Cornwall programme (More 4) on 15th April, a farmer had restored hay meadows and the resulting hay was sold to other farmers and the seed would restore more meadows.

Guernsey Donkey2

That's a brilliant idea Loraine3, let's hope that more farmers are as forward thinking.