Wildflower Lawn. Charming Guests From The Fields

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Many consider wildflowers to be one of nature's finest gifts. With their modest and sweet beauty, they give a unique charm to wild fields, steppes and meadows. Despite the variety of colors, shapes, sizes, they wonderfully harmoniously look together with each other, creating an interesting and spontaneous landscape. Why not decorate one of the corners of your garden with them?

The popularity of wildflowers for cultivation is largely due to their unpretentiousness. Their care is usually minimal. Another explanation for the increased interest in guests from the fields is their less formal nature within the species, i.e. wildflowers are not constant in their specific qualities, and their height, shape, color can vary and differ from the original parameters.

Science is important in titles

When choosing seeds of field plants, you need to carefully study the recommendations on the packaging in order to avoid disappointment later. For example, many perennial flowers may not show their best qualities at once, but show them only after 1-2 years. It is advisable to know in advance the botanical names of those plants that you decide to purchase. Since scientific names will be written on the packaging, and not folk ones.

If you want to have several types of wild flowers in your flowerbed at once, then it is better to prefer their mixtures. And when it is planned to sow large areas of the garden with field plants, then a wonderful and popular option is a Moorish lawn. Unlike other types of lawns, it is mowed only once a year. With it, even the most depressed area will sparkle with rainbow colors and acquire a unique natural charm.

Determine the climate

The choice of a variety of flowers also depends on the characteristics of the climate in which they are going to be grown. For example, for dry areas, it is worth purchasing plant seeds that germinate after 10-20 days at a warm temperature of 12-20C. Flax, echinacea, chicory, yarrow, cornflowers, nemophila, etc., tolerate drought well.

Perennial “savages” such as columbine, spurnik, coreopsis, nemophila, scarlet flax, daisies, yellow foliage will be able to adapt to humid conditions, especially in mountainous areas. However, if you provide them with regular watering, then they will be comfortable in an arid climate. They tolerate even harsh winters remarkably.

We create a natural environment

Before planting flowers, decide on a location. It is desirable that it be open and sunny (6 or more hours of sun per day), with good drainage. You can approximate the natural conditions with the help of various boulders, stones from the neighboring forest. And the proximity of the garden reservoir will help regulate the humidity.

The soil must first be cleared of weeds and perform approximately the same manipulations as before planting the lawn. If you plan to grow a natural, overgrown meadow, then you can not get rid of weeds very carefully.

Mix with sand

Selected plant seeds are soaked in water at room temperature for a day before sowing. To sow the seeds evenly, it is recommended to mix them with regular sand or vermiculite (1:10). Wait for a calm day and plant a place prepared for a wild meadow. Light-colored sand will help determine where there are gaps in the soil to properly plant. To avoid blowing off the seeds by the wind, they are tamped with a piece of plywood or a lawn roller. The soil should be watered regularly for 4-6 weeks after planting.

Then, caring for the plants will consist only of periodically watering them during especially dry periods. It is recommended to mow them once a year at the end of autumn. This treatment removes dried flower heads and helps the seeds to spread naturally.

Seed mat

Abroad, they came up with a rather original way of sending seeds of wild plants by mail: they saturate small rugs with them, and add nutrients there. The advantage of these rugs (sizes vary by supplier) is that they are simple and easy to handle. They can be spread in strictly planned places without fear that some flower seeds will end up in neighboring beds. It is convenient to fix carpets in a circle, cut out the necessary shapes for flower beds and landscape compositions from them. These mats are often made from woody, biodegradable fibers that serve as mulch. They protect flowers from weeds during the growing season, and then gradually dissolve in the soil.