The wildflower patch

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

This year is super exciting as we have undertaken a project which is very close to my heart.
The idea struck me to create a wildflower patch and it gnawed away at me until I couldn't do anything but to make it happen. I twisted a few arms and wangled the use of a piece of ground that wasn't doing anything but laying dormant bar the growth of tufty grass, nettles and weeds which are not generally regarded as crẻme-de-la-crẻme of wildflowers. Dare we risk saying weeds? The irony is not lost on me.

At this stage I want to make it very clear that my enthusiasm has overruled the logical thing to do which is read a million books, tutorials on how to do it properly and instead I have stormed in, all guns blazing to shake things up. If you are considering a sensible plan then mine is most likely not the one to follow.
Of course things would have kicked off earlier had the weather played ball. It didn't, so we made the best and started when it was possible. A dry Saturday. The ground felt surprisingly good underfoot considering the recent wet weather and the surface had been gently scraped back for us which was extremely helpful as the tufty grass and debris from last years growth looked pretty much impenetrable. It was a grand opportunity for C to use one of his bloody rotivators to macerate the surface. If you are also suffering with several rotivators which don't work and almost more frustratingly part ones that definitely don't then there's got to be a support line out there....somewhere...
Oh yes, back to the surface. It soon became apparent that my theory of  'I'll follow along and oik any big bits out' was optimistic as the ground was riddled with a root system capable of creating a jungle. I did my very best to 'oik the big bits out' I promise though if I had tried to get all of them out I'd still be there for the next fortnight. We compromised. Just under half the patch has been rotivated twice, raked fairly smooth and wildflower seed sown, then a gentle rake in. It rained the next day.







The plan for the remaining half which had more roots and a single pass of rotivator was to wait another few days, spray off the growth, wait a week, rotivate again then sow that seed. Of course time is of the essence as if you don't get seed germinated at the right point it won't have time to flower and you miss the whole point of it. The week has passed, I have sprayed what had started growing and now to wait again.

The graft is meant to be at the outset with the idea being it does it's own thing for the growing season before being cut at the end, seeds shook onto the ground and cut debris removed. My suspicions are that the entire process may have been futile as the grass and nettles are likely to take over, swamp everything and render it exactly the same as if we hadn't lifted a finger but we shall see.

Edit: I wrote this post over a fortnight ago, then amended it a week ago and now once again I find myself having to tinker with in on account of time having moved on and I've still not put the pictures together and more work having been completed. Update: We've now rotivated the whole area. pulled out all the 'main' big bits (not that you would notice) and raked in seed. The first patch has oodles of little shoots appearing which I must remind myself are most likely to be the nettles, grasses and pre-existing seeds in the ground which have now risen to the surface and their time has come to germinate. However, some of these may be my wonderful little flower seeds! Eeep. I shall be checking at least once a week to see what I can see and keeping tabs on progress.

Have you ever had a burning idea that you were driven to do even though it seemed a little ill thought out and over simplified? Yay? Nay? Oh. Flowers.

Take care,
Sophie

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Sometimes I am sent items to feature as part of a post and these will be clearly mentioned as part of each post.Everything else is bought by myself. Any sponsored or collaboration posts will be clearly marked. Each post is my own content and all opinions are honest.