Wild gardens are a fantastic way to transform space ...

MOST gardeners will be familiar with an area of the garden that neither pulls its weight nor conforms with any creative concept. These spaces are occasionally left to overgrow and can look unsightly and deflating if you’ve invested a great deal of effort in making other parts of the garden look attractive. Fear not. A simple wild garden could be just the answer for that pesky wasteland.

Creating a wild garden is essentially a fancy name for working with rather than against the natural composition of your garden’s landscape. I say ‘landscape’ for all gardens are part of the wider landscape, but the implications for this are less so if you have a city or town garden. However, if you live in the countryside this will determine the kind of wild plants and shrubs favourable to your garden.

When creating my own wild garden I sourced wild flowers and plants already growing in bogs, ditches and wasteland and simply transplanted them to my garden. This way I was assured they would grow season after season. Of course you can also pre-prepare an area by raking the soil and sowing wild flower seeds with some fine sand; flowers that are available from your local garden centre.

Another trick with wild overgrown areas is to try and cut a centre pathway through the lawn. This will look amazing when flanked on either said by high stemmed flowers and shrubs. Wild Foxgloves are really attractive, as is ribwort, cow parsley, purple meadow thistle, buttercups, and ‘Ragged’ Robin. As aforementioned, if you live in the countryside and wish to have a wild meadow, check out the flowers already growing nearby. These varieties have been growing in the area long before you arrived and will still be there long after you’ve gone.

A wild garden is also eco-friendly and will help to attract and sustain insects and other hidden wildlife to your garden. A wild garden not only looks good, but will also provide an excellent habitat for wildlife, free of lawnmowers, strimmers and human interference.