Go wild for a natural lawn
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also far greener, environmentally speaking.
Its very biodiversity creates a haven for wildlife in a way that the “strictly come greenkeeping” sort of lawn never did and frankly the garden looks all the better for it, especially when your general style tends towards the natural anyway.
Of course, should you still find yourself saddled with an unfashionably plain grassy lawn, it’s easy to “wild” it and now is the perfect time to start.
The golden rule is to leave well alone. Don’t be lured into using weedkillers, lawn feeds or other improving unguents. Let nature take its course. And most importantly, adjust your mower. Raise the blades to their highest setting and leave it at that level all year round.
You’ll still need to cut the grass regularly but every week or 10 days should be enough to keep it under control. It’s loads less work than usual but it has an incredible effect.
Grass growth slows down so it actually needs less cutting yet charming wildflowers appear from nowhere all on their own and month by month you should see a number of different species spring to life. Sounds too good to be true?
Well the way it works is simple. Wildflower seeds of the type that thrive locally are already present in the soil and on the breeze and all WITH the price of bird seed on the rise there is another good way to encourage our feathered friends into the garden and cut out the middle man – grow a bird-seed border.
It makes an unusual feature for a wild garden and you can sow a row along the back of your veg patch or take over any strip of unused ground.
First remove any weeds, hoeing them off instead of using weedkiller then fork it over. Next find some suitable bird seeds – use an economical mixed wild bird seed that you can buy from a pet shop.
Otherwise, blend your own using sunflowers, oats and wheat (but use whole grains not crushed as they won’t germinate) plus a little nyjer seed (for goldfinches) as it has nice yellow daisy flowers and grows about 5ft tall.
For extra decorative punch, add hardy annual grasses and flowers such as Cerinthe major Purpurascens (whose seed greenfinches love), poached egg plant, annual poppies and Phacelia campanularia (they’ll help to attract bees and beneficial insects).
Mix them and scatter on prepared ground, roughly a handful per square yard. Rake lightly over to cover most of the seed. Unless it looks dreadfully overcrowded I’d be inclined to leave all seedlings that appear.
The dense foliage should quickly smother out most that has prevented them thriving hitherto is a combination of close mowing and high nutrient levels. By changing to a new natural lawncare regime conditions swing back in favour of wildflowers while curbing the more exuberant grass.
But once leguminous wild flowers such as clovers and trefoils have gained a foothold, they’ll “fix” nitrogen from the air which generates enough natural feed to keep grass going without any routine feeding, especially if you stop using a grass box when you mow so that clippings recycle their own nutrients back into the ground. HE end result, with no real effort, is grassy sward containing a variety of native wildflowers which could be anything from bird’s foot trefoil to wild orchids, all depending what occurs naturally in your area. Which means more butterflies, bees and interesting flora and fauna to spot and a garden that’s a study in health.
And if you worry that your wildflower lawn will simply look tatty rather than intentional, you could always keep a strip mowed around it and perhaps a straight or snaking path that cuts through it. That way at least part of it will be neat and crisp and even.
WING IT WITH HOMEMADE BIRD SEED
weeds. The area will look colourful for most of the summer and after the flowers are over they’ll set seed which will ripen over several months.
You don’t need to harvest and dry them to put out on bird tables unless you particularly want to.
It’s much easier just to let the birds find them “on the vine”. And fun to watch.