Wildflower Lawn

Lawn Collage June 2020

There is a small area of ground beside my chicken run that was previously gravelled over so in 2019 I decided to create a wildflower lawn here. I dug it over and in early spring I planted a few wildflower plugs and sowed a mixture of meadow grasses and perennial wildflowers that can cope with occasional mowing. It started off OK but by June 2019, it was a mess due to being overrun with a plant I'd never seen before but discovered was Lesser Swine Cress. I tried getting it out of the lawn but it was so profuse and embedded, I couldn't. I could see it was smothering emerging wildflowers so after much agonising, in July 2019 I dug up all the wildflowers I could find and potted them up. Then I dug the lawn over, removing all the Lesser Swine Cress  and raked it. For the rest of the summer, I just left the ground bare and removed it as it emerged (along with some docks, thistles and nettles). In autumn 2019, I replanted the wildflowers but decided not to sow any grass or wildflower seed for another year as I wanted to ensure I could deal with any weeds* before they swamped the lawn. 

Wildflower Lawn July 2020

The flowers are now establishing themselves and I'm letting some self-seeded plants join in eg Red Dead-nettle. There are still brown gaps at the moment but I'll sow some grasses in September and it should start to green-up. 

Wildflower Lawn July 2020

I'm mowing it every few weeks, as that's the expert advice to 'train' the flowers to bloom on short stems. The Clovers, Daisies and Selfheal do this anyway but it might take a while for some of the others eg Oxeye Daisies, Meadow Buttercup and Lady's Bedstraw. There are at least 15 varieties of wildflower in the lawn altogether. 

* Many people would call the wildflowers I'm planting 'weeds' because they don't want them in their lawns or flower beds. I'm using the word 'weeds' for anything invasive that would overwhelm the wildflowers. 

Successes:

• All of the wildflowers I replanted have established themselves;
• Leaving the bare patches has enabled me to deal with the flush of weeds;
• The bees love the white clover.

Lessons Learned:

• Freshly dug soil can result in a huge number of weeds;
• It's better to cut your losses and start again than try to fight a weed infestation;
• White clover is thriving so I must ensure it doesn't dominate the lawn (or should I just let it flourish there and have a clover dominant lawn - can't decide at the moment).

To Do List:

• Keep removing Lesser Swine Cress as it appears (much less this year);
• Keep mowing every few weeks (half at a time so something's always flowering for the bees);
• Sow meadow grass seed in September (if I decide to have grass here at all);
• Decide whether I'm on the right track with this lawn - maybe there's a better way (eg only have short wildflowers and don't mow it at all) - need to do some more research.