What to do THIS WEEK
In your flower garden
Give your garden a colourful, natural look by sowing and planting
We’re all aware of the need to do more planting for pollinators and that includes increased interest in growing wildflower patches or meadows. Most gardens have room for an area of wildflowers and what you grow can easily fit in with your garden style.
There are two basic ways to grow your flowers: in an established area of lawn or in an empty patch of ground. Some of the most popular, including cornflowers, poppies and annual chrysanthemums, are annuals and can form a cornfield effect.
However, the fact that these are weeds of cornfields is a clue to how they should be grown. They are annuals and weeds of disturbed ground. As they can’t grow as strongly as grass they’re not suitable for growing in a lawn. Instead, sow them in open ground in spring or autumn, let them self seed, and lightly fork over the soil and remove perennial weeds. You can even add some non-natives that will happily fit in, such as Californian poppies, phacelia and nigella.
Some plants will suit your soil better than others; the proportion of each is dynamic and will change each season.
To establish wildflowers in a patch of lawn, grow them from seed and then plant out the small plants. Now is a good time to plant. Once established, they will grow and spread if the grass is cut after July so the plants have time to set seed. It’s always worth considering your native soil and what conditions your plants prefer so they naturalise.
Here we’ve given some suggestions of wildflowers to grow in grass.
Check tree ties
Before the spring rush starts, it’s time to do some garden maintenance. Tree stakes and ties need checking. Trunks increase in girth surprisingly quickly and it’s important the ties don’t restrict the growth of the trunk or cut into the bark. Flexible ties are best because they do the least damage but still need to be adjusted yearly. Check stakes are still doing their job and either remove them or replace them if they are rotted at the base. Dwarf fruit trees often need to be staked throughout their life, especially in windy areas.
Plant comfrey
There are lots of good reasons to plant a clump of comf
