Wildflower meadows & Ponds
Getting going with the wild stuff …
At my first Open Garden of 2022 lots of people asked me how and where I sourced wildflowers for the meadows, hedges and the pond so I promised them I do a blog.
There are lots of places, some online and some quite local to me, but it’s always worth trying the local ones first as their plants will be from conditions similar to your own. Plants know lots about height, temperature, wetness, hours of sunlight, shade and soils – probably far more than we do as they’ve been doing it a helluva lot longer. You’ll always succeed in working with your garden far more easily when you take all those things into account. Going to a local nursery often also brings you local tips from growers who know your area and they’re usually worth their weight in gold.
And, of course, by going-local you help your own community and often bring yourself new friends … as well as bringing them good business.
But one of the things wild gardeners do is find out as much as they can about how the nursery sources and grows its plants, and about their business ethics. With growing wild the end doesn’t necessarily justify the means! You might think planting a load of bluebells in your garden will really help the wildlife … but if those bluebells were dug up out of an ancient woodland, part of a long established ecosystem, they’ve actually destroyed wildlife far more than helped it.
Yes, people do still dig up wild plants. Yes, there are laws against digging up wild plants, and collecting wild seed … but how often have you seen the police enforcing those rules? Very rarely. There aren’t enough police, nor magistrates’ courts, nor jurors … not with all the government cuts. All wildlife crime is very low priority to the police and the courts. We all need to realise this, so the power of the purse will have more effect on stopping people digging up wild plants than all the laws. And your heart will feel better knowing your plants come from a good place.
When you’re a good gardener you know how to grow wildflowers successfully and you can grow lots of them. And you know how to collect seed … and when you need permission to collect wild seed, and how to do it without harming the parent plants in the wild landscape. And there are lots of good, ethical, suppliers too.
Then there’s what to choose to add to your wildlife garden …
Then there’s what to choose to add to your wildlife garden …
If you face south, no shade, baking well in the sun, then it’s really not sensible to try to grow those bluebells! Bluebells like shade, damp shade, dappled sunlight from trees that don’t have a dense canopy of leaves, birch trees, rowans, young ash, are all OK but they won’t like the shade under oaks or chestnuts. Even older hazels can be too much. A north facing slope can work too because it won’t get the sun all day.
Then again, well drained chalk is no use to bluebells either, It won’t be damp enough. Neither will it have the minerals the bluebells need. Great for daisies though!
So you need to learn about …
What wildflowers already grow in your area
What the wildflowers you’d love to have need to thrive
Once you get these a bit sorted you can head to Google and the catalogues to see where you can get seeds, plugs and young plants.
If you don’t have a lot of experience yet seeds may be more difficult for you, so go for young plants. They’ll be more expensive – the nursery has gone to all that trouble to grow them on for you, that’s what you’re paying for, their, time expertise and care – but you’ll be far more likely to succeed.
If you go for plug plants you still have to do some work before they’re ready to go in the ground in their final place. Plug plants, even the “giant” ones need growing on. So you’ll need some 9cm pots, some soil, and place for them to grow on that’s reasonable sheltered as well as easy for you to look after them, water and generally care for them. They’ll take 6-8 weeks depending on the season so you won’t get an instant result. On the other hand you’ll have the joy of caring for them, learning about them, and they’ll likely be even better than the bigger, older plants you might buy. Why not do both? Buy some 1litre plants and some plugs, see how you get on?
With growing on plug plants, I said you need some soil … yes, you could go to the garden centre and buy a bag of compost. Or you could use your own garden soil. The plants will do better in the long run in your own soil as they will have grown up with it and so already be adapted to it. Or you could plan ahead for next year’s additions to your meadows and woodland bits and decide to use molehills 😊.
Moles are amazing critters, they burrow the earth but they don’t actually eat it. Like worms their burrowing changes the texture of the soil so it’s excellent growing medium when they chuck it up in molehills. The molehills themselves show where the mole has created a “larder” for herself; on of their favourite food is earthworms so they catch and store them in these chambers under the “hills”. It doesn’t destroy the mole’s larder if you take two or three trowel-fulls off each hill – so you and the mole can share the soil. I always collect some each February when the moles wake up and start getting their larders together, I store it in and old dustbin until I need it maybe later in the year.
Ponds, the plants to go in them, and the oxygenators, and the plants for round the edge, are a whole other group you need to think about. Again, try and find some wild or semi-wild ponds near you and see what they grow, what plants like to be there, what their situation is like – shade, woodland, filed, moor, near a river or stream, all that stuff. When I’m checking I always take some photos to look back on when I’m choosing plants, as well as the style of the pond and its surroundings.
Following, and learning from, Mother Nature always works … as my plantsman-tutor used to say, “the plant hasn’t read the book” 😊.
There are lots of different native oxygenators, not just the usual hornwort. Look for things like water violet, water crowsfoot, water starwort, and hairgrass as well the hornwort.
The floating and rooted plants are good too as well as those for round the edge. They provide places for critters to lay eggs – you may be lucky and the the long strings of black pearls that are toad-spawn, as well as dragon and damselfly larvae, and water beetles. Think about water lilies – yes, there are lovely native ones too – and bogbean, brooklime and flowering rush, bistort, saggitaria and marsh marigold.
Wild Plant nurseries I use
https://www.facebook.com/PetertheBeeand1/ – local to Worcestershire and the West Midlands
https://www.growwilder.co.uk/ – a local-to-Bristol community project
https://www.habitataid.co.uk – seem good but I’ve not used them as yet
And always hunt out the plant fairs, and the local markets and fairs. Many people who go to these are good folk, sourcing their plants ethically, and good knowledgeable growers too. Again, you’re supporting communities, helping real, ordinary people like us, and not putting money into the pockets of big corporations.
My next Open Garden is on Sunday 24th July from 2-4.30pm, email me for more details at grymalkyn009@gmail.com
If you’d like advice and help with your wildlife garden do contact me, and you could also join the Nature Gardens Club., run by fellow Team Member Nancy Lowe. We all meet and chat regularly, and visit each other’s gardens too.
