WILDFLOWER GARDEN OR WEED PATCH?

Posted on Monday, April 26, 2010 by admin in Wild Flowers
Tags: Garden, WEED PATCH, WILDFLOWER

Summer is definitely over and all the gardens are pretty well put to bed, the leaves are raked and even the grass is taking a break. There’s a nice sense of closure you get at the end of another gardening season. Too bad it doesn’t last very long. I’ve yet to met a gardener who isn’t planning next year’s space while raking up this year’s debris.

For several years now I have wanted a wildflower garden. I suppose this is no accident, since it’s been several years now that seed companies have been promoting their instant wildflower gardens in a can, sack or roll. My efforts to date have not met with much success. I’m not naive enough to think I could simply scatter some seeds and I would have a self-sowing meadow of bluebells and lacecaps, but I am dismayed to hear that starting a wildflower garden is often more work than putting in a perennial border and it is not necessarily self-perpetuating. If these plants are truly wild, (weeds, to most highway maintenance crews), why must I coddle and coax them out of the ground?

I’ve been looking into what is technically considered a wildflower garden and how can I get one established that will continue to self-sow, without becoming too invasive. Not too much to ask, I think. According to my local Extension office, wildflowers are species of flowers that have shown themselves to be hardy and self-reproducing with little attention form the gardener.