The Wildflower Garden – an inexpensive garden project

Welcome everyone, I have another garden update to share with you all today. The second half of my birthday present and one which I have high hopes for. It’s got to be one of the most inexpensive garden projects we have tackled to date and one I am extremely hopeful will fill our home with pops of colour throughout the late summer months. I say late summer since currently I am sat looking at bare earth with a complicated bird scaring contraption all over it. Yet whilst it looks somewhat barren now, I am dreaming of cheerful cosmos, pom-pom like cornflowers and poppies. Tons of billowing poppies. I am of course talking about my Wildflower Garden cum cutting garden, do join me to see its creation…

The area we chose for the wildflower garden is directly outside Belle’s. My daydreams involve me writing short stories for the blog, with nothing but the sound of the birds chirping and bees buzzing all around. And again rather like my vegetable garden you read about last week, this is a project we have tried once before. This was the wildflower patch we had in our previous home.

It began simply with a patch of bare earth and a packet of seeds in its first year. And in subsequent years the area was left to self seed and gaps filled overtime. Salvaged Victorian border tiles were added and the occasional plug plant was planted, though not many since the soil was not particularly deep or well looked after. And each summertime this wildflower garden was a riot of colour. It became a wonderful small cutting garden to fill countless jam jars and buckets with colourful blooms in the rooms of my home and the homes of my friends.

And so to this home and my huge desire to create much of the same. When we previously turfed the back garden, we deliberately left this patch alone, hoping the wildflower garden would sit here. The photos below show on the left, a patch of grass left untouched last summer, (complete with The Spotty One) and on the right, a view from inside Belle’s and down through the garden. Naturally wild already; seriously lacking riotous colour though.

Mr M set to one wet day earlier this year, painstakingly digging over this scruffy piece of the garden. It took him a couple of days to turn the ground over and I joined in at the end with the hand trowel for a final weed until it looked like this…

However we designed the wildflower garden, we were left with a large unattractive drain cover right in the middle. I do love a challenge although this one is possibly not the easiest to overcome since access to the drain, may at some point be needed. We are optimistically hoping the eventual height of the meadow flowers will over shadow the grey of the drain cover. I further dream of a cool summer breeze wafting delicate scabious and nigella and thus obliterating the drains presence fully. Failing that, a bird bath or some such stone object will be artfully placed there. In short, we can worry about that later. For now, meadow flowers in the wildflower garden is the goal. The next job after digging and weeding was to lay a sheet of weed suppressant and which was cut in situ. Once cut, the fabric is tucked under itself thus creating a neat edge which in time will be covered by lawn and  meadow flowers.

Originally we liked the idea of fencing Belle and her wildflower garden from the main lawned area. Since then we’ve decided to let one aspect of the garden flow into another.  Master M was tasked with creating and laying the path with an array of rocks excavated from the garden during last years work to create that ‘flow’.

Next, two wheel barrows were loaded with top soil in the front garden, transported into the back garden and the boys spent an hour or so filling and tipping whilst I spread the load with a rake. I thought I did a good job: Mr M wasn’t so sure and so he leveled it off. “Properly” he said.

Last year we had several very over grown oak trees which needed crowning; you can read about that here if you like. We used the chippings left over from then as our path. This time I was allowed to use the wheelbarrow and lay the chippings. And when I had finished this job Mr M didn’t re-do it. I’m clearly improving.

All that remained was to sow the seed and scatter. Which I did, mixing it first with sand to help see where it settled. This seed box was our choice last time and since we enjoyed those results, we went for the same again. There are many to choose from to custom make your own patch of course. And our very elaborate bird deterrent made with free CD’s from Sunday newspapers back in the day, together with string and garden stakes appears to be working. Although I have noticed a cheeky robin visiting from time to time.

It might not be the most attractive view down the garden for now; it makes my heart sing though to imagine how it will look very soon. And at the very beginning of this post I mentioned this latest garden project was fairly inexpensive. Our only outlay was the top soil and seed; all remaining materials were recycled or we made good use of what we already had. We calculated the cost to be a grand total of £25. Not a bad return on investment if I fill the home with meadow flowers in summer and autumn and I spend my blogging days looking out on a wildflower landscape.

To tide me over until then, I’ve filled a few pots, vintage and new with sweet-smelling lavender and red-hot geranium and I continue to daydream in colour.

I’m looking forward to many a bee searching for vital pollen whilst hover flies, dragon flies and all manner of beautiful insects buzz and settle. And in my daydream I can see a swarm of butterflies and dainty ladybirds resting a while in the hot summer colours. And with a bit of lady luck, sunshine and the hosepipe, it might not be too long before my daydream comes true. I’ll keep you posted. For now though, have a lovely week and long may this wonderful current sunshine continue to grow all our gardens x