Review - Increase diversity of plants for wildlife
Increase diversity of plants for wildlife
Rating: 7 out of 10
Positives
Top left Germander speedwell. Top right Lady’s bedstraw. Bottom left Yellow rattle. Bottom right Ox eye daisy
The wildflower garden was mostly a success. However, as I mainly sowed perennials, which can take two years to really get going, I don’t think we’ll get the full impact until this year. So, whereas it was great to see all the flowers that came up, I am hoping for more. To that end, I have planted around 400 crocus’ and 100 sweet smelling daffodils in the first two sections of the wildflower area. As we live in the highlands, nothing really gets going (from the wildflowers I have sown) until about the end of May. The bulbs will hopefully give some colour to the area early spring and then die back when the wildflowers really start to come through. If it looks great, then I will expand the bulb planting to a further two sections of the wildflower area each year going forward.
Top left Harebell. Top right Northern marsh orchid. Bottom left White clover. Bottom right Bird’s-foot trefoil
The maintenance of the lawned areas of the grounds were also changed this year, so that they were only mowed once a month. This lead to an unbelievable number of native plants coming through, which simply would not have had the chance to flower with the previous mowing regime. A real surprising win and I am hoping for more this year.
Top left Cinquefoil. Top right Delphinium. Bottom left Hellebore. Bottom left Allium ‘Purple sensation’
The big border at the front of the house was also regenerated. It was previously covered with Cinquefoil, which is a good workhorse and flowers continually from late spring to mid autumn. Cinquefoil however, looks terrible in winter and the area had turned into a kind of….meh….monoculture. So I completely removed some of the shrubs and others I cut back to tame and shape them. Surprisingly, an incredible amount of Daffodils and Muscari were there just waiting to come up. Not sure how they had all survived there so long without any real light, but to my joy, they had. I added some Hellebores, which wrapped up the early colour for the border. For the summer interest, I still had the Cinquefoil, which does always deliver on colour but I added lots of Alliums and some Delphiniums. Even to me, with my colour blind dog vision, the Delphiniums were stunning. I managed to collect seed from them last autumn and I am happy to say the little seedlings are all sprouted and waiting to grow on come spring. I have not fully settled on this seasons layout idea, but I think I want to cut the Cinquefoil back a little more, plant a swathe of Delphiniums at the back of the border and plant maybe some more Hellebores towards the front. Again, I still haven’t worked out 100% what I am going to do yet.
Top left Wild garlic. Top right Snake’s head fritillary. Bottom left Whitebells. Bottom right Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’
The bulbs planted in the cleared forest area, were……ok. We had some of them all come up, but nothing too wow!! Although, I have always thought, the second year after bulbs have been planted is when they properly come out. Hopefully this year there will be more that come up in the spring, the aim is to clear a bit more of this section of Rhododendrons and then come Autumn I will plant some more of the Wild Garlic, Bluebells, Snake’s head fritillaries and Winter aconites to complement what I have already there.
Negatives
We have lots more borders that have not been restored yet, which can and will add a heck of a lot of diversity in flower structure and scent. The borders are high on the agenda for this year and as soon as the ground thaws I will be getting on with them straight away. The seedlings to be planted are either waiting to be sown next month or sat in the greenhouse already, waiting to be potted on. As I am colour blind, I find it very difficult matching different plants to go together based on their colours. I was getting myself all mixed up, then had the realisation I am doing this for myself and Lawrence (and a little bit for the pups too), so really it’s for our enjoyment. If the colours aren’t perfectly matched, then so what? With this in mind, I am planning the beds with more of a block colour layout, with the addition of whites, as it goes with everything. Then I can just mess around with the different hues with the main emphasis being the plant structure and scent. And thus the colour blind garden was created haha.
