As you can see here, you do not need a vast expanse
of ground to grow the flowers that thrive in wild places.
 This
my front garden - a typically sized suburban front lawn, but as you can see, alive with flowers.
The secret is in managing your plot to allow the natural wild
flowers and so-called "weeds" to grow as they would in the
wild. If you look at natural meadows that are bursting with flowers,
you will notice that, where the grass is grazed, the small low-lying
flowers have a chance to show their heads. Daisies, clover, birdsfoot
trefoil, to name just a few, are all short nectar-rich flowers easily
swamped by long grass.
In urban gardens, however, it is all too easy to scalp a lawn
to such an extent that only grass will grow. If you are prepared to
withstand the "tutting" of disapproving neighbours, simply
by setting your mower to cut longer and to mow less frequently will
reap rich rewards.
In my case, my front lawn is to the north of my house and
is on a poor clay soil, so in the early days, I found it impossible
grow a rich green lawn - only moss and spindly streaks of grass. I then
decided to manage the lawn to allow nature a chance to populate it with
flowers.
The first step is to decide whether you have poor soil or rich soil.
If you have poor soil and the grass is not lush, you need
to do very little else as the flowers will be allowed to colonise and
will not be out-competed by the grass. When you start to mow in the
spring, set your mower to its highest setting so you don't scalp the
grass and equally don't behead any embryonic flower buds.
Mow about once a fortnight during March and April (in the
northern hemisphere - it's upside down in the antipodes of course) and
then less frequently. If you see flowers appearing, simply mow round
them. These picures (from the index page) were taken in June 2009
By the end of July early August the birdsfoot trefoil had mainly turned
to seed and buttercups were over. So my mowing was as follows:
As there are still a few bumblebees and honey bees foraging, I leave
tufts of flowers, including the solitary orange hawkweed in the foreground,
but mow fairly short around the rest of the lawn. This will hopefully
encourage shorter wildflower species like clover and selfheal to flower
again. As Autumn draws in, I mow as neccessary to keep the lawn tidy.
By then, all the wildflower seeds will have fallen to the ground, ready
to come to life again in the spring.
If you have rich soil, the grass will grow quickly and swamp
the wildflowers, so you need to thin the grass out. Planting Yellow
Rattle in the lawn will thin the grass and make it less vigorous as
it is a parasitic plant, taking sustenance from the grass itself.
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