Wild Flowers?

For a little while, I have pondered that it would be nice to have some wild flowers in the field, the problem is, on dense grassland, it would take considerable effort to remove the grass (and prevent it growing back) in order to sow new wild flower seed. It probably needs a plough (or some stubborn digging). 

Then I thought, wait, there are 3 patches of bare earth from work that was done in recent weeks that would be ideal, the bare patches have grass seed on them, but a good wiggling around with a hoe should disturb the grass seed enough to then sow some nicer ground cover. 

Armed with a huge box of named brand "Easy WildFlowers" I set off to the field to have a go.

Branded seed (granules as it turned out)

I don't want to take all the credit for the flowers - I had help

The first target area were the scars left by the wall repairs on the upper boundary of the field. Both above and below the wall lay bare soil - with the beginnings of grass coming through from the grass seed put down by the wall builders as they finished (nice of them to do that - I wished I had thought in time and told them not to worry). The granule seed was weird to use as it just looked like small pea sized bits of clay. It was impossible to know if any seed lurked within and what seed it was exactly. I guess I have to trust that it does contain something. 

The granule approach also meant that the box full didn't last that long once I set about spreading. I thought I had a lifetimes worth of wild flower seed - I really didn't. There was enough for this time around though. 

The second site for sowing was Mongo's Hole - the mark left behind when the mining authority came to investigate a sink hole (see Mongo's Hole). 

The grass seed on Mongo's Hole was past the point of being easily removed with a hoe, it was still patchy enough that I think the flowers should take over from the grass in spring, but it wasn't as bare as I would have liked. Let's see. It should make a nice colourful patch next year all being well and clay granules permitting. 

Since using up the box of granules, I have shopped around on eBay and now have some more standard wildflower seed for about the same price, but 5% the package size. It recommends spreading this seed at only 2-3 grams per square meter though - so a little really does go a long way. It will be interesting to see which works best - I have a parking space that I intend to move slightly on the drive way, which will leave another bare patch of earth, so I should be able to plant a little more before springtime and compare results. 

I will post pictures next year of the outcome of both experiments.