Sick of my lawn

John_Rambo

Hi everyone. I am sick of my lawn and would like to entice more insects, moths and butterflies in to the garden. Does any one have any info on an alternative, native, wild flower, meadow type of things? Anyone go down that route, is it easy to manage?

Thanks in advance.

Traonach

John_Rambo wrote: »

Hi everyone. I am sick of my lawn and would like to entice more insects, moths and butterflies in to the garden. Does any one have any info on an alternative, native, wild flower, meadow type of things? Anyone go down that route, is it easy to manage?

Thanks in advance.

This is a good website to source native irish wildflower seeds:
http://www.wildflowers.ie/mixes/ec/ec09.htm

It would be a bit late to sow now though and you would have to wait until next year. Wildflowers generally thrive on soils that are nutrient poor. They don't grow well on fertilized ground (they suffer from competition from more vigourous growing grasses).

You would have to put weed killer on the lawn to destroy the existing grasses first. I have ponds in garden so I wasn't able to do this, so I removed a depth of 10 cm of topsoil from the lawn. Removing topsoil also reduced the amounts of nutrient in the soil. Then just till the ground at bit and scatter you seeds.

I cut my wildflowers once a year in the spring. This is essential to stop the meadow getting to rank.

Mothman

I put crocuses in my wild flower meadow for a great show from mid Jan to mid Mar which the Bumble Bees love.
When they finish flowering the leaves are not very obvious (not like daffodils). Bulbs need their leaves left to replenish bulbs so the crocuses manage fine as I only cut the meadow once in the Autumn.

bamboozle

the bush the buddleia davadii is (i'm told) the best shrub/bush for attracting butterlflies, i planted 3 last autumn so waiting now to see the results

lavander is also great for attracting bees and butterflies

Rinker

John_Rambo wrote: »

Hi everyone. I am sick of my lawn and would like to entice more insects, moths and butterflies in to the garden. Does any one have any info on an alternative, native, wild flower, meadow type of things? Anyone go down that route, is it easy to manage?

Thanks in advance.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056168885 has great pics and details of wildlife friendly gardens.

John_Rambo

Thanks so much all of you. Great food for thought there, much appreciated.