How do I create a flowering lawn?
In late winter or early spring use a lawn rake to scarify or scratch up the lawn, so you can see bare patches of soil. You can then sow a wildflower mix or individual species into the bare areas. 🌸🌼🌺
In spring you can sow plug plants or small pots of wildflowers into your lawn, planting into a localised area makes it easier to water the young plants if the weather turns dry.
If you’re starting a lawn from scratch it’s better to sow a flowering lawn mix rather than a plain mix of grasses species, offering diversity and nourishment, particularly to pollinators. 🌱🌼🌸
What can I expect to see?
Even regularly mown lawns provide a home to all kinds of wildlife. You might see frogs, newts or hedgehogs. 🐸🦔
Closer to the ground you’ll likely see - wood lice, spiders, ants, and beetles and just under the surface there are worms and insect larvae.🪱🐜🕷️🪲
Short grass is a magnet for insect-eating birds such as blackbirds, robins and song thrushes. 🐦⬛
By letting your lawn flowers bloom the wildflowers will encourage bees, while the seeds will offer food to hungry birds.
Top lawn wildflowers to encourage 🌸🌺🌼
Red Clover - you can’t miss their ‘trefoil’ leaves in the lawn. Red clover is the bigger and bolder of the clovers. Their nectar rich flowers appear from spring to autumn and attract a variety of bees from honey bees, bumble bees and carder bees.
White Clover - is as common as its red counterpart. Have you ever looked for a four leafed clover? They do actually exist - I’ve never found one though!😔
Like other clovers, it is a member of the pea family and is nitrogen rich, helping it to stay lush and green throughout dry spells.
Daisy - daisies are one of the most common and easy to grow wildflowers and you probably already have some in your lawn! They love shorter grass and often flower just below the mower height! Once referred to as ‘day’s eyes’ as their little flowers shine through the grass! Ever made daisy chains or played ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ picking off the petals until you get ‘an answer’! Hopefully the right one! 😂😍
Bird’s Foot Trefoil - it can be easy to miss until it blooms with its bright yellow flowers and red buds, sometimes being called ‘eggs and bacon’! It can be slower to establish but once you have it, it seeds and spreads readily, providing much needed nourishment to butterflies and bees.
Dandelion - often gets bad press from gardeners, with its deep tap roots it can be a nuisance to get rid of! 😖 However, it is much needed for wildlife, providing essential food for pollinators. Children love playing dandelion ‘clocks’ - counting the time as they blow the seeds off the dainty seed heads and watching them float away - ready to start another plant! 🌼
The above are some of the most common lawn wildflowers, if you want something a little more diverse try sowing a wildflower mix as describe at the beginning of the blog - you and the pollinators won’t be disappointed!