Forum home Wildlife gardening
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Wildflower meadow next to pond

Hi everyone,

I'm still attempting to finalise what is going to be planted around the edge of the pond. I think I've settled for mostly evergreens (ferns, bergenias, carex evergold) to provide shelter for creatures, and the odd creeping thyme too.

At the front of the pond we've currently got a bare patch of soil where I initially dug it out as part of the flowerbeds. We then decided against having the flowerbed going in front of the pond and attempted to level it back. Our plan was to then sow grass seed there and let the grass grow long around the edge of the pond.

image

I've always been keen on having a wildflower meadow area but we have a relatively small garden so the idea got shelved. What we're now wondering is about creating a mini bank that slopes down from the rocks surrounding the pond (front edge only) were we can sow a mini wildflower meadow. My question is would this be successful for quite a narrow strip of area?

The second best option I guess would be to plant wildflower plug plants of a few varieties only, but I know that it is the meadow grasses that are very beneficial to the wildlife so I prefer the meadow approach.

Lucid image

Posts

  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,511

    Wildflower meadows need to be kept long and not mown until at least July or August if you want the flowers.  It depends whether or not you can live with that. 

    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • LucidLucid Posts: 387
    Thanks Redwing. Yes I do have in mind we'd have to keep it long and uncut but I think that's what makes it so good for insects and caterpillars. My partner isn't very keen on having a strip of very tall grass and flowers though, and I have a feeling this would get quite tall. As much as I'd like to have a mini meadow bank, I'm not sure it'd look right there - or if it's enough of an area to get a good mix of grasses and flowers.



    Maybe I'm better revisiting the idea of keeping the grass un-mown there and incorporating some wildflowers in to the beds.



    Lucid image
Sign In or Register to comment.