What’s the best way to deal with my wildflower border now it’s finished blooming? Do I leave it completely untouched and let it die back to ground level (if it does?) pull everything up, or just cut everything back? Any advice is welcome 🥰
by Snoo81935
10 Comments
Cut it all back, and rake out what comes off. Weed out thistles, nettles, etc. while you can see them.
Wildflowers like poor soil, so you are simply preventing natural compost from forming and nourishing the ground.
It also gives more light to the seeds & seedlings that are now waiting to make you smile next summer.
Leave it for now, tidy it up in spring. It’s providing a winter home to all the bugs and insects it fed over the summer.
Depends what you want aesthetically!
We have wildflower mixed into our beds (mainly foxglove, red campion, cornflower, poppies, mallows) and do a mix, e.g.
During the season – deadhead those that benefit ( mallow, sometimes foxglove), collect seeds for next year, leave some dead stalks for insects
We also dump other dead stalks in a dedicated ‘winter pile’ of twigs under a hedge – bonus insect/hedgehog hideout + chance of more wildflowers in a shady spot! So far we’ve managed to get marigold, foxgloves, feverfew and some others to take hold!
You could lay a few rows of rustic red brick (double skin) along that path.
Collect as many seed heads as you can find and harvest the seeds for next year store in paper bags or small envelopes and label them with the name of each plant on the front
Didn’t tidy your garden – so many insects need the plants and cover to live. Sow some fresh seed on the spring.
Leave it be, it’s such an important little ecosystem for so many insects right now 💜
Oh my God will you tell us how you did this it’s amazing
I’ve just cleared my front garden beds but only because I’m planting a huge tulip display this year for next spring 🥰
My back garden jungle however now looks like a brown sludgy wasteland and will stay that way till spring for the bugs, birds, hedgehogs et al
It’s a good idea to leave it for the wildlife, as much as you can bear the untidiness. Then late winter clear off the dead stuff before it all breaks down. Wildflowers prefer soil that is low in nutrients. I did this this year and got a lovely wildflower patch without sowing any fresh seed.