There is a way, a route to the final destination that all good gardeners follow. No matter the project or how you think you’ll approach it.
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1. Where to Start Growing Wildflowers. An example Picker aims to broaden your skills, develop ecological garden thought processes encourage routes to direct action.
We say for beginners, start small. usually near the house to get going and familiar, so you can observe them and learn that they behalf very differently to cultivated species. Start in place where you eventually wish to grow other plants for wildflowers will enrich your soil by its roots capturing carbon an attracting biological life to the soil. By starting near the house, on poor soil that need enriching, your already making a garden, for all garden start with seed and propagation beds. and small wildflower plots can be transplanted out into larger areas later on. Anyway, globally we are all acting by starting near where we are most often, so that we re-connect to nature.
Take a window box for example, that’s a small space to grow, even in a tiny space there are considerations, we want to get the window box looking great, don’t we? Showing off the best flora has to offer. We want flora to speak loudest for itself, free to bloom, free to seed.
Picker is about fully explaining all considerations, so that there is no more ‘chatter’ so that direct actions can follow, no more Talk, the web says it all already, we are providing the means, Act now, do whats right for the plant and planet, big or small, Do it by growing great wildflowers, were not asking, we have succeeded like no others on the planet, so were Telling.
Lets move on, in the opening example, having at this stage, got rid of those who simply think its too much trouble…and they are.
Back to our example of Window boxes! The big questions are well known by now, Is the window box made from sustainable materials, will it be re-usable after it’s end-life, such larger considerations also depend on the micro conditions described below.
Do you think growing wildflowers in window boxes is a good idea? Scarycrow says probably not unless the context / environment is screaming out for wildflower window boxes.
Is the window box secured, what will be used to secure it, what material, does it match!, does the box allow access and regress from the window. Will it block sunlight, will rain ‘run-off’ stain expensive stonework below. All these and more, never mind what will grow and what compost medium to grow in. Will the flora fall over, need stalking, can i reach it to dead head, if not the flowers will fad fast.
As you see, for us, it’s more than just hopefully scattering seeds, we want them to grow, and that simply means the right plant in the right place and that is all sustainable in the long-term. Both effecting Climate and biodiversity crisis at once.
For every ‘lazy failure’ gets wildflowers a bad name, and our great name insists you do them justice. Indeed we even believe plants have rights, don’t you? As you read this, Scarycrow, takes you on a journey that’s standing up for well grown ecologies, not hopeful failures. Please, Pretty Please, lets get this right, there are far too many half-baked attempts. Far too much mis-information, we blame, lazy journalism and dishonest wildflower sellers. Picker attempts to micro examine every aspect of Horticulture and gardening, all spaces, to pin point your exact conditions and hopefully provide great ‘groundbreaking’ advice and support.
If we really care to get it perfect, we would consider is the window box a fire hazard, especially when flowering is over, will birds, insects or other visitors become a negative issue, maybe beside a door or open window.
Then, There is the Flowers Themselves, Wildflowers don’t flower all summer, like their cousins the ‘Cultivated/bred’ plants, also unlike commercial species of flora, most wildflowers don’t want fertility, nor regular watering, many don’t bloom for long at all, I suppose that’s why they are best in long flowering meadows, where flush after flush of flora arrives each year and over the years the meadows completely change from one ecology to another far more stable ecosystem.
Picker, answers deep questions, examining all the possibilities, it’s a process we hope you will adopt.
What Growing medium should be used for window boxes is another important aspect to thin about.
Using ‘Filters and Search on this site will find plants suitable for all types of soil conditions.
If using single material in you compost such as all ‘Sand’ mix the material with lots of water retentive materials, as many seaside and alpine species love lots of water in deep well drained sands and grit and hate fertility, where as Annuals love fertility, an.but grow to much leaf material.
- Modern Composts often stain walls and sills when the rain washes the soil out the drainage holes
- Most compost contains weed seeds, even if sterilized or heat treated
- A bunch of wildflower species like particular conditions, mostly very difficult to recreate in a window box, You may say your re-wildling your window box, but your likely ‘delusional’ and not going to do justice to Ireland’s precious native wild-flora, we suggest buying something else, like Petunias, they attract bumblebees and flower all summer.
- Pick the species or start with the soil type your going to use, either way they must match, or simply the results will be poor or haphazard.
- Allow for seasonal changes, Wildflowers are seasonal, so too should be your window boxes, Plan in advance, pre-grow potted versions in your nursery area, when large and flowering, pot these into the window box, this will save months and months of waiting for them to grow and flower.
- If sowing a seed mixture in window boxes, all at once in normal un-riched soil, please don’t just use basic soil or clay, add some fibrous organic materials, except untreated/unheated bark much. It help conserve moisture ans aerate the soil.
- Ideally find out about the ecology that the flowers grow on and re-create a mini flora trying to match the plants natural conditions, and then adopting them to your site,
Picker, your journey through our garden of the mind starts here….