wildflower slope

as I have recently posted about the Alder terrace and then Alder garden, walking around my garden you would next come to the wildflower slope so I thought it natural to talk about that next, during these winter months I thought I would post on my blog about the different areas of my garden to help me sort them out, look at what I have managed and to think about what next,

one of the first ideas I had when I moved here was that on the little grassy slope on the west side of the garden (so faces east) I would transplant some of the many primroses, Primula vulgaris the common native primrose, on the slope and make a lovely primrose slope, this soon turned to the idea for a wildflower slope, it has been a long time coming but last year I felt I had finally made a break through,

when I started the slope was thick with grass and moss which is full of grass roots, not the nice moss some collect for moss gardens but a thick padded moss which feels like standing on many duvets, I raked it off, transplanted primrose and selfheal, added a few daffodils, some of the primroses coped the daffodils grew but the selfheal never seemed to grow, I had bought a pink yarrow, which became a thug in my front garden so I moved some here it never showed it’s self, I don’t have any photos before 2006 and then only one, this is 4 years after I moved here,
May 2006

I became disheartened and apart from cutting the grass and raking the moss off didn’t do much for a few years,
May 2010 not much different,

in 2010 I made a great effort to get rid of as much as I could of the tough grass and moss, I had used some yellow rattle seed in autumn 2009, yellow rattle needs to be chilled before it will grow, despite the cold winter 2009/10 the yellow rattle didn’t grow I put more down in autumn 2010 and saw just 1 flower in 2011, in the autumn of 2010 I planted a few more daffodils but didn’t get the long planned river of daffodils planted,
a year ago in the good weather of February 2011 I transplanted some roseroot,

orange hawkweed/fox and cubs

and ribwort plantain,

May 2011

late June 2011 at last it seemed to be taking shape and there were even some nice grasses growing and lots of hawkweed, I like hawkweed it is like delicate yellow buttons swaying in the breeze,

but look I spotted some selfheal

and look a small pink yarrow flower, could those poor plants have been stuck under the moss and tough grass struggling to break through, I was/am thrilled,

also for the first time there were some nice flowering grasses

and this lovely little grass? rush? sedge? I don’t know what it is but the first time I saw it in one part of my garden I just loved it, it is quite small only about 6-8 inches tall (15-20 centimetres to those on new money) and has these lovely little bunches of ?flowers?fruits?seeds? I am soooo pleased it has appeared on the wildflower slope and hope it is here to stay,

in autumn 2011 I finally got the river of daffodils planted, I didn’t remove the already planted daffs but feel that’s fine for this spring as the river daffs were all small so many will need to fatten up before they reach flowering size, I hope to remove the daffs not part of the river when they finish flowering this year,
I also planted 2 helleborus foetidus, looking at the plant on the right made me realise just how much it has grown since planting, the flowers have developed,

my plans for this year are to move from other areas of the garden and plant here some oxeye daisies, betony, white yarrow, cowslips and if I can find where they are some red clover which grows wild in areas of my garden,

©Copyright 2011 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.