Rural Garden

Index- Wildflower Gardening Web Index
A Rural Wildflower Garden

'Create a country style not an urban copy'
In Ireland many rural gardens have ample space around the home. This should be used to create a rural feeling.
	Our rural houses usually have a spacious drive way and lots of surrounding lawn. Lawns can take hours to cut and maintain and require fertilizer. The aim of the wildlife gardener is to reduce the amount of lawn, keeping enough to provide a proper setting for the home and play space for the occupants.

Where few chemicals are used, lawns provide worms as an important food source for migrating birds of the Thrush family such as Fieldfares, Redwings, Song and Mistle Thrushes. Resident birds such as Wagtails, Pippets and Larks will also feed on a lawn throughout the year. In all cases, keep the grass regularly mowed to 2". Feed it only with organic fertilizers and if at all possible, discourage cats in the immediate vicinity.

The most appropriate place for wild flowers is between the lawn and the boundary plantings e.g. hedges and trees. You can decide the size and scale that's appropriate, however it is best to come off the lawn with a low growing mixture in proportion to the size of the lawn. Behind this can be medium and tall wild flowers.
The low growing mixture can be cut as lawn every 6 - 8 weeks. The effect will be to increase the overall size of your verdant green lawn while reducing maintenance dramatically. This will give you a beautiful Design By Nature Flowery mini-meadow.

DRIVEWAYS AND PATHS
An excellent idea for using wildflowers in the rural garden is to sow your driveways and pathways with wildflowers. Annuals such as poppy and Mayweed will compliment perennials such as Self-Heal and Marjoram.

"Dear Sandro, is there ever a time I shouldn't cut a meadow? "No you can cut a meadow anytime, even in full flower but never cut your meadow after three margaritas! alas you must never cut a meadow during the seedling establishment stage. Go to Growers Manual If you can, grow your wildflower meadows and sell the seeds back to Design By Nature. We harvest from "Set-a-Side, Pasture and Hay meadow". Wildflower production does not suit all farmers, please contact us for further advice.