Wildflower Gardening
Question:
Every year I spend hundreds of pounds on my garden, and every year everything dies. I would like a wild flower garden, that will attract butterflies and bees, I have loads of elderberry trees behind my back fence, which hang over into my garden (which I like) they attract the birds, I would also like to put up some bird boxes. I would also like to grow my own vegetables and fruit.
Answer:
If you plants keep dying then I would normally suggest soil improvement. However if you wish to have a wild flower garden then a poor, less fertile soil is needed. Here are a couple of links to articles from the RHS about starting a wildflower meadow and maintaining it going forward.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/wildflower_meadow.asp
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/wildflower.asp
I see you are from Liverpool. The National Wildflower Centre is Court Hey Park, Roby Road, L16 3NA not far from junction 4 of the M62. Here you can find everything you want to about wildflowers and even buy plants and seeds. The website is http://www.nwc.org.uk/
I have also found a company which sells Wildflower turf http://www.wildflowerturf.co.uk/ an easy and quick way to get a wildflower meadow.
The elderberry trees sound great and will indeed attract lots of birds and the flowers will attract butterflies. There are lots of different types of bird boxes you can put up to attract different types of birds so place a variety of styles in sheltered positions around the garden to attract the largest range of birds.
As for the vegetables and fruit. I would suggest building or buying a few raised beds and filling them with good quality compost mixed with well rotted manure. Place them in a sunny position where you can get to them easily. Your wild flowers could be planted around them so that you don't loose too much ground.
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