Creating a wildflower walk

15 years ago

I was thinking of convert the above path into a wildflower walk. Currently, the trees are rather dense, so very little light falls on a some sections, this is why there is no grass. the other parts are less shaded. The left side is actually a wetland area and can get flooded, though the water rarely if ever each the retaining wall. The wall faces the house.

I was thinking of growing some flowers next to the wall. If they are tall enough they will poke up above the wall. Here's what I was thinking of growing down the path. Note they are all Illinois natives:

Beebalms

Swamp Milkweed

Cardinal Flower

Great Blue Lobelia

Turtlehead

Woodland Aster

Bleeding Hearts

Columbine

Canada Lilies

Turkcap Lilies

Ferns

Filling that area with that many plants is going to be expensive, can one do this by seed? Any idea how to do it?

Paul

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
my soil conservation office ... besides selling trees and conifers.. I THINK .. sold a wildflower seed mix ...

check out the link.. find the state site.. then find your county office..

that said.. many wildflowers are full sun .... so watch out for that.. the mere fact.. that the most invasive weed on the face of the earth.. grass... wont grow there.. ought to tell you something from the get go ....

i think gardens alive used to sell mix.. some organic type outfit .. but i dont see it on their site ... just google wildflower seeds .. there is a copy/paste for you at the bottom

you will want to do it by seed .... you can lightly till.. or break the soil.. and then seed it.. and put down straw.. and basicaly let it go to town ...

many such projects require that you mow it all down in late fall.. to redistruibute the seed produced ...

ken

http://www.google.com/search?q=wildflower+seed&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Here is a link that might be useful: link
paulsiu
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes, nothing grows there because it's really, really dim. My plan is to cut off the lower branches of the trees to let light in. Besides, they're low enough that I can't walk under them.

I thought of wild flower mix but was trying to restrict what gets grown there. A lot of wild flower mix contain non-natives.

I already started to amend the area by chopping up the leaves in the area (a lot) and layering on some compost. The areas is not short on earthworms. If you put a terracotta flower pot on the path and then remove it the next day, there's usually a lot of worms underneath (The problem is that the Raccoons figured this out one day and keep turning over my plants). This seemed to indicate the soil may not be too bad.

Paul
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flora_uk
15 years ago
I see spring ephemerals there before the trees leaf out. Here it would be bluebells, wood anemones and primroses. Don't know what would be native in your area. Trilliums?? Sanguinaria? And ferns would look good too.
dandy_line (Z3b N Cent Mn)
15 years ago
Is that the hated Buckthorn I see there in the left? Even if it isn't, you could easily remove some that under growth over there to provide some sun. Now, for some fun stuff in the wet spot:
Joe Pye weed, Queen-of-the-Prairie, Boltonia, New England Aster, Blue Flag Iris, Rudbeckia triloba/subtomentosa/maxima/fulgida/, Hibiscus+++, Cup Plant, Button Bush, (and probably more).
All of these(except Queen-of-the-Prairie) can be grown from seed very easily. Check around on the Seed swap forum for seeds from members. Or help out the folks trying to make a living on seeds and buy some.
paulsiu
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi, I don't know if it's a buckthorn. I thought those things were not that large. In any case, it is not on my property so I can't do anything to it. I just cut stuff when it reaches into my property.

Oddly, I planted Queen of the Prairie last year, but it flooded and killed off the plant. Joe Pye weed is a bit too tall :-). Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if I can research those plants and where to find the seeds.

Paul