GO WILD IN THE GARDEN

What?

We want everyone to manage an area of their garden, big or small, for wildlife by either planting wildflowers or leaving an unmown patch - you might be surprised by what comes up!

Why not extend this to the verge outside your home if you have one? Shipton under Wychwood Parish Council is actively encouraging this but please check with your local PC to see what their policy is.

Rewilding doesn't need to look a mess - it can be a beautiful way to protect and connect with nature.

Why?

Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world:

We’ve lost approximately 97% of our species rich meadows since the 1930’s and with them, the vital foods needed by pollinators.
One third of our bumblebees are now under threat of extinction.
70% of butterfly species have seen a decline since the 1970’s.

Planting native wildflowers will provide food for pollinators like bees and butterflies, as well as other insects. It will also provide food and cover for birds and small mammals. And on top of that, it will look far more interesting and colourful than a boring monoculture of grass - lawns are so last year!

How?

Sow some wildflower seeds in an area of your garden or in the verge outside your house.
Follow No May May and leave at least a part of your grass unmown. Better still, extend it to June and July rather than just chopping down what you've allowed to flourish. Many seeds can lie dormant for years so you never know what will come up.
Mown paths through an area of longer grass can look fab. Less mowing to do too!
Leave a corner of your garden to grow wild to encourage insect life (essential for swifts and hedgehogs) and provide food and shelter for wildlife.
We often give out wildflower seeds at our talks or you can get a good selection at Groves in Milton.

Where and when?

The bigger the better but even a small patch of your garden can make a huge difference to nature.

You can also adopt a suitable verge outside your house but do make sure it won’t affect visibility on junctions or block pavements when the plants grow.

Wildflower seeds are best planted either in autumn or spring. They prefer non-fertile ground so there's no need to fertilise, however you will need to clear the ground of grass as this competes with the flowers. Yellow rattle also helps keep grass at bay.

Wildflower verges

We found 48 different wildflowers in the verges in Shipton this summer after leaving some areas unmown.

Here's just a small selection.

It's easy to sow seeds

Clear the patch of all grass and weeds by hand (no Round-Up/glyphosate please!) and get a fine tilth in the soil. Press it down a bit. Mix the seeds with little sharp sand or dry earth to make distributing the very tiny seeds easier. Tread them in lightly but careful not to smother them in soil. If it’s very dry you can water them. Then wait and let nature do the rest. Hopefully you’ll have lovely summer display but be patient as some plants may take a year or more to appear!

After flowering and when the seeds have fallen (Sept/Oct) cut the plants back and remove the cuttings. This is important to stop the soil becoming more fertile.

Wildflowers prefer poor soils so there's no fertilising necessary. Yellow rattle is a good plant to add as it suppresses competing grasses to allow the wildflowers to grow