Naturalizing with wildflowers

I am new to Dave's Garden and flower gardening. We have an open field behind our house. I attempted to naturalize a small strip this year. I was about 50% successful. One shady area was pretty bare. I am working with clay soil and harsh winters. How should I groom this area for winter and how do I control the weeds/grasses in the area that I have established?

I would try the native forum for a better answer on this one. Your local Ag Department (County) would be able to help to. Mitch

I would cut back the area and cover with black plastic (rolled bags work-then you can re-use. I have been somewhat successful in killing weeds that way-heat kills the weed seeds-this would set you back a season though. Also keeping the larger areas mowed very short will keep from re-seeding.
Depending on what you want to do, check with Ag Agent about anything that will kill pre-emergent weeds with little after problems.
I have some seeds that should be hardy in your shade area. Great blue lobelia likes damp shade. May want to consider some of the prairie grasses (blue stem etc-once they get started should push out the weeds.
Welcome to dg, visited your area a lifetime ago, lovely place.

Thank for taking the time to reply. We just moved here less than two years ago. We are loving it. I contacted the county last summer to inquire about how to improve our soil for flower gardening. This is an agricultural community. The county agent seemed uninterested in such a small project that yeilds flowers. I think I would have gotten a little more attention if it was a couple hundred acres of corn or beans. He referred me to a local landscape business. They were helpful as long as I was buying plants or supplements. I started my wild garden all with seeds. I got about 60% coverage. I had mostly Johnny jump ups, blue flax, daisy, poppies and black eyed susan. None of these did well in the shady. We did notice a lot more butterflies, bees and birds in that area. We can watch this garden from our dining area. I would be happy if there was less foxtail & other grasses intermixing and the shady area wasn't so bare. It was low maintence and high enjoyment.

KristaJoy --- for lots of helpful info and plants and seeds for a naturalized flowerbed using native plants checkout www.prairienursey.com (Prairie Nursery in Westfield, WI) and Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, MN (www.prairiemoon.com)

Yes, Krista, I think there are some tricks to naturalizing a meadow with flowers...I was just looking at some books from the library about natural gardens and it looks like it will be a fascinating project for you. Lot's of hints and strategies to get the "look" you want.

Please let us know what you find out.

Happy gardening. t.

I had some interesting luck with an old homemade square wooden sandbox left here by the previous owners & shaded by some large Osage Orange trees.

First thing I did was mix the playsand with a large amount of peat moss, horse manure compost, & potting mix. I then built a small platform of bricks & placed a cement pedestal birdbath on that. I planted some Salome & White Hood Daffodils, along with a sprinkling - lightly covered with soil - of one packet of seed mix that our Title Insurance Co. & stapled to our paperwork as a little "gift" - Burpees "Wildflowers for Shade", which included both annuals & perennials, along with an old stray packet of "Annuals for Shade". That was 8 years ago.

As of this past season, & in fairly dense/dappled shade, the daffodils are still coming up, along with quite a few Barlow-type (unspurred) Columbines that have formed a nice little colony, a wild Phlox/Rocket-type plant in brilliant pink that reseeds EVERYWHERE, some brilliant yellow Coreopsis (although these are weakening - too little sun for them), a small deep blue wild-type Morning Glory, & some type of pink-flowering vetch.

I've recently cut some of the Osage Orange branches back a bit to let in a bit more sun, & plan to revamp this cute little "wild bird area". Will plant some more Columbines, weed out some of the Phlox, & will do some more shade perennials along with another dose of seeding.

Last week-end I clipped almost everything to a 6" stubble. That should give the developing perinnals some sun and a chance to stretch. I will do some winter sowing soon. I am just going to sprinkle the seeds and cover it with a very thin layer of bagged soil in the areas that were a little bare. I hope I that many of the plants that I had this year will self seed or come from the root. I had a few too many Black Eyed Susans. I am going to try to find some phlox to plant in the shade. Do you know what kind of phlox you have? Once I sow my winter seeds, my gardening will done for this year. It is so much fun in the spring to go to the garden and see what surprises are there.

This message was edited Oct 26, 2005 1:51 PM

It was part of one of the mixes. Am not even sure it's a phlox, but that's what it looks/smells like. From what I understand it does grow wild all over the northeast/southeast. Plants run 3'-4' tall. Flowers are a brilliant pink. Seedpods are narrow & elongated - about an inch long. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that it's not Lunaria.

Oh - & it does very well in both shade & sun.

This message was edited Oct 25, 2005 5:35 PM