Gardening advice

[wellinghall]

So one for rustica, bunn, helflaed, and anyone else who wants to chuck their twopenn'orth in.

Our garden is bordered by a shared driveway, with a low wall and fence in between. The drive is tarmac (although fairly old and broken tarmac), and the usual stuff (dandelions, grass, nettles, more dandelions) grows along the edges.

It struck me today that maybe I could get something more attractive to grow there. I'm not prepared to put in very much work to achieve this, and I certainly wouldn't be looking for a high success rate; but can anyone suggest any seeds that might work?

Thanks

Comments

[rustica.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, I probably would use weedkiller - but go sparingly with it or you may find that you have problems growing seeds in the soil for a while after. Use Round-up on stuff with deep roots. Spray it onto the leaves.

Having nettles is a good sign - it means you have nitrogen-rich soil. In layman's terms, this means things will grow well.

I would go for poppies... not so sure about the opium ones, particularly. (They can't be illegal, no matter what some people say, because you can buy the seeds from the Kew Gardens seed catalogue!) The only person I've known who grew opium poppies said they were nice for 1 day and then all the petals fell off! I would go for standard poppies in reds, oranges or pinks. Fancy striped ones and blue poppies will be harder to grow. In fact, blue poppies are very difficult indeed, so I would say "don't bother".

Bluebells are possible, but if you plant them you will never get rid of them, but on the plus side, they are hardy!

Wild mixed seed is a good idea.

I would also advocate cowslips, just because I am a big fan of them, and because they are very pretty and are endangered. They don't like growing in soil that has been treated, so your border sounds good for that :) but it would mean that you would have to be very sparing with the Roundup.

Some herbs can be very hardy, mint, oregano, etc. Could be useful...?

You are still in the right time of year for a lot of seeds, but you will run out of time within the next few weeks, particularly if you want to see results this year. So grab a few packets of some things that look pretty and throw them down and see what happens. Plus, most seed packets say on them how difficult the seeds will be to grow. Good luck!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I am told that opium poppies are unable to make opium in the Uk because it's too dark/rainy, so there are no legality problems : I've grown them for years. Also only the white ones are of the true 'opium' strain: red and pink ones don't make as much of the vital goo...

I find the art of getting a good display is to plant a bucketload of them: the flowers don't last long individually, but that way you can get a few weeks out of them. And I quite like the look of the pepperpots afterwards...

I am with you on blue meconopsis poppies: they are real gits. Lovely to look at, but my god, the hassle!