<img border="0" alt="[perplexed]" title="" src="graemlins/confused.gif" /> I have a beautiful forest on the edge of my property and I want to introduce wildflowers. I am not crazy about the recent articles involving all the work. Does anyone know an easy way to introduce wildflowers to these types of areas?

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I imagine you're not fond of digging beds and weeding, which is required to start a wildflower garden from seed. My guess is that you might choose some very hardy and invasive beauties and plant plants instead of seeds. Since you're on the edge of a woods, you may have to choose some that will tolerate some shade. What's your soil like?

Quite the contrary. I have numerous beds with plenty of weeds. The truth is, the wild flowers look so good in a natural setting but we get plenty of ticks so I want to stay away as much as possible . Soil is fairly good, lots of rocks , plenty of sunshine and water. Any ideas?

Hello BFVISION,

I watched a show on HGTV, they suggested burning the original site in a controled burn, to burn up any viable weed seeds on the dried flower stalks or top of the ground...(usually fall time I thought)
Then spread reasonably thick layers of wildflower seeds from it's container...

~~~~Some seeds come in a container with shredded up newspaper, which not only acts as a mulch to choke out any emerging weeds, *(gives the new seeds a head start because you block out the sun to those weed seeds.)
And it also acts as a agent that keeps the seeds moist *(which is very important to keep the seeds watered properly)

Does that sound reasonable to do...??

The only thing is they say to pick the seeds that are for your area, or else you may only get them for one season, because the aggressive local weed seeds will take over...


Here's a URL, to visit, about doing the seeds.
And a couple of places to visit. To get some seeds. Seed Mixes / Info on places to get seeds

Have you thought of which plants you wanted?
Or to look into the Northeast seeds???

Weezie

Burning a forest edge can cause a wildfire. Not a good idea. Wildflower mixes need sunny areas to grow. Edging a woods naturally takes lots of work and is very expensive unless you can find native plants locally and transplant some or get seeds. Even then a lot of transplanted natives just don't survive. I recommend hostas, ferns, spring flowering bulbs, and daylilies. All can be cheaply purchased, grow rapidly, and will look great while keeping weeds to a minimum. Most planting can be done while cool temps are keeping the majority of the tics dormant. Do NOT, ever, plant periwinkle, or perennial vinca. The stuff is invasive, smells horrible, and kills other (better looking) plants. And it has absolutely NO wildlife value. The hosta and daylily flowers provide nectar for hummingbirds and bees are attracted to spring flowering bulbs.

You are totally correct about perennial vinca. I have that stuff in my yard and it takes over fast. I'm constantly pulling it up. I didn't realize it had no value to wild life though. You're also right about fires. Our yard man set fire to a pile of leaves in our field, dug a trench around it, got a permit, left it for a few minutes and it burned out of control in a few minutes. A man was here painting our barn and called the fire depeartment or who knows what would have happened. It burned up to the road and peeled the top off the road.

Here is a wild flower link, I wish I could say "mention my name" and get a discount, I will go out on a limb here though and say that I can get 40% off the prices shown, and speakin Minnesotan here...They are "spendy" My friend is part of this company they are devoted to natural prairie restoration, just wish their prices were lower, I could probably find the time to help someone get a discount! Lots \'o\' pretty wild stuff!