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Autumn care of wildflower garden

16 years ago

Was on Prairie Garden forum, but that one has gotten little attention lately.

It's been a very iffy first summer for our wildflower garden. It seemed that the black-eyed susans and dotted mint are the only visible plants, and you can see nothing but orange from a distance. I was never able to get a handle on the crabgrass, which I'm sure is going to be even worse next year. The plants are beginning to die off already and I wonder what I should be doing to deal with the plants as they die off and what other things to prepare for next year. Should selectively I weed-whack, use the loppers on the dead plants one by one? Yank them out as they die? Attempt mowing? Wait until everything's dead? (it's starting to look awful. Again.) I'm pretty sure burning is illegal around here. Also, should we try to re-seed with more wildflower seeds now, in attempt to have a more varied garden next year?

Sorry so long, and thanks.

We used a mix from Prairie Nursery, by the way.

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Comments (2)

bob64
16 years ago
Not sure if your plants are dead or just going into dormancy. I would not uproot anything. Mowing will keep down tree saplings and reduce the height of some weeds. I would not mow down any of your flowers that still have green growth above ground. I would mow only after your plants are dormant. I think The first thing to do is to aggressively weed your garden. Crabgrass is a pain - if you can weed it out before it drops seed you can lessen the problem for the future. Wildflowers establish much slower than many other flowers and in the first year or so often have very little to see above ground so you might just be in the difficult waiting period. It's hard to know from here whether you need to do more seeding or just need to cross your fingers and see what happens.
laurpheus
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks. I went out there with my loppers and hacked down the crabgrass (in about a tenth of my garden)and raked it up. I looked sadly at my withering rudbekia but will be patient and let them die in peace after the first frost. Then I will mow them all down.
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Well it depends if your wildflower mix consists of regionally adapted native (or exotic) species or just one of those commercialized ÂmixesÂ that contain junk like bachelorÂs buttons, Californian poppies, and other such stuff that are either nonnative weeds or not really adapted to your site, growing conditions, or winter. If it is full of plants that are not adapted to your locality, you will see that most will not return next year. If you have some prairie perennials in the mix, it will take atleast 3 years for some of them (purple prairie clover comes to mind) to be noticedÂ Either way, I would strongly recommend leaving wildflower/prairie gardens up over the winter to provide winter cover and shelter to various small wildlife critters, if thatÂs part of the reason you want the wildflower garden. If its strictly ornamental, I would leave it up anyways until spring, then mow it down.
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Don't be so quick to give up.The Ornamec will not kill your coneflower (echinacea purpurea ?)and is a heck of a lot cheaper then r/up .You have a few problems here .Don't assume killing all and starting over will solve all your problems.Heavy clay soil can be a challenge for you and the wild flowers. I personaly love playing in dirt ,so I'd dig in a lot of composted organic matter and turn that hard,heavy-clay soil into well-drained soil. You do know that grass(depending on type) in a wild flower patch looks very pleasing and natural,and would do more to attract birds then flowers alone.Perhaps you could start your flower seeds indoors in peat pots now,cut your grass very low at the end of April-mid june and plant.Nothing pleasurable comes with-out a little hard work.
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Hi Lime. My property is surrounded by gigantic trees and we probably get depths of more like four feet of leaves every week for about two months straight here. It's my worst gardening nightmare every year! I usually just handpick out as many leaves as I can between the canes and whatever is left in Spring I deal with it then, and hopefully some of them have turned themselves into fallen compost/mulch. It'll be interesting to see if anyone has another way of dealing with this that's easier. As I read this I was thinking maybe those plasic milk carton crates would work somewhat, but then you'd have to look at that ugliness lurking outside, and you'd be adding shade that's not wanted in the process. -Nan
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