Wildflowers and some Chelsea Inspiration

I've been planting weeds over the bank holiday weekend. I was inspired by a day bird watching at the Wetland Centre in Barnes which celebrated its 10th anniversary last week. The Wetland Centre is an artificial, managed landscape, created from a disused reservoir. It is the ultimate wildlife garden, containing a wide variety of native trees, shrubs and flowers supporting a variety of birds, mammals and insects. I couldn't resist buying some of these wild flowers from the gift shop on my way out.

I have two small ponds in my garden, made from plastic bowls 2ft in diameter, placed next to each other. The surrounding area is rather poor sandy soil and I haven't established any long-term planting there. Last summer, I planted some grasses - pieces of Panicum Virgatum "Hanse Herms" - which I had divided from a larger clump. These have survived, but need time to thicken up. The other perennials I planted there last summer have failed to thrive and been eaten by slugs, leaving gaps. I have placed my wild flowers in these gaps, since they should thrive in the poorer soil, and will look good among the grasses. I have planted Leucanthemum Vulgare (Oxeye Daisy), Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Centaurea Scabiosa (Greater Knapweed) and Tanacetum Vulgare (Tansy). I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow. They join the self-seeded poppies and campanula to make a very natural corner.

 

Last Tuesday I went to the Chelsea Flower Show. I go every year and always come back with lots of ideas to try. This year it was the three large bowls of irises on Andy Sturgeon's "Best in Show" garden which caught my eye. His irises looked like this:

 

I went to the garden centre and bought some irises and put them in pots. Mine look like this:

I think they will look better when the buds open.