Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

I'm converting a boring grass garden into a fairly chaotic blend of trees, shrubs, flowers, and mixed habitat features. Last year I had some success with borage, sticking seeds in the soil here and there. Too much success, really, but I like borage and so do the bees.

I'm looking for similar species to borage, foxgloves, and honesty. Flowers that reliably germinate when sown directly or scattered on the ground. Most importantly, they need to set their own seed well. Growing flowers is a pain, so I want established populations that will spread and pop up in random corners. Pollinators are my primary concern, especially anything that supports lesser known pollinators.

In in the Midlands in the UK. Very wet climate, mixed shade and sun in the garden. Soils vary depending on how much I managed to improve them, but largely clay.

Hi guys

The community gets a bit quiet this time of year, which is normal, the census revealed just how many of us are in one corner of the Northern hemisphere (US, Canada, UK), where it's the middle of winter.

But I just wanted to shout out to those from other places - I hope you all feel welcome to post! Please share your gardens :D

If you are ever unsure if your post will be a fit, please modmail to ask - we're friendly, and the worst that can happen is that we say no :)

And for everyone else - one part of gardening for wildlife is extending the flowering season. So what do you have flowering right now if anything?

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

So last year I managed to get my first balcony garden going and I decided to focus on native plants on my balcony (along with some herbs / vegs). Everything went pretty well for my first time and as winter came I am now left with a couple of containers/pots of soil that has been used by other plants.

I had a container with native flowers which turned out to probably be too small. I am planning on moving the earth of that container (as it still contains seed) into a bigger container in which I grew a squash plant. I cut up the dead remains of the squash plant already and threw it into the soil and mixed it up along with some other dead plant material of other containers.

My question is: would I be able to just throw in the soil of the native flower container into the bigger container? And if so, are there some things I need to be aware of? AFAIK there were no real issues with the squash plant other than it being a squash plant sensitive to humidity (meaning, it died eventually).

I have a lot of new soil still but I'd rather re-use as much as possible and I figured that native flowers over here grow in all sorts of conditions in all sorts of soil.

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

Anyone here I’ve recently gotten into guerilla gardening and want to make the most out of wild plants around me. I’m curious about how to go about saving seeds from wild plants and the best practices for storing them to ensure they stay viable. I am based in the Netherlands myself

I do have a couple of specific questions:

1. When is the best time to harvest seeds from wild plants? Are there any specific signs to look for that indicate the seeds are ready?

2. How should I process the seeds after collecting them? For example, do they need to be cleaned, dried, or treated in any way?

3. What’s the best way to store seeds for long-term viability? Should I use specific containers or keep them in certain conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity)?

4. When is the best time to plant seeds for guerilla gardening? Are there specific times of the year or strategies that work better for wild plant seeds?

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s had success with this or has tips to share. I’m trying to be thoughtful about spreading native and resilient plants while helping the environment. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I am in southern Ontario. Snow on the ground and temperatures hovering around -5 to 0 Celsius.

I’ve got dogwood seeds coming from an online seed supplier and anticipate they will be here in the next week.

How best to stratify them so that they will germinate in the spring:

1. Cold stratification in the refrigerator
2. Put them in soil in pots out on the patio, protected from animals, then transplant in the spring
3. Get them in the ground now where I want them to ultimately germinate. This will take effort as the ground is frozen but possible

Thanks in advance

Seasons greetings!

Pop your festive chat here, talk about almost anything you like with the GardenWild community!

This is our annual off-topic thread (other rules still apply) so you can chat with other wild gardeners about your festivities :)

If you have something to share that doesn't quite fit the theme, here's your chance!

• Did you get any wildlife gardening gifts?
• Have you adorned a tree with suet treats for the birds?
• Know of any resources for a sustainable festive season next year?
• Or to help those who are alone right now?
• Got any frosty or snowy garden shots?
• Environmentally friendly, or wildlife themed decorations?

Let us know!

Happy festive season to all.

https://reddit.com/link/1hjujrm/video/icgt0efh2d8e1/player

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

I want to plant shrubs along my property line & by the road that are thorny or sticky to deter people. Growing zone 5-7. What do you suggest?

My mum is looking into writing her will. She has a house with a fairly large garden (maybe half acre) located within a town which she categorically does not want building on.

She is thinking of fencing the garden off and leaving it to grow indefinitely once she has passed. However this garden does border a public alleyway and also other people’s gardens on the other side. She was thinking of leaving the land in trust to myself as not much other option in where it could go.

Are there any UK laws that wouldn’t permit this? I’m a bit uncomfortable having an unkept garden in my name and being responsible for the rest of my life. I live 4 hours away so wouldn’t be able to do any maintenance of the boarders myself and I’m concerned it would cause issues down the line. Eg invasive species, growing over into council land and other’s properties, trees falling down etc

Any thoughts on this?

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

If I were to order a few 4' American hazelnuts over the winter to plant in my garden in the spring, how do I store them in the meantime? Can I safely keep them indoors? My reason for ordering them early is to safeguard against them being sold out later.

Hello! I'm looking for some advice/ideas for how to manage gravel areas for wildlife without just leaving them to grow over.

I moved here couple of years ago, and started trying to make the garden better for wildlife. All the front garden, and some pathways round the back are gravel. Some parts have a membrane under, some don't.

Though I've been planting wildflowers and shrubs in the beds and going through the slow process of fighting the lawn into being a meadow, I was planning to leave these gravel areas bare for access.

Trouble is, this garden gets a lot of sun and keeping the weeds down is becoming an issue. I am away a lot of the year for work so even if I wanted to spend that much of my free time pulling weeds I couldn't. Judging by the amount of weedkiller left in the shed when we moved in, I think the last owners only kept them down my spraying. Some areas have a membrane beneath, some don't, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

So what's best to do here to create something that will manage itself (as far as can be expected)? My plan so far is to accept it will never look tidy and slowly cover it in mat-forming or low cover. I'm in the UK so so far I'm thinking thyme, armera maritima, sulphur clover, Ajuga reptans and maybe chamomile. Does anyone have any other/better ideas?

Picture attached (bare and miserable looking because December).

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

After spending way too much money replacing cheap bird feeders that either fall apart or get destroyed by those ninja squirrels, I'm finally ready to invest in something that'll actually last. I live in an area with lots of cardinals, chickadees, and finches, but also an army of determined squirrels that have defeated every "squirrel-proof" feeder I've bought from big box stores.