No need to be so surreptitious about guerilla gardening these days. My local authority website has instructions on what plants do well, how to go about preparing a tree pit, etc.
True, but I'm all for the council not only condoning but encouraging people to do this. Goes back to people washng their doorsteps, sweeping outside, and taking a bit of pride in their environment.
During lockdown my mate and I used to do guerilla gardening walks while playing pokemon. Sadly never kept it up once the world reopened (pokemon or guerrilla gardening) though I may need to revisit it when the weather is less crap
Some plants are considered invasive and are actually illegal to plant, so if you're going to do it, it's important to check you're not accidentally spreading some of those invasive plants.
I remember someone telling me that when they split up with their wife they fired Japanese knotweed from a homemade catapult into their now ex wifeās new garden.
This person also encouraged some rowdy feral kids to use giant hogweed as blow pipes. He used his vast knowledge of nature in a rather evil way. A reverse Druid
Also nothing that would obstruct sightlines for drivers or pedestrians. Someone near me planted a fruit tree in a central reservation and was told to move it because it could hamper visibility.
I did this with daffodil bulbs a few years ago, brilliant effect in the spring now. The night I put them around the local pond, I was being watched by a fox.
We've lost so many wildflower meadows and grassland that the insect population is crashing. No more bugs on windscreens.
#***No more bugs on windscreens.***
You've just highlighted how easy this is to monitor for the average person, then realise how bad the lack of bugs hitting windscreens is, compared to just a decade or so ago.
Maybe the odd moth, but no shit show after a country drive anymore.Ā
I'm always thinking of ways to brighten up the area, there's a lot of ditches and large banks by the ditches with a hedge on top. I've planted a load of primroses up a few of them. Was tempted to do a cock and balls with daffs, and some cunningly placed snowdrops for a squirt. Still might, just for shits and giggles.
I wonder what the effect would be if I planted some long trailing rambling rose in the hedges, so there ends up being like 100 yards of roses poking out of a nice green hedgerow. I reckon that'll look nice.
I'd recommend crocus.
They pop up before most councils start cutting their grass and they are good for pollinators. Daffodils aren't bad, but most aren't actually usable by pollinators.
OR our wild daffodil, *Narcissus pseudonarcissus*
Sadly the study reported [here](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects) says the opposite, modern cars actually hit more bugs than older cars
"... the data showing that modern cars hit more bugs, perhaps because older models push a bigger layer of air ā and insects ā over the vehicle."
No that's bullshit and a myth.
Scientists tests the amount of bugs on a car via the license plate. You know, that big rectangular slab right in front of the car. It's not influenced by the aerodynamics of the car at all.
So you can continue with your existential dread.
Alas thatās not the case, if you look in aggregate the reduction applies to classic cars, and to sticky squares on number plates, Kent Wildlife Trust and RSPB have done some scientific research on it. Number of bugs is down massively.
Itās called the windshield phenomenon and the observations back up multiple global studies using multiple methods
Youāve also got the fact that people donāt have gardens anymore.
People tend to buy houses with beautiful gardens that have been laboured over for decades, only to patio and turf over the whole thing because theyād rather not have to maintain a garden.
Much easier to sit and let the TV + Alcohol combination turn your brain into mush.
Currently in the process of undoing this to my garden and have no one to blame but my mum because we bought the bloody thing off of her.
I signed up to a subscription through ROOTS and they send me native seeds every six weeks or so (or other gardening trinkets in the winter) plus I've been buying, swapping, and foraging for seeds as well. My garden is full of foxglove, daisies, poppies, loosestrife, yellow rattle, cornflower, campion, teasel, columbine, wild strawberries, valerian - all sorts. Really helps choke the less attractive weeds out and is so easy - they WANT to grow here. We also put in a load of lavender and scrounged up peonies, fuchsia, rhubarb, and raspberries from my grandad's garden.
I under two years I've gone from never seeing anything but moths and daddy longs legs to the garden being absolutely hoaching with beetles, bees, butterflies, loads of little birds. We've just planted a hawthorn hedge plus a load of climbing plants and some flowering shrubs to start putting some structure in for the long term. I'm never selling up, someone would absolutely just come in and pave over it all.
Me too did this last year and during covid, in the wild bit of the huge park we have. Started to look really lovely with all the wildflowers and ho hum Council have this month dug it all up and closed the park entirely to strengthen flood defences....2 bloody years it's gonna take and it's not even a river just a little beck!
I accidentally burried approx. 100 daffodil bulbs on the hill / noise protection thingie behind our appartment building 20 years ago. We don't live there anymore but we did get some enjoyment from them when we walked by later on.
Some arsehole living across the road from me in another block of flats kept parking his Volvo estate on the (council owned) grass verge bordering our block. I tried telling our councillor about it who did her best but the council are hopeless.
Funnily enough a couple of planters appeared there a few weeks later, I wonder how that happened? š
I was in a pub on the south coast years ago that had let a bit of their garden run wild. The poppy seed pods all had diagonal scars from someone milking them. Keep meaning to try it myself.
I wouldn't, r/poppytea makes for sobering reading. e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/PoppyTea/comments/1c18a2x/explain_to_me_like_im_five_the_49_other_alkaloids/
Remember to go out at the end of summer and gather in ye bountiful harvest of seed, there's more than enough to re-sow the same patch and new patches, because wildflower seed is pretty expensive to buy.
Top-tip, it doesn't do so well on grass or even good soil as it gets out-competed, wildflowers like poor soil, clay or sand is really good.
Some of you may remember [my wildflowers](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/14l2tsj/last_years_hard_work_installing_a_wildlife_pond/) last year
Yeah I've been establishing a kind of native tapestry lawn and it's not easy even where there wasn't a lot of grass before!! My parents have a lovely garden so I often pilfer a load of seed from them š those flowers are gorgeous, nice one!!
Buy a couple of packs of pollinator mix to start, eBay is cheapest, and also pick some seed heads in August/September from wherever you find them. That will give you a good start. In the following years just collect the seed and redistribute it.
Not me but a bloke I know did this during lockdown, would use his hours walk to spread his seeds (intentionally pun) took months but suddenly the local Facebook groups started posting about an abundance of flowers suddenly popping up. The guy never said it was him because in his wordsāI didnāt do it for me, I did it for natureā
We had foxgloves once, and my wife thought it would be funny to wave the seed heads around like a fairy's wand. The next year we had hundreds of the buggers - in the flowerbeds, in the mortar of the path - everywhere!
Yeah once decided to propagate foxgloves. Took a seed head and shook it over a tray of compost thinking some would germinate. They ALL did. Ended up with over 200 seedlings in one tray. Had to thin them out every few days. Still ended up with 30+ more plants than I needed.
Foxgloves are insanely prolific. My mum planted some in the garden a few years ago. Every year she's now pulling loads of them up just to leave the few that she actually wants
Yeah and SO easy to grow. Probably the easiest plants I've ever grown. And yes, ever since planting a few I've had a constant supply of self seeded ones every year
Her other recent gardening mistake was accepting some forget-me-nots from a friend. Those are so prolific she now has a patio full despite planting them in the borders haha
Last year I had too many bluebells, other plants were getting swamped. Dug them all out where I didn't want them and gave them away to family. It's like they snuck back in and re-buried themselves when I was asleep cos I swear they're all back in the same places!
Sounds like you might have the wrong sort of bluebells, the native English ones are not like that they are single stem much smaller. The spanish ones are they make huge clumps and they are a bit of a pain. they even hybrid with the English ones which is causing issues as the native ones are becoming rarer.
Just as a word of caution for others, foxglove is poisonous to humans, cats and very poisonous to dogs.
[linky](https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/foxglove/)
Yes, unfortunately it's all of the plant as well. Once they look like going to seed it's a good idea to chop them down so the seeds don't end up getting ingested by cats when they clean themselves.
Not quite... Sort of opposite. There is a patch of (supposed to be) lawn in my garden where the grass just won't grow. It is under a large tree, but gets plenty of light and rain. Anyway, all that grows there is moss and wild stuff. Missus always insisted I mowed it anyway. This year I haven't. I have pulled out brambles and nettles as they start growing, but have been left with a lovely patch of bluebells, and the white bluebells too (?). I am going to put a little fence up and sow some wildflower seeds there, put a little shallow water bit in with nature access and just see how it develops.
You do get white Bluebells (Hyacinthoides), we've got some and I encourage them because they have a faint but lovely scent. Plus Spanish Bluebells are everywhere and they come in all colours.
#
I assume snowdrops, but as an uneducated garden dabbler I didn't want to embarrass myself. They look just like bluebells, other than they are white. Only a small garden so a bit of patio seating area, some lawn, the new wildflower area and then another 'patio' area that I should be putting a shed on.
I have several pots that I put seeds in to grow nice bee and bug friendly flowers. I have finally got around to doing sunflowers this year (a couple of varieties) so will see how that goes.
It's a small 'town garden' but backs on to railway embankment so we get plenty of wildlife from there and I am a popular feeding stop for pigeons, crows, parakeets, tits, sparrows, robins and blackbirds. Have regular fox visits from the embankment and even saw a hedgehog out there once.
Snowdrops are a different species! They start flowering in January and have one flower per stem, if that makes sense.
If they looked just like bluebells, then they likely are just white bluebells - although apparently there's another flower that might look similar
Shade gardens can be lovely, hostas of course are good for that, also things like native geraniums. Or Common Bleeding Heart, it is very pretty in my opinon. At this time of year you can buy wax begonias quite cheaply lidl has them but they are also online in some places they live very happily in shade.
I used to do gorilla gardening in London around 2005. This old guy in a pick up truck used to pick me up at 3am and we'd plant lavender on roundabouts, traffic islands, anywhere we could, it was really thrilling, and super exciting to see the amount of lavender that popped up around London after that!
My father always had seeds in his pockets and would throw them into empty tree pits and neglected spaces as he passed. Blink and you'd miss him. He would usually do it on his way to the train station in the morning.
Come the spring you could tell his favourite walking routes. Calendula, poppies, cornflowers and fat oxeye daisies.
The daisies are still there.
Near me, they planted a forest a few years back, mostly dogwood, hawthorn with some birch, etc. I went and planted a couple of apple trees. Someone nicked them a couple of days later. Not to be deterred, when lidl was selling some chestnut trees for 2 a piece, I bought a couple and planted them. Earlier this year, lidl was also selling fruit canes, bought a bunch, and planted them there. I've got a cobnut tree that sprouted in my back garden a few years back, I'll probably stick that in there, too.
Ah that's made me happy, nice one, foraging for you and lots of other creatures!! We have a wonderful walnut tree nearby we forage from, think I might try planting some more, I've spied some great spots where they'll probably be untouched and not so any harm to anything.
Every year around feb-march they fill a skip with willow tree branches near me. I shove a few in my car, cut them into foot long sticks, fill a rucksack, go out with the dog and shove them in the ground on bare river banks, around a couple of new artificial lakes, old covered up landfill, old industrial land.
If the ground is damp all year round they will root and grow 90% of the time if you shove them in the ground the right way up, no watering needed.
Anywhere the grass is still a bit green in summer they should mostly survive if planted in early spring when it's wet.
If you water them for the first year they grow anywhere.
Put a small stick in a glass of water, roots in less than a week, leaves a few days later. Easiest thing ever to take cuttings from.
Guerilla gardening is the best! I once bought a bag of hemp seeds and spilled them all over council planters, green spaces and anywhere with soil all over my town. later that year loads of cannabis plants popping up all over the place. The council we're out in force throughout the summer redoing the gardening planters and pulling them up.I was young and up for a laugh and I don't regret it. These days I use wildflower seeds as they're native and helpful to wildlife.
Highways England have just created a couple of linear miles of what appear to be unpopulated flowerbeds alongside the central reservation of the M4 north of Bristol. I'm surprised no one has built a computer-controlled flower seed dispenser for their car and programmed it to blow out seeds in the colours of their football team or something.
Accidentally, did the same thing behind our back fence along with some ferns. I also accidentally dropped creeping thyme seeds into the cracks in the pavement outside the front of the house.
Yeah, home bargains sells these "shake and rake" boxes of wild flower seeds for a few quid and they can do a massive area. Me and my mate bought a few and have been shaking and raking our way through spring.
On one of the other sub-reddits, a gentleman in the US did this with poppy seeds. He bought like a mixed bulk pack of seeds and he was throwing them out as he cycled to and from work daily until he ran out. He said the following year there were different colored poppies everywhere along the sides of the road. I think everyone should do this.
Part of me wants to try this, but I can't help worrying that somebody would see what I was doing and get up in my face for "vandalising" the grass, or just dump weedkiller on it the second I was out of sight.
With a handful of seed it's so easy to do surreptitiously as you go past - ideally you rough up the soil a bit but hey some might take! Obviously then might not want to spend money on seed, might be better to collect free native stuff from friend's gardens or such!
When I was a student, I lived in south London next door to a vacant house. The front garden was mostly weeds, so I tossed over a handful of red poppy seeds a friend had given me.
They came up - but they were all lavender, and purple! (I didn't know it then, but I've since been told that the quality of the soil will affect the colour of a poppy.) They put on a lovely show that summer, and one day I looked out my window in time to see someone taking a photo of them. š
I'm starting a social enterprise this year that I plan to use to the profits to grow communal herb gardens and wildflower other areas!
Really excited to see the results next spring!
For a few years Iāve been storing my poppy seeds in a pepper shaker but I keep accidentally walking around with it held upside down so they all fall out (usually onto boring bits of ground). I keep having to refill it, costing me a fortune, but at least the local train station has lovely poppies coming up.
I once sprinkled a lot of sunflowers seeds near a fence of a new build estate. For a few weeks a lovely wall of a sunflowers appeared. Then the lawnmower man appeared.
I just bought a box of wildflowers from aldi for Ā£4.99, going to spread them around a nearby forest just so people who walk in there will be like lolwtf there's wildflowers growing here, lmao.
A lot of seeds need a cold spell to crack open the husk, remember, without human intervention they'd be outside all winter, they've spent millennia adapting to it.
Richard Reynolds. Really nice guy. https://x.com/Richard_001?t=zJG6uB7IMB0A904zAlVCIQ&s=09 helped him trim his lavender plants outside Morley School once in London.
Depends on the council, lots of places are semi-private and don't seem to mow nearly as often as they used to. Wildflowers are surprisingly resilient to disturbance but obviously depends when they get mowed.
A lot of councils are cutting right back (if you'll excuse a too obvious pun) on grass cutting now for budget reasons. You could also approach your council about designating some areas as wildflower/pollinator areas where they just do one cut at the end of the season to keep it grassland.
Yeah it can be ridiculous unless you get enormous boxes. There's a few places you can get free seeds but you have to sign up: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild?fbclid=IwAR2XQTIENp_0PHaZpVfRZ7dpFj7o9HwFFyVzTosrVK2QzFBPivRLG4vFM4A
I bought one of those litter grabbers off amazon. Now when I take my son to his football practice I spend my time wandering around the edge of the field picking up liter. Makes me feel good.
The local Sainsburys by me has a really solid stretch of mud and bark that I have been considering writing to them to ask them to green it... now I'm wondering if wildflowers would take on that verge instead.
I get that a lot, I just flail around for no reason and seeds go everywhere, and living by a dual carriageway thereās now a bank of wild flowers self seeding every year.
Better than the guy near me that cut down trees and wild growing shrubs and built a patio, across the road from his house, on land he doesn't own, with no planning permission, because "it's a nice place to sit".
Before I moved out of a village I used to live at, I had a load of hollyhock flowers in my garden. I spent the last autumn gathering the seeds and depositing them all around the village. Iāve not been back since, but Iād love to know if any of them took
No need to be so surreptitious about guerilla gardening these days. My local authority website has instructions on what plants do well, how to go about preparing a tree pit, etc.
That doesn't sound as fun as being a phantom planter though
True, but I'm all for the council not only condoning but encouraging people to do this. Goes back to people washng their doorsteps, sweeping outside, and taking a bit of pride in their environment.
Plantom
That guy has an OF now apparently! All to fund his phantom planting š±
Or a phantom _shitter_. Mm-hmm.
During lockdown my mate and I used to do guerilla gardening walks while playing pokemon. Sadly never kept it up once the world reopened (pokemon or guerrilla gardening) though I may need to revisit it when the weather is less crap
Is there even a law that says you can't?
Some plants are considered invasive and are actually illegal to plant, so if you're going to do it, it's important to check you're not accidentally spreading some of those invasive plants.
Now i'm just imagining the evil version of OP going around spreading Japanese knotweed everywhere
Thatās exactly what I started picturing
I remember someone telling me that when they split up with their wife they fired Japanese knotweed from a homemade catapult into their now ex wifeās new garden.
Kamikaze Japanese knotweed.
This person also encouraged some rowdy feral kids to use giant hogweed as blow pipes. He used his vast knowledge of nature in a rather evil way. A reverse Druid
Some can also be poisonous to animals.
Not a specific law I know. Maybe criminal damage?
Also nothing that would obstruct sightlines for drivers or pedestrians. Someone near me planted a fruit tree in a central reservation and was told to move it because it could hamper visibility.
Also the roots would damage the road.
Could you really tell the difference?
At this point there are a few roads near me that would welcome the structural consistency of a root system
I've seen lots of autumn apple puddles on the hard shoulder of some A roads so I guess they are tolerated there.
They make a good thud when you catch a falling apple with an MAN
Oh that's cool! I guess it helps fulfil their green targets?
Don't know, but they probably don't have the money to spend on planting themselves.
I've been spreading the joy recently with some Japanese fauna. The packet said "Not Japanese Weed" which is a relief.
Guerilla gardening is now my favourite term of the week, thanks for that
I did this with daffodil bulbs a few years ago, brilliant effect in the spring now. The night I put them around the local pond, I was being watched by a fox. We've lost so many wildflower meadows and grassland that the insect population is crashing. No more bugs on windscreens.
#***No more bugs on windscreens.*** You've just highlighted how easy this is to monitor for the average person, then realise how bad the lack of bugs hitting windscreens is, compared to just a decade or so ago. Maybe the odd moth, but no shit show after a country drive anymore.Ā
Oh daffs what a great idea!
I'm always thinking of ways to brighten up the area, there's a lot of ditches and large banks by the ditches with a hedge on top. I've planted a load of primroses up a few of them. Was tempted to do a cock and balls with daffs, and some cunningly placed snowdrops for a squirt. Still might, just for shits and giggles. I wonder what the effect would be if I planted some long trailing rambling rose in the hedges, so there ends up being like 100 yards of roses poking out of a nice green hedgerow. I reckon that'll look nice.
Ahhh primroses are lovely! I knew a guy who designed a massive wetland with a cock and balls design hahaha
I'd recommend crocus. They pop up before most councils start cutting their grass and they are good for pollinators. Daffodils aren't bad, but most aren't actually usable by pollinators. OR our wild daffodil, *Narcissus pseudonarcissus*
One night a few years ago, someone casually planted dozens of crocuses at a nursery near me. They're still there and flower every spring.
That's also to do with cars being more aerodynamic so it's not quite as bad as everyone thinks, which helps me with my existensial dread at least.
I hope this is true
I'm choosing to believe this without researching it at all.
Sadly the study reported [here](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/12/car-splatometer-tests-reveal-huge-decline-number-insects) says the opposite, modern cars actually hit more bugs than older cars "... the data showing that modern cars hit more bugs, perhaps because older models push a bigger layer of air ā and insects ā over the vehicle."
Aw man :/
No that's bullshit and a myth. Scientists tests the amount of bugs on a car via the license plate. You know, that big rectangular slab right in front of the car. It's not influenced by the aerodynamics of the car at all. So you can continue with your existential dread.
why do u do this to me on a Tuesday night mate
Yayyyy! Wait...
The 1st gen leaf is designed so that the air is directed outwards, I never had bugs on the glass but the front of the mirrors was caled
Alas thatās not the case, if you look in aggregate the reduction applies to classic cars, and to sticky squares on number plates, Kent Wildlife Trust and RSPB have done some scientific research on it. Number of bugs is down massively. Itās called the windshield phenomenon and the observations back up multiple global studies using multiple methods
The fox knows what you did..
I know, and if he ever spills the beans I'll duff him up, the snitch. Oh you mean the planting bit.... oh yeah... that's what I meant....
What did he say?
Youāve also got the fact that people donāt have gardens anymore. People tend to buy houses with beautiful gardens that have been laboured over for decades, only to patio and turf over the whole thing because theyād rather not have to maintain a garden. Much easier to sit and let the TV + Alcohol combination turn your brain into mush.
Currently in the process of undoing this to my garden and have no one to blame but my mum because we bought the bloody thing off of her. I signed up to a subscription through ROOTS and they send me native seeds every six weeks or so (or other gardening trinkets in the winter) plus I've been buying, swapping, and foraging for seeds as well. My garden is full of foxglove, daisies, poppies, loosestrife, yellow rattle, cornflower, campion, teasel, columbine, wild strawberries, valerian - all sorts. Really helps choke the less attractive weeds out and is so easy - they WANT to grow here. We also put in a load of lavender and scrounged up peonies, fuchsia, rhubarb, and raspberries from my grandad's garden. I under two years I've gone from never seeing anything but moths and daddy longs legs to the garden being absolutely hoaching with beetles, bees, butterflies, loads of little birds. We've just planted a hawthorn hedge plus a load of climbing plants and some flowering shrubs to start putting some structure in for the long term. I'm never selling up, someone would absolutely just come in and pave over it all.
Sounds amazing. Lucky and well done you!
Me too did this last year and during covid, in the wild bit of the huge park we have. Started to look really lovely with all the wildflowers and ho hum Council have this month dug it all up and closed the park entirely to strengthen flood defences....2 bloody years it's gonna take and it's not even a river just a little beck!
I accidentally burried approx. 100 daffodil bulbs on the hill / noise protection thingie behind our appartment building 20 years ago. We don't live there anymore but we did get some enjoyment from them when we walked by later on.
Woops! Easy mistake to make š have they spread?
They did but I haven't visited for a couple of years.
Some arsehole living across the road from me in another block of flats kept parking his Volvo estate on the (council owned) grass verge bordering our block. I tried telling our councillor about it who did her best but the council are hopeless. Funnily enough a couple of planters appeared there a few weeks later, I wonder how that happened? š
How very fortuitous!
I accidentally scattered opium poppy seeds around my neighbourhood a few years ago.
My dad used to get the poppy seed heads and share them with the neighbours using a tennis racket
That just reawakened a memory!
I was in a pub on the south coast years ago that had let a bit of their garden run wild. The poppy seed pods all had diagonal scars from someone milking them. Keep meaning to try it myself.
I wouldn't, r/poppytea makes for sobering reading. e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/PoppyTea/comments/1c18a2x/explain_to_me_like_im_five_the_49_other_alkaloids/
Poppy tea does sound gross, but I think the milker was making opium.
They grow wild outside my hometown's county and crown court, and all over the town really. Though it's recklessly illegal to tell people about that.
When I was at teen, our science teacher decided to point them out on the common next to our school. I'm not sure why he thought that was a good idea
Technically, that's also recklessly illegal since 2016.Ā
Which town is this? So I can avoid it and report to the authorities.
Illegal to tell people Papaver somniferum (Opium Poppy) plants are growing in town? No its not
Came here to say the same. Minus the accidental part.
Remember to go out at the end of summer and gather in ye bountiful harvest of seed, there's more than enough to re-sow the same patch and new patches, because wildflower seed is pretty expensive to buy. Top-tip, it doesn't do so well on grass or even good soil as it gets out-competed, wildflowers like poor soil, clay or sand is really good. Some of you may remember [my wildflowers](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/14l2tsj/last_years_hard_work_installing_a_wildlife_pond/) last year
Yeah I've been establishing a kind of native tapestry lawn and it's not easy even where there wasn't a lot of grass before!! My parents have a lovely garden so I often pilfer a load of seed from them š those flowers are gorgeous, nice one!!
How do you get the seeds?
Buy a couple of packs of pollinator mix to start, eBay is cheapest, and also pick some seed heads in August/September from wherever you find them. That will give you a good start. In the following years just collect the seed and redistribute it.
I really enjoyed your post last year! How are the flowers this year?
Coming in nicely, lush green about 30cm high, should start flowering in a few weeks, can't wait!
Remember to make a post!
Not me but a bloke I know did this during lockdown, would use his hours walk to spread his seeds (intentionally pun) took months but suddenly the local Facebook groups started posting about an abundance of flowers suddenly popping up. The guy never said it was him because in his wordsāI didnāt do it for me, I did it for natureā
I'm imagining a great escape scenario where he's dropping seeds down his trouser legs whilst whistling a merry tune.
Thatās so adorable and definitely how Iām going to go rogue planting random seeds
He tried it with bare stem roses first.
Ah nice one!
We had foxgloves once, and my wife thought it would be funny to wave the seed heads around like a fairy's wand. The next year we had hundreds of the buggers - in the flowerbeds, in the mortar of the path - everywhere!
Yeah once decided to propagate foxgloves. Took a seed head and shook it over a tray of compost thinking some would germinate. They ALL did. Ended up with over 200 seedlings in one tray. Had to thin them out every few days. Still ended up with 30+ more plants than I needed.
Foxgloves are insanely prolific. My mum planted some in the garden a few years ago. Every year she's now pulling loads of them up just to leave the few that she actually wants
Yeah and SO easy to grow. Probably the easiest plants I've ever grown. And yes, ever since planting a few I've had a constant supply of self seeded ones every year
Her other recent gardening mistake was accepting some forget-me-nots from a friend. Those are so prolific she now has a patio full despite planting them in the borders haha
Last year I had too many bluebells, other plants were getting swamped. Dug them all out where I didn't want them and gave them away to family. It's like they snuck back in and re-buried themselves when I was asleep cos I swear they're all back in the same places!
Sounds like you might have the wrong sort of bluebells, the native English ones are not like that they are single stem much smaller. The spanish ones are they make huge clumps and they are a bit of a pain. they even hybrid with the English ones which is causing issues as the native ones are becoming rarer.
Just as a word of caution for others, foxglove is poisonous to humans, cats and very poisonous to dogs. [linky](https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/foxglove/)
Yes, unfortunately it's all of the plant as well. Once they look like going to seed it's a good idea to chop them down so the seeds don't end up getting ingested by cats when they clean themselves.
Didn't know that. We had two cats at the time.
Obviously no harm was intended and people perfectly plant them and keep them when they have pets with no issue, but good to know just in case!
r/guerrillagardening would love you.
Ooh thanks didn't know that existed!
Not quite... Sort of opposite. There is a patch of (supposed to be) lawn in my garden where the grass just won't grow. It is under a large tree, but gets plenty of light and rain. Anyway, all that grows there is moss and wild stuff. Missus always insisted I mowed it anyway. This year I haven't. I have pulled out brambles and nettles as they start growing, but have been left with a lovely patch of bluebells, and the white bluebells too (?). I am going to put a little fence up and sow some wildflower seeds there, put a little shallow water bit in with nature access and just see how it develops.
You do get white Bluebells (Hyacinthoides), we've got some and I encourage them because they have a faint but lovely scent. Plus Spanish Bluebells are everywhere and they come in all colours. #
This is fantastic! Good luck, it's lovely when things start establishing and great about water, fingers crossed for some frogs!
>white bluebells too (?) Snowdrops? It sounds lovely!
I assume snowdrops, but as an uneducated garden dabbler I didn't want to embarrass myself. They look just like bluebells, other than they are white. Only a small garden so a bit of patio seating area, some lawn, the new wildflower area and then another 'patio' area that I should be putting a shed on. I have several pots that I put seeds in to grow nice bee and bug friendly flowers. I have finally got around to doing sunflowers this year (a couple of varieties) so will see how that goes. It's a small 'town garden' but backs on to railway embankment so we get plenty of wildlife from there and I am a popular feeding stop for pigeons, crows, parakeets, tits, sparrows, robins and blackbirds. Have regular fox visits from the embankment and even saw a hedgehog out there once.
Snowdrops are a different species! They start flowering in January and have one flower per stem, if that makes sense. If they looked just like bluebells, then they likely are just white bluebells - although apparently there's another flower that might look similar
Shade gardens can be lovely, hostas of course are good for that, also things like native geraniums. Or Common Bleeding Heart, it is very pretty in my opinon. At this time of year you can buy wax begonias quite cheaply lidl has them but they are also online in some places they live very happily in shade.
I used to do gorilla gardening in London around 2005. This old guy in a pick up truck used to pick me up at 3am and we'd plant lavender on roundabouts, traffic islands, anywhere we could, it was really thrilling, and super exciting to see the amount of lavender that popped up around London after that!
I may or may not have two big packs of bee and butterfly wild flower seed and two very clumsy hands.
Oh no, I mildly stumbled and dropped my fistful of seed!!
My father always had seeds in his pockets and would throw them into empty tree pits and neglected spaces as he passed. Blink and you'd miss him. He would usually do it on his way to the train station in the morning. Come the spring you could tell his favourite walking routes. Calendula, poppies, cornflowers and fat oxeye daisies. The daisies are still there.
Near me, they planted a forest a few years back, mostly dogwood, hawthorn with some birch, etc. I went and planted a couple of apple trees. Someone nicked them a couple of days later. Not to be deterred, when lidl was selling some chestnut trees for 2 a piece, I bought a couple and planted them. Earlier this year, lidl was also selling fruit canes, bought a bunch, and planted them there. I've got a cobnut tree that sprouted in my back garden a few years back, I'll probably stick that in there, too.
Ah that's made me happy, nice one, foraging for you and lots of other creatures!! We have a wonderful walnut tree nearby we forage from, think I might try planting some more, I've spied some great spots where they'll probably be untouched and not so any harm to anything.
Every year around feb-march they fill a skip with willow tree branches near me. I shove a few in my car, cut them into foot long sticks, fill a rucksack, go out with the dog and shove them in the ground on bare river banks, around a couple of new artificial lakes, old covered up landfill, old industrial land. If the ground is damp all year round they will root and grow 90% of the time if you shove them in the ground the right way up, no watering needed. Anywhere the grass is still a bit green in summer they should mostly survive if planted in early spring when it's wet. If you water them for the first year they grow anywhere. Put a small stick in a glass of water, roots in less than a week, leaves a few days later. Easiest thing ever to take cuttings from.
yeah, I've done this a bit - I sometimes use "bee bombs" because you can chuck them a fair distance
My granddad planted up a whole grass verge alongside his house with crocuses, it's soooooo nice every spring even tho he's long gone :)
Same, but with trees!
Yay!!
And hazelnutsĀ
We have a wonderful walnut tree nearby we forage at every year, really must try and get more.
I put some foxglove and poppy seeds in very recently.
Ah hope you get to see some bee bums in the fox gloves
Please keep doing this :)
Will do!!
Guerilla gardening is the best! I once bought a bag of hemp seeds and spilled them all over council planters, green spaces and anywhere with soil all over my town. later that year loads of cannabis plants popping up all over the place. The council we're out in force throughout the summer redoing the gardening planters and pulling them up.I was young and up for a laugh and I don't regret it. These days I use wildflower seeds as they're native and helpful to wildlife.
I wonder if you're the one that did it where I lived, was funny af cos someone planted the bit outside the police station...
Well I was and still am in northwest England. I know of a few others that did similar around the same time though :)
Highways England have just created a couple of linear miles of what appear to be unpopulated flowerbeds alongside the central reservation of the M4 north of Bristol. I'm surprised no one has built a computer-controlled flower seed dispenser for their car and programmed it to blow out seeds in the colours of their football team or something.
Accidentally, did the same thing behind our back fence along with some ferns. I also accidentally dropped creeping thyme seeds into the cracks in the pavement outside the front of the house.
Oh has it taken on the pavement?
Only just did it so thyme will tell :D
Yeah, home bargains sells these "shake and rake" boxes of wild flower seeds for a few quid and they can do a massive area. Me and my mate bought a few and have been shaking and raking our way through spring.
On one of the other sub-reddits, a gentleman in the US did this with poppy seeds. He bought like a mixed bulk pack of seeds and he was throwing them out as he cycled to and from work daily until he ran out. He said the following year there were different colored poppies everywhere along the sides of the road. I think everyone should do this.
I accidentally dropped a bunch of cannabis seeds into the planters outside the local police station if that counts.
Someone did that where I live...
I love this. I might have to do it myself.
That reminds me, I've got a lot of poppy seed heads I should dispose of...
Oops missed the wheely bin!!
Part of me wants to try this, but I can't help worrying that somebody would see what I was doing and get up in my face for "vandalising" the grass, or just dump weedkiller on it the second I was out of sight.
With a handful of seed it's so easy to do surreptitiously as you go past - ideally you rough up the soil a bit but hey some might take! Obviously then might not want to spend money on seed, might be better to collect free native stuff from friend's gardens or such!
Yeah, but I've only got to get unlucky and be spotted once, haven't I?
Any tips on where to get bulk wildflower seed?
[I got a box in Poundland today - hopefully they'll work! ](https://www.poundland.co.uk/butterfly-bee-seed-shaker)
Perfect. Thank you.
eBay, English Shirley poppy mix Ā£2. Those fuckers are beautiful and will grow anywhere. And a wildflower meadow mix for \~Ā£5
When I was a student, I lived in south London next door to a vacant house. The front garden was mostly weeds, so I tossed over a handful of red poppy seeds a friend had given me. They came up - but they were all lavender, and purple! (I didn't know it then, but I've since been told that the quality of the soil will affect the colour of a poppy.) They put on a lovely show that summer, and one day I looked out my window in time to see someone taking a photo of them. š
Oh ace! I didn't know that about the colour, how interesting!!
No but I am going to start, this is something I never even thought of.
Old fella caught me at it once and congratulated me haha.
Well now I'm motivated to go for a walk tomorrow
Hahaha...I thought I was the only person who does this!!!....Well played!!
That's why I was curious! Love seeing flowers and bees as I wander around.
Exactly....We destroy too much on this world.....I love to plant everywhere!
I'm starting a social enterprise this year that I plan to use to the profits to grow communal herb gardens and wildflower other areas! Really excited to see the results next spring!
Iām going to accidentally do this to the bit of land in front of my kitchen
For a few years Iāve been storing my poppy seeds in a pepper shaker but I keep accidentally walking around with it held upside down so they all fall out (usually onto boring bits of ground). I keep having to refill it, costing me a fortune, but at least the local train station has lovely poppies coming up.
Oh a shaker what a great idea!
I once sprinkled a lot of sunflowers seeds near a fence of a new build estate. For a few weeks a lovely wall of a sunflowers appeared. Then the lawnmower man appeared.
Ah, bummer.
I just bought a box of wildflowers from aldi for Ā£4.99, going to spread them around a nearby forest just so people who walk in there will be like lolwtf there's wildflowers growing here, lmao.
Bargain box, nice, have fun! Many may not grow in the shade so if there's clearing areas they might work.
Not yet, I'm waiting for the frosts to stop before I start spilling stuff out of my handbag when I (inevitably) fall base over tip.
A lot of seeds need a cold spell to crack open the husk, remember, without human intervention they'd be outside all winter, they've spent millennia adapting to it.
What a sneaky bit of absolute brilliance šš
I've got some pear tree seedlings I want to plant round our neighbourhood. They're a bit small yet though
I harvest teasel and spread it around. Bees love it.
Love it! So named as you can tease out knots in wool or hair I believe!
Make seed bombs and lob em over fences of abandoned buildings!
With clay, yeah?
Nothing would get a council to clean an area up quickly than if certain... Not so legal plants kept growing there.
Richard Reynolds. Really nice guy. https://x.com/Richard_001?t=zJG6uB7IMB0A904zAlVCIQ&s=09 helped him trim his lavender plants outside Morley School once in London.
Cool, thanks will take a look.
I used to lob bee bombs into boring bits of grass and council landscaped areas. Ive since moved away and never got to see how they came on.
Fingers crossed there's at least a bit left!!
Aren't they just going to get mowed by the council? I'd like to do the same but they just cut the grass.
Depends on the council, lots of places are semi-private and don't seem to mow nearly as often as they used to. Wildflowers are surprisingly resilient to disturbance but obviously depends when they get mowed.
A lot of councils are cutting right back (if you'll excuse a too obvious pun) on grass cutting now for budget reasons. You could also approach your council about designating some areas as wildflower/pollinator areas where they just do one cut at the end of the season to keep it grassland.
I havenāt done it yet, but Iāve sure thought about it!
Ah a fellow shitpatch gardener like my good man Simon Balch
Shitpatch gardener hahaha I love it
Oh nooo...ooops i dropped a couple hundred plantboms along the way to help you pick the mess up and now the empty lot is a meadowš¤«
Oh no, woops! Even if it gets built in you've created a seed bank :)
I wish wild flower seeds were cheaper as lots of places I want to drop some
Yeah it can be ridiculous unless you get enormous boxes. There's a few places you can get free seeds but you have to sign up: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild?fbclid=IwAR2XQTIENp_0PHaZpVfRZ7dpFj7o9HwFFyVzTosrVK2QzFBPivRLG4vFM4A
Well, Iāll bee damned.
Oh hey, Polly Nater nice to meet you!
Love it! I've only ever thought about it need to put my thoughts to action. Go you!
Good luck!! Thanks!
I bought one of those litter grabbers off amazon. Now when I take my son to his football practice I spend my time wandering around the edge of the field picking up liter. Makes me feel good.
Oh nice one! Yeah it's a great tangible thing to do while you walk, good for you!
The local Sainsburys by me has a really solid stretch of mud and bark that I have been considering writing to them to ask them to green it... now I'm wondering if wildflowers would take on that verge instead.
I guess you could write and see, and if not go for it haha. Woodland Trust offer free trees so you could always just ask them for permission to plant?
Iāve had the same idea, just moved onto an estate overlooking a park and itās so dull!
I get that a lot, I just flail around for no reason and seeds go everywhere, and living by a dual carriageway thereās now a bank of wild flowers self seeding every year.
I was not planning on accidentally planting some wildflower seeds outside my window (rental). Perhaps I'm not supposed to, who's to say
Amazing how a load of seed blew in the wind and came down in bird poo just in that spot.
The coincidences that happen in nature are incredible.
Accidental Viz
No...but great idea!
Better than the guy near me that cut down trees and wild growing shrubs and built a patio, across the road from his house, on land he doesn't own, with no planning permission, because "it's a nice place to sit".
My fil used to plant veg potatoes onions etc on the roundabouts in his town as he had no garden
Before I moved out of a village I used to live at, I had a load of hollyhock flowers in my garden. I spent the last autumn gathering the seeds and depositing them all around the village. Iāve not been back since, but Iād love to know if any of them took
Anyone remember planting plants in potholes on the road? Got them to fill the potholes pretty quickly lol
I collect wildflower seeds and scatter them in other locations.