Wildflower garden: how prepare for spring?

[Larry Gagnon]

I live in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, so typical northwest mild climate, wet winters and warm, dry summers. We just moved into a house this April which has a large L-shaped wildflower garden in the back yard.

The wildflowers have bloomed from March-October, at least 30 species, very nice. However, since early October they have died off, leaving stalks (which we pulled after shaking off seeds), but now there is a mat of weeds and fine grass growing throughout the bed, through which I do not think some wildflowers will be able to get through in the spring.

I have consequently taken a hoe and scraped and raked the upper 1-2" of soil, thereby loosening it and removing all the weed and grass, ensuring I have taken as little soil and seeds out as possible.

I am unsure whether that was the right thing to do for this annuals wildflower garden? Any other ideas appreciated.

Also, would a thin layer of leaf mulch be ok for this bed and what sort of fertilizer shall I apply in the spring?

thanks....Larry Gagnon

[SAS567]

Hi Larry, I live in Mid-Michigan and I have 2 wildflower gardens that I've had for

13yrs. I don't do very much to them except cut the stalks of the dead flowers down and pile them up in the garden to allow all the possible seed to fall to the ground. Then in the spring, I weed them the best I can and they take off. They are always different every year. Last summer the Purple Coneflowers were the most dominate in one garden and Black-Eyed-Susans in the other. Good Luck, Sue