Wildflower Seeds

The poetic alternative to the expert's lawn (Figure 8) is the wildflower meadow (Figure 9). There, as Swinburn put it, "tides of grass break into foam of flowers'. The grand old man of wild gardening, William Robinson, once asked "Who would not rather see the waving grass with countless flowers than a close shaven surface without a bloom?'. As the possessor of a fine Victorian beard, he was fond of remarking that shaving your face is as foolish as shaving your grass. Meadows are undoubtedly good for conservation. However small the area, it is pleasant to look out on a habitat for birds and bees, caterpillars and butterflies, cow parsley, mallow and knapweed. One of the most beautiful effects in gardens is the contrast between mown and unmown grass.