We have a small strip of unirrigated land, where until last fall, we just let the weeds grow, then mowed them down when they started to dry out. We decided that wildflowers would be more interesting than weeds, or at least these weeds.

We selected a California native mix, with a good range of species. There should be baby blue eyes, California poppy, farewell to Spring, and a number of other species. They should flower from sometime in March until probably sometime in May.

Soil preparation was mimimal – water the area, wait a week or so for weeds to sprout, then cultivate them out. Chemical herbicides were out of the question, since this is supposed to be a sustainable, non-toxic landscape. Due to a late start, we only got through one watering / cultivation cycle before the season’s first rains were due. Just before the first storm, the seeds were mixed with some compost to thin them out, then broadcast over their new home.

Within a bit over a week, the first sprouts were growing. The only things we could identify were the poppies and some lupines. As the cotyledons grew into real leaves, we were able to add the farewell to Spring to the list of successful sprouts, along with a number of unknowns that could either be more weeds or our new wildflowers.

Now that several months have passed, we found that a good number of our potential wildflowers were in fact weeds. Foxtail, cranesbill, and several others. Despite the passage of a lawn mower piloted by an overzealous neighbor over part of the bed, most of the plants are developing nicely.

The first thing we learned is that it’s hard to remove weeds when you don’t know what’s a weed and what’s a wildflower. Luckily, some species of weeds bloomed early and thus proved their true nature.

The second thing we learned is that there is a lot of weeding involved, even for a strip that is barely three feet by ten feet. Better planting area preparation probably would have helped out a lot here.

Now, it’s wait and see for the bloom season.