The joys, and chores, of wildflowers

Find out how to get wildflowers established in your landscape with the first, and arguably the most important, step before sowing your seeds. This post is the first in the series about growing wildflowers successfully.

Phacelia campanularia, Desert Bluebells

Spring has arrived, and we are excited! Watching the spring wildflowers unfold their colorful, soft petals among our pokey, rocky landscapes makes this time of year special for all Tucsonans and Sonoran Desert admirers. Having wildflowers in your garden and landscape is possible with a little strategy! Even with an HOA, we can find compliant ways to incorporate this beauty into your home.

Sowing seeds at the right time is only one teeny part of getting wildflowers to successfully establish in your yard. I begin preparing my spring wildflowers for the next year while this year’s wildflowers are blooming! That sounds like a lot of prior planning, however, adding this small but mighty task will set us up for preparing the ground and spreading seed the rest of the year.

Images Left to Right: Pink Fairy Duster, Pincushion Cactus (photo by: Celesteal Photography), Mexican Evening Primroses, Brittlebush, Gordon’s Bladderpod, Tufted Evening Primroses with Lupine, California Poppy, Desert Chicory.

As I head out in the morning with a cup of coffee or to run the dogs around (after getting the kids rushed off to school, and before the fast pace of the workday begins), I love to spend a few blissful minutes admiring the day’s garden surprises. Not only do I get to enjoy the blooms and hummingbirds around each corner, but I have some work to do. I pull weeds. Ugh, that was not a fun sentence to write, because I felt everyone cringe! Weeds are any plant that you decide does not belong, unless it is classified as “Noxious” or “Invasive,” in which case it must be pulled for the sake of the local ecosystem (Among the top noxious weeds in Arizona is the fast spreading Stinknet. Highly flammable Buffelgrass is an infamous Invasive plant that poses a severe threat to our Saguaros).

You may not be a morning garden person, you may not even visit your garden during the workweek. That’s okay! I always recommend a quick check-in around the garden a few minutes a day for your health and to observe what’s going on with your beloved plants. However, if your time to visit the garden is on the weekends or another time of day, do whatever works for your lifestyle. This is something I explore with every coaching and/or consulting client to make sure gardening fits in with your lifestyle and is not a dreaded drawback.

For me, this year’s prevalent weeds are the annual winter grasses like Mediterranean Grass that are non-native to our area. I noticed with the late arrival of winter rains, these grasses germinated readily and carpeted the disturbed and empty spots in the garden. Often, these areas have a cute little native flower called Purple Mat, or Nama, and it provides a nice seasonal groundcover. I do not have much Purple Mat this year as the grass germinated first and outcompeted it. Insert a little sad face. This grass is easily identified by being low to the ground, and the seed heads also stay pretty low and spread out.

Annual Rye Grass

A non-native winter growing grass, germinated readily and outcompeted many wildflowers in my gardens. It is commonly used as a turf grass in the area.

This is the part of putting in the hard work for next year’s wildflower show. Pulling the weeds. If I let the grasses seed, that is amplifying the weed problem for next year, and it will outcompete the wildflower seeds. Have you ever heard, “One year’s weed is seven years of seed.” Left to seed, there will be hundreds more little plants ready to germinate in another year. That’s why “weeds” are so “weedy,” as they are very easy to germinate, and then they’re strong growers. They take up all the room, shading out other seeds/sprouts, and using up all the precious nutrients in the soil you wanted the native plants to use.

Carefully pull the roots and plant out from the wildflowers

I carefully pull out each little grassy root system. Yes, pull. I wish there was an easy way out, but the commercial herbicide sprays are harmful to the ecosystem (and our health) and the natural vinegar sprays usually don’t work well enough. A hula hoe is a helpful tool to grab large swaths of weeds without squatting or hurting your back too much. Don’t forget to bag it and toss it. Even pulled fresh, many plants will dry out creating viable seeds (which means they can still germinate in future years)

This is my first step toward next year’s wildflower glory. Weeding. It’s a constant year-round chore, and requires a few minutes every day or an hour on the weekend. Every year it gets easier, and the more your wildflowers and perennials reseed, the less weeding in the future. And if you’re in an HOA, weeding will also keep the penalty letters out of your mailbox!

If you need more help planning and gardening for wildflowers, please get in touch. I can even help you weed. Let’s turn your dream garden into reality!