Hello,

I've let the grass grow by accident in my new garden, then stumbled on the idea of a wild garden to help wildlife. I've bought some seeds for native UK wildflowers to help this along.

My question is, do I need to remove the grass already there? I'm not sure what type of grass it is, will it prevent the new seeds coming through. Thank you for any advice!

You should remove the grass. If it is in a previous garden bed, it should come up pretty easily.

It is not really a question of the seeds coming up it is more about competition! The new seedlings trying to compete for light and more importantly water, with the faster growing, more aggressive weeds/grass.

Thank you so much! Speaking of competition one of the 'wildflower' seeds I got was for a butterfly bush. But on further research I've discovered this is an invasive species, so I might leave that one out.

butterfly bush as in Buddleia, that is correct. Naughty seed seller.
https://www.tcmknotweedservice....

Butterfly WEED Asclepias is a good plant. at least, in US.

I see one problem with eliminating Buddleia from your garden scheme, there is no better plant in my opinion when it comes to attracting pollinators!!
Mine attract Red Admirals, Black Swallowtails, Tiger Seallowtails, Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Fritilliaries and at least three species of skippers. I wish all of my plants did that!
Oh yes, bumblebees and honeybees love it too.
I don't mind if I have to pull some Buddleia seedlings.

Thank you everyone! Such helpful advice

Hi NewGardener97,
I would get rid of the grass since you aren't sure what it is. You can do this naturally without a lot of pulling and also without chemcials. If you use cardboard boxes flattened out and then wet, and weighted down with bricks, stones etc., your grass will be dead next spring. You can start with sections if it's all too much at once.
Actually, NATIVE grasses are an important addition to a wildflower area. The taller grasses especially help to keep the wildflowers from flopping over and provide a place for bees to hide and perhaps nest. You could research over the winter for the perrenials you like and also native UK grasses. All the Best!

https://garden.org/forums/view...
The thread "Year 4 Wildflowers progress" in Wildflowers forum