Call of the wild

An unexpected treat in the fridge has given Toby the chance to transform a patch of grass into a floral fantasy

- Toby Buckland

LAST year, I received a ‘thank you’ card from Sainsbury’s for being in ‘the top 4% of people nationwide who purchase filo pastry’. Surely it must have been a case of mistaken identity? Apart from mille-feuille treats, goat’s cheese tarts, salmon wraps and baclava, I hardly touch the stuff. That said, I do have filo pastry to thank for an even greater achievement.

I was searching in the nether reaches of the fridge for a box of the ready-rolled sheets, when there – among the ancient jars of marmalade and olives, picked during the reign of Tutankhamun – I found a packet of ox-eye daisy seeds.

Now I’ve no recollection of buying them. Perhaps they came ‘free’ with a filo pastry six-pack? We’ll never know. But with their white daisy blooms and ability to grow in long grass, they are just the go-to wildflower I need for converting a lawn into a meadow.

Establishing wildflowers in existing dite d grass is tricky. Competition for water and light within the sward is so intense that seeds sown straight into the lawn invariably get muscled out. A more reliable method, then, is the two-stage approach: sowing into small pots or modules, and planting out once rooted and already in growth.