Chaos gardening is one of the hottest trends in the gardening space at the moment, but what is this and how can you do it? Find out here!
Gardening Tips
11 / 12 / 2024
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Imagine the joy of mixing all your favourite flower seeds together, grabbing a handful of them, and letting them run through your fingers as you sprinkle them across your flower beds. Welcome to one of the tireless gardening trends of the 2020s: Chaos Gardening.
What is Chaos Gardening?
It’s sounds dramatic, doesn’t it. The word “chaos” invoking turmoil and anarchy. But what it really means, is relaxing about how our gardens will turn out. So-called ‘chaos gardening’ is about embracing chance and unpredictability, and letting go of some of the control we try to have in our gardens.
The trend of chaos gardening grew across social media, but it has also been embraced at the Chelsea Flower Show, and it’s not hard to imagine that it will have been a technique that gardeners have used across time, just not very vocally. Maybe in those furthest corners of a garden, where seeds are used up rather than left to go stale.
There are no fixed rules to chaos gardening, which is certainly part of the joy of it. Some people like to mix flowers, herbs and vegetables together, others to keep them separate. And some may like to keep some forms of order within the chaos, sub-dividing their seeds, for example by colour: pinks and purples and blues together in one flower bed, and then reds, yellows and oranges in another.
The popularity of this trend is easy to understand. It is low maintenance, easy to manage, and it will appeal to people who don’t have experience and confidence in traditional gardening abilities.
One drawback is that it will be hard to weed, but proponents would argue that’s also part of the point: allowing plants to thrive, whether weed or precious flower.
How to do chaos gardening
While it’s low-maintenance, if you want to give this form of gardening a try, you’ll still need to prepare your soil. Start in May, after the risk of frosts has passed, to give the seeds the best chance. Scattered seeds won’t all take, and if your soil quality is poor, you will further restrict what might grow before they’ve even started. Add some compost and organic matter and break up any hard earth with a fork, to help it drain well.
You can either use the ends of seed packets and seeds collected in previous autumns, or buy new packets to get started. If budget is an issue, you could split seed packets with friends, to increase the variety of plants you’re scattering.
If you’re choosing new seeds, think a little about the placement, sun and shelter the flowerbed gets, and choose varieties that are likely to thrive there. And ones that you love the look of too, of course! Mixing variants with differing heights will give the most natural looking effect, replicating the look of a meadow or field of wild flowers.
Most seeds have different instructions about how to plant if you’re setting them up in seed trays. Like the depth they should be at, how far apart. Before scattering seeds, you can choose whether to make holes in the soil with a rake that some seeds may fall into, or to spread a little soil over the seeds afterwards. Either way, be ready for some flowers to take and others not to.
Nurturing scattered beauty
So: your soil is ready, you’ve got your seeds – here’s the fun bit. Mix your seeds together, and start scattering! Experienced gardeners who are proud of their perfect borders might find this hard to fathom, but it really is that easy. And that chaotic!
You’ll need to keep your beds watered while the seeds are germinating and as they start to grow and get established. You may also need a plan to protect exposed beds from birds – your friendly local bluetits might have thought you were putting out a snack for them!
When your seedlings start coming up, you may also need some slug and snail protection strategies, to prevent the tender shoots from getting nibbled to bits.
If you’re lucky, and lots of little seedlings start coming up, some may need thinning out. You can do this by digging up some that are too close together and gently separating them, or pinching some of them out.
The best plants for chaos gardening
As mentioned, you can choose to keep it just to flowers, or to mix herbs and vegetables in too. Some plants can be hard to grow and need very specific care and environments, so it’s best to steer clear of them. Equally, plants and vegetables that need to be staked or depend on specific types of support, may not work well in this method. If you’re mixing edible herbs and vegetables with plants, make sure you’re not planting anything that’s toxic to humans amongst them.
Be led by what you love to see in your garden, and then take factors such as flowering season, height and colour combinations into consideration.
If you want some inspiration to get started, here are some ideas for flowers you could choose:
- Cornflowers
- Meadowsweet
- Nasturtiums
- Marigolds
- Cosmos
- Nigella
- Bachelors Button
- Cleome
- Poppies & California Poppies
And why not mix in some herbs, ornamental grasses and your favourite vegetables?
Let nature do its thing, enjoy the glorious chaos
The first year you embrace chaos gardening, it may feel very different to how you have grown things before. But once you see what thrives in your flower beds, maybe what colours you want more of next year, which combinations you found most delightful, you’ll be able to expand chaos gardening to fit your taste and your garden.
You also don’t have to go all-in straight away and turn over your flower beds to the beautiful chaos. You could start with seed scattering in some pots or containers, to see the effect, and work out how it could be an enjoyable part of your gardening routine.
And as far as trends go, it’s great to see one that will be supportive to pollinators and wildlife. Not to mention one that can be bright and fun, without needing a lot of expensive equipment and extensive horticultural competence.
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