my lawn has been taken over!

I'd love to be invaded by violets!

Oo no Espee no! Not stone chips.

I get what youre saying about hard work and it may be a better option to get a mower I can handle.

My "advisor" , a botanist who has a garden with hardly any lawn just beautiful plants and trees, thinks leaving it to nature would be a good experiment and has offered to scythe it in the Autumn.

Outside the front of my bungalow there is a large gravel area - this year it is full of violets that have seeded there - it looks lovely.

As to the back garden - I refer to my "lawn" as green vegetation, as even calling it grass is an exaggeration!

My lawn is sprinkled with violets Luckygirl, back and front. I've no idea where they came from and I did want to take the turf from one area of lawn to a patch which is rewilding.
But perhaps I'll just leave them and mow around them.

They're very pretty.
Now, off to do something about the dandelion infestation.

Baggs, even my neighbour who has a 'wild' garden, carefully maintained, mentioned the dandelions and thought perhaps they could become a nuisance.
She said it so nicely we feel we must do something about them.

It's hard to say when it is not flowering. I encourage hedge cranesbill as I like it a lot and it's already in flower, so I doubt if it is cranesbill.

It does not look like creeping buttercup as this already is in creeping habit.

If your plant forms distinct clumps which resist easy pulling out I think it might be a buttercuppy thing that I dislike as it takes over my garden both 'lawn' and at the edges of bushes. I don't know the name of it.The tiny flowers when they come are on long rather stiff stems and are like small yellow stars.

I agree, it rather looks like creeping buttercup, it can be very invasive, we had it in our front lawn before we had the driveway extended, and it covered the side boarders and ruined all my pretty little alpine plants that l had set in my rock garden.

It's wild cranesbill, so a weed but not unattractive. Small pinky purple flowers. You probably need to weed and reseed which is hard work. Or leave it as it is. Grass is quite tough but has a habit of growing everywhere except where you want it.

Our 'lawn' is moss and weeds now.
We do hade a scarifier somewhere but as they're not collecting garden waste now it seems pointless to try to remove the moss.

I think we should stop insulting wild flowers by calling them weeds.

I also think it's a cranesbill, not a buttercup. I'd be delighted to have it in my garden.

You can mow lawns where wildflowers grow, you know, just not as often as for grass. Sadly I think many gardeners, and people who are not gardeners except for mowing grass, are a bit too tidy minded to enjoy wild flowers. Hey ho.

I thought cranesbill was a proper garden plant. I did have a lot before we changed the border.

However, without seeing the flower, I will reserve judgement.
Perhaps seeing a sideways view would be helpful.

Some cranesbills are.

Though all the wild flowers I know are also "proper" ?

Native cranesbill (geranium) or seedlings from geraniums in borders. Do you want a grass-only lawn, though, if other plants are happier there? Sometimes it's easier to go with the flow.

To me they look like poppies?

@Grammaretto. Leaving it to nature is likely to lead to complaints from neighbours when their garden is invaded by dandelions, willow herb and the like from your patch. I kept on top of the invasive weeds by e.g. putting a pinch of lawn sand in the heart of each dandelion plant and pulling out the likes of willow herb as soon as it had flowered. It’s the grass that has beaten me.

Yes I agree Espee it is a big risk and I may chicken out. It has hardly started growing yet so I have a few weeks to decide. Botanist friend mentioned planting yellow rattle to discourage the grass. It sounds like harder work than mowing.

Mine is similar, OP. For a long time now I’ve referred to our small lawn (tongue in cheek) as a wildflower meadow instead. Lots of violets and buttercups (as well as less welcome invaders). This year there are a number of forget me nots , too.

When it’s buttercup season I get dh to leave a couple of big patches of them when mowing - they’re so lovely and cheerful to look at from the kitchen window,

I have done this and even planted wildflower mixes, few of which have grown and the more invasive species have taken over.

Thank you for the tip about the lawn sand, Esspee
I mentioned it to DH and he said 'good idea - if we had any!'

My vote is for most of the plans in the picture being wild cranesbill. Very good photo here. wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/C/Cranesbill(Hedgerow)/Cranesbill(Hedgerow).htm

It is a pretty plant, and a relation of the cultivated cranesbills and geraniums you can buy, but more spindly and with smaller flowers.

If you hook your fingers round a kind of "shoulder" at ground level, you can pull out the roots quite easily and that will be one plant out. However, the seeds are in a long seedcase (like a cranes beak!) which bursts explosively when it is ripe and dry enough, scattering the seeds far and wide, so if you let it flower you will have dozens of baby plants next year.

If the plant in the picture is wild cranesbill it will be very easy to pull out. If it's a buttercuppy plant it will be virtually impossible to pull out with your fingers.

Google Images for cranesbill weed. I'm sure that's what it is. We have a garden plant variety but I can't remember the name, with the same leaves and blue/purple flowers.

We have masses of cranesbill in the garden - it only started appearing 2 or 3 years ago. Unfortunately it’s never where I’d like it - I’ve pulled up so many, but at least it’s very easy to pull up. Funnily enough a dd’s garden 2 counties away has been similarly invaded.

One wild flower I positively welcome is corydalis lutea (I’ve never been able to find a common name for it - does anyone know one?) which springs up every year along our walls and fences. Small tubular yellow flowers and leaves rather like maidenhair fern.
Will try to find a photo to post.

This is it. Also found that it’s common name is Yellow Fumitory. I think it deserves a nicer name!