Walking with my family close to nature during late Sunday times has been a practice that I definitely enjoyed while I was a kid. Especially, if these long walks took place during spring time, I became extremely excited since I was able to admire all those wild flowers that attracted my attention and collect as many as I wanted for my bedroom's vase. As during the past few years I've read about, and have seen more interest in wildflowers, I figured it was about time to jump in and add my two cents.

Planting wild flowers in your backyard is not as an easy process as you might imagine. Just because the flowers you select to plant belong to the "wild" type that does not mean that they are able to survive without any attention or be sprayed with harmful pesticides.

First of all, the one interested in exploring the wild flowers business has to understand what kind of neighborhood wildflowers would be appropriate for the specific situation he or she lives in. It is true that wild flowers tend to prefer wide open spaces with at least 8 hours of sunshine each day. It is also true, they are sun worshipers. They also like the soil to be rich in nutrients and well drained. What wild flowers do not like is the hard packed soil and also being watered for long periods of time. If you garden tends to be frequently wet, wildflowers might not be the best choice for your outdoor surroundings.

But, wildflowers can be used for weed control and with a great deal of success. It is better though if you have to give wildflowers a start or the weeds will keep the area free from your original goal of a beautiful wildflower garden. Since both love the sun, weeds and wildflowers try both to reach the surface of the ground so as to gain as much sunlight as possible. Neither will grow well without adequate sunlight. Using this information to your advantage and you can end up with a beautiful bed of wildflowers that requires little maintenance.

The Wild Flower Preservation Society, whose headquarters are in Washington, D.C., makes the following recommendation to wild flower fans, "Do not pick or dig up wild flowers in quantity unless they are abundant or weedy. Wild flowers that are not abundant should be picked or dug up very sparingly." If the years I used to pick up wild flowers have long passed, perhaps it is time to grow some of my own in my back yard and share them with the people I care about. If you belong to the same group, there is always a good possibility we will meet in one of those flower markets, someday down the road.