Is A Chaos Garden Really As Simple As It Sounds?

I think every millennial remembers exactly where they were the first time they saw Miss Honey’s wildflower garden in Matilda. I swear, from that moment on, we were all obsessed with flowers and gardens, dreaming of the day we’d have our own little cottage and a spot to grow black-eyed susans, primrose, and bluebells. (OK, maybe The Secret Garden in the ‘90s helped, too.) But gardening can be incredibly high-maintenance and time-consuming, and it’s also overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. That’s why “chaos gardens” have taken over social media, and honestly, it feels too good to be true.

“Chaos gardening” is almost exactly what it sounds like — there are no real “rules” to follow with this type of gardening. The idea is to get a pack of mixed flower seeds, sprinkle them in an area of your yard, and just water them. No sowing, no perfecting the placement or spacing between the seeds, no tilling up the dirt to make a perfect spot for the flowers. You’re meant to shake the seeds all over, spritz on some water, and enjoy your flourishing garden. You’re meant to be chaotic about it.

But there are also benefits to chaos gardens beyond the beauty they bring to your yard. These are great gardens to grow if you’d like to help the pollinators in your area, and they can bring all sorts of nature to your yard, from butterflies and bees to hummingbirds and even bats.

While a chaos garden seems super easy to throw together, there are still some things to consider if you want yours to be successful. “Chaos gardening embraces nature’s unpredictability,” Mary Jane Duford, a master gardener and certified permaculture garden designer, tells Scary Mommy. “It’s about loosening control while working with your site’s natural conditions.”

What kind of seeds should you buy for a chaos garden?

That’s the key there — loosening control. Because as much as I’d love to tell you every chaos garden is going to work, that’s not always the case. And a lot of it depends on the types of seeds you buy.

“Wildflower seed blends vary widely in quality and content. Some mixes are thoughtfully curated for specific growing zones and include beneficial native species that support local pollinators,” Duford says. “Others are low-quality blends filled with ‘filler’ seeds like grasses or annuals that sprout quickly but don’t offer much value to pollinators and generally do not come back the following year. Look for suppliers that list the names of the species included in the seed mix, provide germination rates, and indicate where the seeds were harvested. Avoid mixes that don’t list specific species or include vague labels like ‘wildflower mix’ without further details.”

Duford also emphasizes the importance of checking your region and selecting seed mixes that are well-suited to your location. “Some wildflower mixes contain aggressive plants that are fine in some regions, but problematic in others. For example, plants like bachelor’s button or common flax are loved in some areas but can be considered invasive elsewhere,” she says. You can check your local extension office website to see what would work best in your own yard.

You can also try choosing a mix of annuals and perennials to get blooms the first year and into future seasons, Duford says. She recommends avoiding any species that spread aggressively if you’re hoping to keep your garden contained to one area. She also suggests scattering the seeds more densely than with traditional sowing: “Mix fine seeds with sand before planting to help distribute them more evenly, and add extra pollinator favorites like bee balm, purple coneflower, and milkweed.”

Duford says that wildflower gardens often take a full season or two to hit their stride, but it’s best to leave flowers to reseed themselves naturally and feed birds rather than cleaning out your garden beds.

Does chaos gardening require any soil prep?

Some videos will show a person simply raking the dirt before tossing in seeds, while others show gardeners fertilizing their area. However, Duford says no matter what, you should do some soil prep, as it can make a huge difference in wildflower seed germination.

“Even though chaos gardening sounds like you can skip the prep, a bit of groundwork goes a long way,” she says. “The seeds still need good contact with the soil and minimal competition from weeds or grass if you want a majority of the seeds to ‘take.’” You also want to try and plant seeds close together to shade out the weeds.

If you want a minimum-effort chaos garden, Duford recommends these steps:

• Mow the area low
• Rake off any plant debris
• Rough up your soil surface with a metal gravel rake or garden hoe
• Water the area well
• Scatter seeds and pat them down so they make good contact with the soil
• Water gently

If you have the time and energy for a full prep — and want the best results — try these steps from Duford:

• Pull or dig out existing vegetation
• Till the top few inches of soil
• Mix in compost
• Mix in sand if needed to improve drainage in heavy clay soils
• Rake the area smooth
• Scatter seeds and press them in gently
• Water gently

How often should you water your chaos garden?

“Wildflower seeds need consistent moisture until they germinate,” Duford says. “Water gently once or twice a day if there’s no rain, especially during the first two weeks. Once the seedlings are a few inches tall, you can scale back your watering efforts.”

Can you really just plant your chaos garden anywhere?

One of my favorite parts about chaos gardening is how often people seem to be throwing the wildflowers down literally anywhere — up against porches, around fire pits, on the back side of their house — but Duford says you should think a little bit about where you want these flowers to grow. “Leave a buffer zone around structures,” she says. “Wildflower patches can hold moisture, attract insects, and spread beyond their intended area. In a wildfire-prone area, choose low-flammability plants and keep more wild areas well away from buildings.”

And wherever you plant your flowers, Duford recommends you leave seed heads, hollow stems, and leaf litter in place. “This supports wildlife, builds soil health, and allows some plants to reseed naturally. It can look messy, but it's part of the fun of a self-renewing system. Let nature decide your garden design.”

Can you make a chaos garden with vegetables?

If you'd like to try growing your own veggies this summer, you can use some of the same chaos garden tips to make an incredible vegetable garden. "Instead of neatly sowing rows in your veggie garden, try broadcasting — aka, throwing — a mix of vegetable and flower seeds across bare soil in your garden bed. You can grow lettuce, spinach, radishes, calendula, cilantro, whatever, all in one patch, harvesting what works and letting the rest bloom or reseed. Only choose edible species, though, if you're mixing things up in your food garden," Duford recommends.

She says you can also sprinkle seeds from kitchen produce, like squash, peppers, and peas, into a patch of soil and see what happens next for "peak chaos." It can lead to "surprise crops, especially in compost piles or forgotten corners of the yard."

And if you want to go a veggie-growing route, leave some space in your food garden for "self-seeded 'volunteers' to grow where they land." Duford says plants like pumpkin, dill, calendula, nasturtiums, and even tomatoes often reseed themselves. "Rather than pulling them out, chaos gardeners identify them and let them stay if the spot works."

What else should you add to a chaos garden?

So, your chaos garden can be as simple as one bag of wildflower seed mix or seeds from your veggie scraps. If you want to get even simpler, Duffer recommends leaving lawn patches unmowed or partially wild to invite violets, yarrow, and dandelions to bloom freely: “These patches help pollinators, improve soil, and reduce maintenance while slowly turning into a meadow.”

You can also set up bird feeders and birdbaths near your chaos garden so that the birds can help spread and “plant” self-sowers like sunflowers, Duford says. This kind of strategy leads you to some surprise plants, which can add to that wild, natural feeling. You can also look up which weeds in your yard provide ground cover and attract pollinators, so then you don’t feel like you have to constantly pull them out or clean your beds.

Above all, your chaos garden is meant to be an easy, simple, low-maintenance way to grow things in your own yard. While this information may seem like a lot, the basics are the same: Spread the seeds, give them some water, see what happens. Duford even suggests that you can stop watering altogether once your seeds have sprouted and are established to encourage strong roots, conserve water, and favor plants that are well-suited to your area’s conditions. You can really make this as simple as you want, while giving your yard all the benefits — and helping the pollinators, too.