Friday, August 17, 2012

corn flower flag weeds


















Another of  the "wild flowers" sown in a muslin mat in  the Spring,which are bringing bees and butterflies and other insects to the vegetable garden. This is I suspect a rather cultivated cornflower as distinct from the more common and less domesticated variety found, at least in the old days, in cornfields.

On the pavement outside our house is  a team Great Britain union flag. Though  I am not madly patriotic it gives me a little pleasure and a little pride to stick it in  the hedge.  I hope that it will still be there to welcome the guests we are expecting in the next few days.

Weeds are plants growing where they are not wanted. Like most gardeners I regard them as enemies. But not all the time. When  they do not intrude they become wild flowers  with charm, pretty names, lovely flower or  curious habits. In my garden I regularly  try to eliminate oxalis, pink and yellow flowered;  creeping buttercups; ground elder; groundsel;  fools parsley; sow thistle; fat hen; speedwell; docks; dead nettles; plantains; sun spurge; bindweed; chickweed and many others including dandelions. Knowing the names is the first hurdle, getting to like them, the second.















































































3 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Love-in-the-mist, pleasingly named and pleasingly viewed, is said to be a weed by those who know (eg, Mrs LdP, Brian the Gardener). Only its persistence seems to support this theory. I remain ignorant and appreciative.

Lucy said...

Groundsel isn't beautiful, but when we were kids we had a budgie who loved it, so a good fresh clump of it was always a happy find, and that instant pleasure response still returns momentarily when I see it now.

I've been meaning to ask about your muslin flower mat. I bought a packet of mixed seeds, cornflowers, marigolds, corn-cockle and a few others for about 20 euro-cents and sowed them in a rough bit newly uncovered, and they have brought much joy especially for so little cost, both in situ and as cut flowers. However, they still have to fight it out with the weeds already in the soil. I have heard you can peg down a bit of green horticultural tarpaulin mulch stuff, put a very thin layer of soil on top and sow them in that, but does your muslin suppress the weed that might otherwise come up from below? Where did you get it from?

Unknown said...

Lucy Groundsel comes up easily when you pull., apart apparently from bugie food its only virtue.

The mat was an extravagance but worth it. The ad said it contained 60, 000 seeds and I now believe it. They should seed themselves next year.

L da P Love in a Mist according to most reliable sources when found in the wild is a garden escape, rather the opposite of a weed.