A spent a couple of hours weeding today. I filled the wheelbarrow with
dandilions and dock leaves, bind weed and ground elder - I never allow
those to stay and yet thinking about it my garden is actually full of
weeds!
In Scotland lupins grow at the side of the main roads and in Wales crocosmia springs up all over the place.
If a weed is a plant not introduced by the gardener then those daisies are definitely weeds.
A small patch appeared a few years back and I liked them so they stayed. You can go off things though: I select where I let them grow now otherwise they would be EVERYWHERE!
I like daisies in the lawn so I never pull them up and I let the celandines stay too but I dig the dandilions up before they spread.
These get to stay. It's orange hawkweed or Fox and Cubs. No idea why it's called that unless it's the orange colour and the way the buds clump behind an open flower (?).
The poppies are positively encouraged:
How can you dislike foxgloves when the bees love them or neetles with such pretty foliage?
It's very odd. I pull up bind weed the moment I see it yet it too has lovely flowers. I think dandilions are quite beautiful but I've been brainwashed to dig them out!
A few yards away on the lane there are all sorts of things growing that I like the look of but wouldn't let them invade my patch.
Some difficult choices have to be made - I certainly don't consider foxgloves a weed or poppies - I do leave a patch of buttercups in one border though and the bees love dandelions but I pull the heads of just before they go to seed.
ReplyDeleteBindweed is the bane of our allotment and yet I love to see it flowering n the hedgerows and I am growing morning glory that is very similar. Maybe if it was more retrained and well behaved and didn't smother other things I would tolerate it..
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