Allotments 4 All
Produce => Wildlife forum => Topic started by: lavenderlux on March 28, 2009, 21:04:47
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I noted "Saddad's" comments on another thread that he lets certain weeds grow on his plot; I also let selected 'weeds' grow on mine, so I wondered if others do too?
The ones I let grow (usually where they happen to appear) are scarlet pimpernel, field scabious, musk mallow and a dear little annual pink antirrhinum (which has the unglamorous name of 'weasel snout'). This last is a weed which used to grow on my grandad's allotment when I was a little girl and got me interested in growing things, its now quite a rare arable weed but I found a source of seed a few years ago and grew a small patch and it self seeds.
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Well yes, obviously I do...
Speedwell makes a good overwintering ground cover/green manure, the trick is to turn it in before it starts flowering/seeding.
Both native poppies, shepherds purse, and perversely Nigella... :)
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I get speedwell everywhere on my plot. It seeds like mad, covers the ground once the worms have polished off the mulch, and never grows high enough to compete with the veg. So, for instance, I mulch my onions, and that keeps the weeds down till they're well grown. Then speedwell appears, but by that time the onions are big enough to cope.
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and the flowers are lovely aren't they Robert... ;D
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My veggie plots are in my own garden, a place I regard as a wildlife sanctuary, with me as the warden! I've deliberately sown my garden plot with plants you wouldn't normally find.
I have 5 kinds of grass as a meadow, some that grow about a metre tall with big seed heads.
I have red clover, salad burnet, birds foot trefoil, poppies and lupins spreading through the meadow.
This month I have sown teasels, because I found goldfinches love them.
I have fiddleneck growing mad everywhere, also in my veggie beds. That pleases me much, because fiddleneck is about the best plant I know for attracting bees.
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I've deliberately grown salad burnett... nice cucumber taste, teasles of course but what is fiddle neck??? :)
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And nettles, of course!
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I let Verbena bonariensis grow more or less anywhere it pops up, and figwort here and there. All other weeds get cleaned up as time permits. There is always lots of flowers on my plot but these are planted by me.
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No I'm sorry Eristis but that "purple weed" has got to go..... ;D
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saddad, here you go for fiddleneck,
http://pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Phacelia+tanacetifolia
you really should have known this one!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Yep, I know it, just not by that name... :)
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saddad, here you go for fiddleneck,
http://pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Phacelia+tanacetifolia
I paid money for that as a green manure!
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scarlet pimpernel, heartease, dandelions (i like to eat the flowers lightly fried with toast), Mullen, calendula, California poppies, borage, nigella, wild strawberries, foxgloves, feverfew and maybe one or two more that haven't crossed my mind. some of them are escapes from my flower bed areas and some are plants that were established through out the garden when i moved here back in 2003.
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Hi all,
I have an area about 2 square metres of self seeding corn cockles, these may not strictly be a weed, more a wild flower (any difference?) But they produce a lovely blue flower, that attracts lots of insects. I do have to thin them out, but I don`t consider it weeding.
Adrian.
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Thifasmum, what do the flower heads taste like? quote-dandelions (i like to eat the flowers lightly fried with toast),
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Thifasmum, what do the flower heads taste like? quote-dandelions (i like to eat the flowers lightly fried with toast),
hmmm, not sure i could describe the flavour, they are like eating a dandelion flower (hee hee) sorry :-[. try it (remove all the green bits as they can be bitter :P) and you decide i just like the different texture and freshness. it can be eaten raw but the kids and i prefer it lightly fried on toast. i also add it roughly torn up to stir frys for a touch of colour.
i use many flowers in my food preperation in their raw and cooked forms, once they are edible i try them, haven't come accross one i didn't like as yet.
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I like this thread! different people have different wild flowers - depending I suppose on the soil, the climate in their part of the country etc. Whereas we all grow the same crops all across the country.
I like that weedy diversity.
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Whereas we all grow the same crops all across the country.
Do we?
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My garden veg plot is covered with forget me nots, stunning. What is wrong with phacelia tanacetifolia its supposed to be a good green manure. I know it as Califormian Bluebell, does it have other names? Also have primroses.
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definitely not.
firewort, creeping buttercups,bindweed,nettles,
all look beautiful in flower,even dandelions.
dig them, poisen them, sheen them,
that's my motto >:( >:( >:(
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Fiddleneck is apparently another name for phacalia... :)
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I've put a mention on the bumblebee post too, white dead nettles (http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/search.php?name=(search%20text)&pl=5&adv=1&ot=&r=0&g=0&p=1&o=853) are a useful food plant as the bees are out so early, and dead nettles are one of the few things in flower.
PS
I HATE sites like this http://www.killthatweed.co.uk/deadnettle.html >:(
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A weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted.
I never want buttercups, docks, nettles, bind weed, chick weed, dandelions or thistles among others, I do not know the name of growing in the beds wanted for fruit and vegetables. In fact they are hoed to death long before they get a chance to grow big enough to be identified.
Cultivated flowers, are where I deliberately put them.
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I let Verbena bonariensis grow more or less anywhere it pops up, and figwort here and there. All other weeds get cleaned up as time permits. There is always lots of flowers on my plot but these are planted by me.
I didn't know this was classed as a weed and have found that it does not pop-up at all in my garden and have wondered why not. Is it possible that my soil is too rich if it is indeed a weed?.
In fact, as a result of the ones I had last year and the year before not coming back in profusion I have sown more seeds this week. Isn't it strange?
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heartsease - that is one I'm reluctant to pull up.
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I've also got purple dead nettles growing. I've found its about the only plant in April that has a bit of nectar for the early bees..........and this April here in Denmark has been warm and dry with quite a few bees.
My Phacelia tanacetifolium is only just starting to flower now.
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Hi all, :)
I`ve managed to get poppies and evening primrose to seed in more convenient places this year by stacking the dried plants by the plot edges last year. I allow a couple of golden rods to regrow every year because the wasps like them and apparently the wasp larvae eat slugs. Other plot holders dislike these weeds, and suggest I uproot them. In the past if they got large enough to be seen when hoeing I just went round them. I had poppies in my broad beans. I allow nettles and hyacinths to grow under my blackberries at each end of the plot and avoid strimming them to extinction. I have clumps of comfrey that I leave for the bees, but I throw a handful of slug pellets under the leaves from time to time.
I don`t let dandelions make seed, I kill groudsel, shepherds purse, chick weed, fat hen, dead nettle, thistle, and dock and of course bindweed on sight at this time of the year. Later in the year I don`t worry about weeds quite so much because the crops are better able to compete.
I also have self-seeding Nasturtiums which are stronger than the ones I grow and I transfer them or leave them be, They provide excellent ground cover and hold back weeds. I harvest nasturtium seed for pickling.
Col
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heartsease - that is one I'm reluctant to pull up.
yep they are so pretty, i have these recently popping up in the veg beds late last year and early this year, so as not to kill them when adding compost etc i potted up the sedlings and plants i found and replanted them in my flower beds and even on the edge of the vege bed foot paths.