It is often said that a weed is only a plant growing in the wrong place. Since l dispute the subject frequently with my husband, I’ve come to the conclusion that the definition is in the mind of the beholder!
In an entirely tamed garden such as he favours, these small unassuming plants would have been dug up and discarded as undesirable. Today, I found them growing wild and undisturbed beside a wall near a track through a local wood and I could study them freely. Here, they were not weeds at all. They were most determinedly in the right place and what a pleasure they were to draw up close.
Stinging nettle, growing where it should
Camomile growing profusely
I must apologise for the rather scrappy nature of these uploaded photos. Here in Scotland, with only the editing software on my iPad to rely on, I have done all I can.
I love weeds - where would the butterflies and birds be without them? No need to apologise for the photos, they look fine to me.
ReplyDeleteI love them too - especially their appearance of fragility, often flowering only for a few days. Garden plants are so obviously robust, bred to last, their colours strong and forceful. Each has their place, but I’d love a garden designed to have both, cultivated plants in borders, wild flowers in quiet corners, undisturbed, supporting wildlife. Maybe one day!
DeleteThe combination of our holiday on the Outer Hebrides and my no longer being able to do any gardening has brought me to the dream of living in a house surrounded by landscape rather than a garden. I know that this will need to be managed, but only once or twice a year by an imported gardener. That would be the joy of my declining years!
ReplyDeleteI wish you luck, Olga. It’s a lovely concept, a house surrounded by landscape.
DeleteWe’re lucky enough to have a garden that backs onto a meadow, grazed by cows. When I lose the battle to let some wilderness come over the fence, and when my husband gets overactive with his tractor mower, I content myself with the pleasure of the evening light on the meadow and remember the buttercups that flourish in spring.
Getting older is so much about accepting and finding good in what can’t be changed, I think!
I absolutely agree with your last sentence.
DeleteWe are fortunate too in living near the more unruly: we have a bit of wetland attached to our garden. Our gardener help does tend towards the tidy even there though. He recently got rid of the nettles that my husband had carefully left for the butterflies!