Kitchen Garden Forum

Following on from the topic of dandelions my garden seems to have experienced an explosion of cowslips. I have been digging up seedlings where overcrowded and giving them away!

Hilary

Dear Hilary, now, these are my favourite widflowers.
I don't know what it is about them but, they just have got something special.

Dear OH,
I agree nothing can beat a hillside covered with cowslips!
Hilary

We not only have planted cowslips in our garden but under our fruit trees on the plot.

Another plant I love is the native primrose which we have a full row of on the plot.

On the subject of weeds, I have been trying to eradicate a weed from my polytunnel which seems to be everywhere only to find out that it is chickweed which I have been looking for as I am told it so nutritious and good for everything that ails you! So I am now letting it grow in my 'cut and come again' lettuce patch. Wow, when I think of all that weeding I wont have to do!

oldherbaceous wrote:Dear Hilary, now, these are my favourite widflowers.
I don't know what it is about them but, they just have got something special.

Too true.

My dad making cowslip wine is a fond memory of childhood, I was allowed to help with the whole process.

Two pints of the yellow part of the flower only.

Beautiful photos glallotments.
We have one small patch of cowslip in our otherwise weedfree lawn and my OH carefully mows round them every year

Strange excitement about cow pats - cowslip comes from Old English cū-sloppe or cū-slyppe

To me, when the Cowslips are heading up to bloom is the time when your gardening should be reaching fever pitch! So much to do and too little time to do it. When the length of the Cowslip flowering period ends most of the work that you have done will determine what you will be growing this year. The thing is that the further north you go the later the flowering period so it is really a wonderful indicator as to what will be your own hive of activity period.
I am not making a very good job of what I am trying to say. I know what I want to say but somehow it's not coming through this morning.
If anybody understands what I am trying to say please make a better job of it than me.
JB.

I know what you mean, Johnboy, clear as a bell! Our cowslips are flowering beautifully but it's much too cold (and dry) to do any sowing outside or planting! My brassicas have been outside in roottrainers for the last fortnight and haven't moved one millimetre, in spite of being watered. I think the weather is just too cold.

I keep looking at the long term forecast (knowing that it is still likely to change), but it looks quite dire: some daytime temperatures as low as 5 degrees and frost at night.

So, I hope the cowslips stay flowering for a long time - until it gets warm and gardening gets going!