Kitchen Garden Forum

Last year I planted a packet of wild flower seeds, expecting a mix of pretty wild flowers, well we had a few pretty pink ones and some strange large prickly leaves a bit like large primrose leaves, well this year they grew rapidly till they were 6 ft tall, and still no flowers - they were Teasles, So I am happily anticipating a few pretty goldfinch visitors this autumn,/ winter. i don't think I have ever seen teasles grow so tall !

Do you know, Nature's Babe, we have had teasels in our garden for many years, self seeding, and we only remarked the other day that this year they are taller than ever, some of them must be 7 foot tall. We always get lots of goldfinches on them and also on the lavender plants. We still have some of last year's teasels standing though by now they will, no doubt, be "spent".

Hi Monika, yes, they are really tall this year, mine are taller than my apple tree now! I think wild flowers are beautiful, I have a lovely show of foxgloves at the moment, and a shower of pink mallow, some wild iris with beautiful markings, and another self seeded multi-spire dainty purple flower, not sure what it is called.

I have an area on my patch which is about 30' by 10' set aside for Teasels and when I find a stray seedling growing outside that area it gets dug-up and transported and replanted in the designated area which means they never become a nuisance or invasive as they are reputed to be. It takes but seconds to transplant them but oh how worthwhile.
Strangely as yet my teasels have yet to put on much height.
JB.

I will do the same Johnboy, they are not where I would have planted them had I realised what they were. I transplant foxgloves too in the autumn. I'm guessing you have a lot of wildlife on your plot too.

Hi NB,
I do have masses of wildlife around me and I have 6 areas where nature is allowed to take over and if you can imagine an orchard with diagonal corners left to nature these are roughly 60ft of hedge by 60ft of hedge triangulated and there are all manner of wild plant and the hedge itself is only trimmed for convenience. There is an enormous patch of nettles which is a controlled area but the main bulk are never touched only the periphery when the make a break for freedom. Some of my hedges are pleached on a regular basis but others are left there is a Hawthorn thicket that is around 150 ft and 12ft wide which is open to everything.
This year I have 6 pairs of Redstarts nesting in there strangely they are with me only about one year in five and this year is the year.
My property is enclosed by a rabbit proof fence and down one side protected from Deer then the buggers come over the fence from the other side. Now that my nursery has closed finally I don't really worry any more.
My world revolves around wildlife but I am not afraid to cull something that will interrupt their world such as Magpies. My policy has paid high dividends because the birdlife around me is wonderful.
JB.

We planted teasels on our plot years ago - for the birds. They did become a nuisance and we have been digging them up now for years too.

This year we have self sown sunflowers and cosmos growing amongst the potatoes. In the garden we have what is now a reasonably sized daphne that arrived courtesy of the birds. It has beautiful flowers and at this point berries which no doubt the birds will move on to someone else's garden.

It's amazing what arrives out of nowhere - in our front garden we have fluffy pink poppies, salpiglossis, candytuft, snapdragons and california poppy that we have never sown their!

You've just reminded me about some Heartsease pansies that came up around the garden every year for as long as I remember. My mother said they were originally planted by my great grandmother when the house was first built in 1911.

Last year was the first year none appeared and I hadn't seen any this year until yesterday. I was so pleased to see just one little plant with about six flowers on it in a corner of the hen run, which just goes to show that there are viable seeds in the soil just waiting for the right moment.

True Plumpudding, and seeds that go into the compost get spread around and pop up all over the place, I have three self seeded squash popped up from the compost that earthed up my potatoes !

Hi Plumpupping,
Seeds do last a very long time in the soil.
I live just below an old Ancient British Fort later occupid by the Romans.
The Romans introduced Charlock as a cure for gout, I am led to believe by local historians, and a field was ploughed for the first time in living memory and what appeared was masses of Charlock which was never evident before the ploughing so how long those seeds had remained dormant is anybody's guess but certainly more than a hundred years if not a lot longer. The field was only ploughed to resow as permenant pasture as the productivity had gone from the soil.
Now some 20 years on the Charlock is still in evidence in the field margins.
JB.

In a neighbouring village some cottages, at least 200 years old, were pulled down and all the stones removed, including the Yorkshire stone slabs which had formed the downstairs floors. And almost immediately, after the first rain shower, the grass started sprouting fresh and green in that area!
The seeds had obviously lain dormant for all that time.

Seeds are little miracles, and from your posts very resilient too.
Monoculture does reduce fertility, all the crop are competing for nutrients at the same depth, then the crop is removed taking the nutrients with them.
Nature mixes plants at different depths so they are not competing, merely recycling as what they take out which then falls in the same spot and replenishes the topsoil from all varying depths.

It's always difficult to explain to some fellow plot holders that weeds will just keep on coming no matter how much they weed and complain that weed seeds are coming from other plots, as the soil has lots of dormant seeds just waiting for the right conditions. In the past whenever a new overgrown plot was taken - as soon as the docks, thistles and bramble were removed up popped the weeds that enjoy cultivated soil conditions and they continue to do so however much you weed them out. Apparently chickweed produces seed that can lay dormant in soil for 40 years or so.

Since the floods of 2007, we have "weeds"... wildflowers...popping up, which we didn't have previously on our allotment. Scarlet Pimpernel springs up everywhere and it's so pretty but I try to get it out before it seeds even more. Those purple poppies seem to have appeared too. I leave them to flower ( if my husband doesn't get to them that is!) then take them out before they seed.
I love wild flowers but Ken is relentless with the hoe!
Cheers.

Did u guys know worms like eating seeds? Under a mulch the worms come right up to the surface and help keep down the weeds, the other bonus is that the mulch feeds the soil and worms and keeps the ground moist which makes pulling the few weeds that do make it through the mulch so much easier ! Weeds are a bonus soil feed if harvested before seeding and added to the mulch when dry