Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Weeds

Does anyone know what plant this is?
It came up in the garden and I (somewhat foolishly) left it there because the bees love it, but now it is appearing all over the place...arrrgh!
Weeding is not my strong point, as G will readily testify, and the little plants are not that easy to rip up by hand. Now I have some serious digging to do..
Other plants that are growing like weeds up in the veg garden are borage:
The bees also love this plant and it doesn't spread in quite such a rampant way as the unknown one above. It is also very easy to remove, although the leaves and stalks can be a bit on the prickly side.
And just look at the globe artichokes:
I gave last years plants a severe pruning and they have sprung up again really well. They do self-seed and in fact I did dig up and replant some of the little seedlings, but they didn't like the spot I chose for them (in the main orchard) and so I'm glad that these ones have done so well. They are quite large plants but aren't getting in the way of anything where they are at present.

On the bank garden this purple osteospermum, or South African daisy, is starting to bloom. I think this is a smaller variety of the red/pink flower I posted the other day, it certainly looks very similar.

However, these purple ones are on just little cuttings that I only planted a few weeks ago, so I was surprised to see flowers on them already. They obviously like the position they are in. I will try to get a better photo of the other one, it has several flower heads almost ready to bloom and they are very large - about 15cm across! These little purple ones though are only about 5cms! Still I like them with their interesting blue and orange centres.


5 comments:

Hazel said...

mmm! I don't know what your weed is but your pictures of your artichokes will have me moving mine tomorrow...not enough room where I have it. LOL

Sheryl at Providence North said...

We have weeds everywehre now! Our wild fields grow like a jungle most of the time but I have found so much of value in those weeds! So many useful herbs!

I like your blog!

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Hazel
Yes good idea to shift them to somewhere where you don't mind them getting huge! Another plant that the bees love (but only if you sacrifice harvesting a few artichokes!)

Hi Providence Acres Farm
Yes indeed, many "weeds" are useful herbs. I am gradually beginning to explore herbs by making my own creams and balms. I should do a post on them. Glad you like my blog, I will drop by yours.

Best wishes
Bridget

Ruth @ Camellia Rose said...

I don't know what that purple thing is, but it pops up in my garden too. And anyone that's visiting it seems to look at it and say, "that's a weed, you know!" Shame because it's quite pretty, it does get everywhere though.

A Green and Rosie Life said...

I freeze borage flowers in ice cube trays to make extra nice drinks accompaniments :-)

Hope all is well down south. I'm harvesting your rainbow chard at the moment but the gourds unfortunately got eaten when I was away for a couple of days. I do however have a snake gourd from seeds that Father Christmas gave the boys so hopefully we will have something gourd-like to harvest and keep.