We are a new group with lots of different experience of gardening at home, on allotments, in Bridge's garden at the Garden House and some people garden professionally or as volunteers.
After sharing our experiences of gardening and our particular horticultural interests and gardening challenges we focused on weed identification. Bridge reminded us about need to be scrupulous about not putting weeds on compost heap as the heap does not get hot enough to kill weed seeds.
Weed ident:
- Bindweed- need to be especially careful as the roots can regenerate from even the smallest section and the roots are often very deep. Bindweed is very difficult to eradicate so just need to keep pulling out before it strangles other plants.
- Alkanet, (Anchusa) is a biennial and is part of boraginaceae family. It has leaves similar to foxgloves although you can tell them apart as foxglove leaves are smooth and alkanet's are hairy. It has small blue flowers and a big tap root.
- Smooth sow thistle is a native annual weed, part of Asteraceae family. Usually has yellow flowers and can be fed to the chickens!
- Nipplewort, (Lapsana) - part of Asteraceae family - also an annual. It grows tall and erect with small yellow flowers
- Dog's mercury (Mecurialis perennis)- it has spear shaped green leaves on upright stems and is a perennial with creeping roots
- Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)- can be viewed as a weed. It is a biennial with fragrant yellow flowers. It has a rosette of leaves at the base which can look like a teasel.
- Euphorbia peplus or petty spurge is a very common annual weed and easy to yank out. It has milky sap and tiny bracts.
- Geum urbanum - not the lovely cultivated form of geum - it is part of rosaceae family and has thin stems.
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| Alkanet |
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| Nipplewort |
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| Petty spurge |
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| Dog's mercury |
Activities in the Garden House this week
.JPG)
- cutting back some of the cosmos in cut flower border
- collecting pelargoniums and feeding them in readiness for overwintering in the greenhouse
- clearing out some plants from greenhouse ready to sow salad leaves in gutters
- pruning raspberries
- cutting back the ivy
- clearing vegetable bed outside greenhouse
- digging up large rosemary bush/ taking rosemary cuttings
- collecting seeds
'How to enjoy your weeds' by Audrey Wynne Hatfield
Gardens to visit :
We were asked to name our favourite garden that we had visited this year - here are just a few of the recommendations
Chelsea Physic Garden chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk
Gravetye www.gravetyemanor.co.uk
Le Jardin Plume www.lejardinplume.com
Derek Jarman's garden in Dungeness
Susan's Garden in Hove
The Gardens of Alcatraz alcatrazgardens.org
Rosemary Verey's garden in Cotswolds www.barnsleyhouse.com
East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden in Norfolk www.e-ruston-oldvicaragegardens.co.uk
Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden near Dorking hannahpescharsculpture.com
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