It's not much but it's ours! The new Community Garden for our village is set to get the green light any time now, and although not a sod has yet been turned, and the Lottery Award is still sitting in the bank, it's already gone from grass, nettles and docks,
to this
all by itself!
Well almost by itself. Jackie and Jeremy across the road are having a new extension on their house and during the work they helpfully offered to donate a skipful of topsoil to the community garden rather than sending it to landfill. This was earlier in the year, and since we weren't allowed to start work it just sat there doing nothing. But then as the weather warmed up it just burst into life. Obviously there are lots of the usual suspects, Fat Hen, thistles and so on, and I suspect some locals may think it's a big patch of weeds but to my eye it's an impromtu exhibition of what nature can do with so little help from us, and until we can get going with the garden proper, it's just a lovely thing.
Poppy seeds are well known to lie dormant in the ground for very many years, springing into life only when the earth is disturbed and they are brought to the surface for some reason. Hence the famous poppy fields of France after the battlefields of WW1. However on closer examination I found all kinds of other interesting things, presumably seeds from whatever had been growing in Jacky and Jeremy's garden!
calendula and sunflowers
evening primroses
more poppies than you can count
this tasselly grass don't know what it is
this looks like fennel or dill
and I think this is a tomatillo, though I'm not sure.
lots of brassicas, including some fledgling brocolli
but it won't last long with these visitors chomping away .- it's a wildlife garden after all!!
That is gorgeous. I have one patch of garden where we took out a nasty vicious, low level fir. The patch was full of weeds so I just dug it over. With the drought this year there was no point in planting grass, so I threw in a cheap packet of mixed wild flower seed, the result is amazing and the header photo of my blog shows how beautiful. Good luck with the garden. Diane
ReplyDeleteSince we took back ownership of our land and it is no longer farmed professionally by a local farmer, nature has started giving us some beautiful wild flowers. They are lovely to see now they are allowed to flourish. It is as if the land is saying 'thankyou'!
ReplyDeleteJust beautiful :0)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful how nature fills even the most barren spots with beauty?
ReplyDeleteMother Nature is a clever lady, filling our world with beauty when we try so hard to destroy it.
ReplyDeleteIt restores your soul to see such beauty springing forth all by itself.
It will be a wonderful space when you can turn it into the Community Garden, but perhaps a little corner can be left as nature seems to want it to be.
Sue xx
Perfect. Sometimes, it is good to just see what happens.
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous! The caterpillars are a bit creepy though :)
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how things pop up on their own and flourish on neglect, and yet you can spend time sowing seeds and nurturing them, only for them to die!
ReplyDeleteHow lovely! The flowers are a beautiful free gift. My chickens would love to be able to come by and take care of the visitors.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteJust started following your blog, which I love! Thought I might throw in that I think the plant in your 9th picture from the top, the one you thought might be a tomatillo, is a purple datura plant. Here are a couple of links:
http://chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/weeds/Poisonous-Plants/The-Thorn-Apple-Datura-Stramonium-L.html
http://luirig.altervista.org/photos-en/datura-stramonium---purple-thorn-apple.htm
I'm not sure as of course it is always hard to tell from one picture. What a wonderful treat to have in a wild flower garden, they are such beautiful plants even if poisonous. Please let me know if I had it right! Thanks for the blog!
smileymeri
love those catterpillars!
ReplyDelete