Blog Archive

Monday 6 April 2015

Hogweed - The interloper in my garden.

I've just come back from Cornwall.  As it is now Springtime, the roadsides were full of Hogweed. Just coming into flower, not quite there yet, but nearly. Today I was sitting in my garden and noticed I have one in my garden. No idea how it got there at all.  There it was, the interloper, the intruder, the newcomer, the incomer, the invader to my garden.  Well, I have made this newcomer welcome and invited it to stay.  I can only assume I have bought the seed in myself, anyway.  I do have a habit of picking seeds from plant and putting them in my pocket.

It was a cheery sight. The single hogweed, again just coming into flower and reminding me of the lanes of Cornwall. I will report back next year, when the single hogweed had taken over my garden.   Like the cow parsley has.  You let one in, and they all come.  (Farage would have a fit).  I don't mind. I like an insect-friendly garden.

As I have mentioned before, I enjoy these plants that break through and grow beautifully and subversively in our gardens.  As I have also said before, I come from suburbia, where every weed is killed to protect the perfect lawn.  Well, that was how it seemed to me.

Anyway back to the Hogweed.  It is a significant nectar provider for a whole host of insects, and guess what? You can eat it.  Rich in Vitamin C apparently.

There is a whole host of hysteria about Giant hogweed on the internet, and how not to get them mixed up, but quite frankly you would have to be dim to do that.  The Giant hogweed, is as it says, a GIANT.  The clue is in the name etc etc.





No comments:

Post a Comment

Who you calling common?

Who you calling common?
Monoprint

starling sketches

starling sketches
Ongoing work...waiting for a breakthrough!

The Waters of March

The Waters of March

It's the joy in my heart.

It's the joy in my heart.

Collected Items

Collected Items
the broken, the wrinkled and the uneven