![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Garden Notes
No-Mow-May is nearly over- and it seems there' s nothing much in our lawn apart from grass- which makes it of little use to pollinators. Wildflowers cluster at the edges and in the corners- which I was going to leave unmown anyway.
We have Red Valerian growing at the front- a plant with clusters of reddish-purple flowers that also grows wild on the shingle. I was reading a notice board at Sovereign Park- where a stretch of the shingle bank has been left to its own devices- and it told me Red Valerian is non-native- with the implication that it came over with the Romans. What does Culpepper say? Culpepper says it grows mainly in gardens. That may have been true in his day but it has since escaped and I suspect most gardeners now view it as a weed. Well, I don't. Richard Mabey says it flourishes in the South West, which suggests to me that he's never been to Eastbourne. He gives us its country names- Kiss Me Quick, Drunkards and Sweet Betsy....
As summer advances and we get to see what there is in the garden I find myself scratching my head over what to do with it all. Early spring was easy, the garden was bare and we just bought things we liked and stuck 'em in the ground, but now I have to consider how all the elements- old and new- can be best orchestrated...
We have Red Valerian growing at the front- a plant with clusters of reddish-purple flowers that also grows wild on the shingle. I was reading a notice board at Sovereign Park- where a stretch of the shingle bank has been left to its own devices- and it told me Red Valerian is non-native- with the implication that it came over with the Romans. What does Culpepper say? Culpepper says it grows mainly in gardens. That may have been true in his day but it has since escaped and I suspect most gardeners now view it as a weed. Well, I don't. Richard Mabey says it flourishes in the South West, which suggests to me that he's never been to Eastbourne. He gives us its country names- Kiss Me Quick, Drunkards and Sweet Betsy....
As summer advances and we get to see what there is in the garden I find myself scratching my head over what to do with it all. Early spring was easy, the garden was bare and we just bought things we liked and stuck 'em in the ground, but now I have to consider how all the elements- old and new- can be best orchestrated...