Living on the edge: A weed by any other name…

Is not the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) - a pretty little thing?

In our manicured city gardens we pluck out every “weed” as if it is committing some sort of sin by its very existence among more cultured neighbours.

But as a country girl at heart, I am always on the lookout for the little plants I remember from my wild garden and from walks among the fields, lanes and streams surrounding the village. So there are some “weeds” I love – although one or two I admit cannot be tolerated.

There are many definitions of a “weed” online, but I am going back to basics with my old Chambers 20th Century Dictionary. It comes from the Old English “weod” meaning a herb and means:
# any useless plant of small growth
# any plant growing where it is not wanted by man
# any wild herb

The word “herb” here is used to mean any soft, non-woody plant – from the French “herbe” and Latin “herba”. Nowadays “herb” has come to mean just those plants we especially favour in medicine and cooking. At least that’s the situation in Britain, where we sound the H, by the way, while Americans tend to say it the French way – ‘erb…

Herb Robert or cranesbill on a city wall (Geranium robertianum)

You will find these weedy wild plants holding on around the edges of civilisation. In some cases literally “Holding on”, as walls with their nooks and crannies are a particularly good place to look. After all, who weeds walls? In the last few months I have made a particular effort to take pictures of some of the wildlife on the walls of Cardiff and you can see them here on Flickr but here are a couple of my favourites…

Wild violets on a wall (Viola, but not sure which species)

Red valerian (Centranthus ruber) - also available in pink and white - on a wall and railings around a disused building

Daisies (Bellis perennis) on the same wall and railings

Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) - I also have this growing as ground cover on a shady bank in the garden...

Ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis) was a childhood favourite of mine - the tiny flowers are miniature snapdragons, with little mouths that open if you squeeze them gently between the fingers...

Hawkweed (Pilosella) on that wall and railings again...

Even bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus) find a hold...

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) - actually this looks a mess, even on a wall. But it provides food for the cinnabar moth's yellow and black striped caterpillars...

I sometimes let weeds grow in the garden, too. The garden backs on to a park and is partly wooded, so I tend to let wild plants grow there, until they get out of hand, like the brambles and nettles. Here are a few examples from this shady area…

Wild arum or cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum)

Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) flower - the shape is called an umbel (love that word)...

Dandelion clock (Taraxacum officinale) - OK in the wild wood but not on the lawn!

Surely not even the hardest-hearted gardener would 'weed' out a wild primrose (Primula vulgaris) on a shady bank?

In the more civilised area of my garden I also let some wild plants thrive, if they have virtue. In particular a clump of wild strawberries and wild violets has self-seeded on a gravel area and they are so pretty that I have just let them have their head.

One for the birds - wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) spread widely with stolons (suckers) but are quite easily controlled...

Hairy Bitter Cress (Cardamine hirsuta) under a blueberry bush in a pot - I expect I will eventually pull it out...

Meanwhile the plants I just can’t allow to survive, as they take over, are the buttercups, nettles, and wood avens. Once these are established they are difficult to clear, because if you try pulling them up the stems break off and leave the roots solidly in the ground and ready to sprout again.

Leaves of buttercup (Ranunculus acris) in the frost - although the buttercup's pretty bright yellow flowers would be lovely in the right place, they take over if allowed to take a hold in the garden

Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a sign of fertile soil, apparently - but they can't be allowed to spread, purely because they sting!

Weed seedlings on the gravel bed - probably a small willowherb (Epilobium) and Herb Bennet or wood avens (Geum urbanum), which is a menace with rosettes of leaves hard to pull up...

On the left is a seedling of goosegrass (Galium aparine), which is an annoyance in bulk, but it so easy to pull up that I sometimes leave it a while. As children we were fascinated by the way it sticks to you and to itself if you scrunch it together, because of its little hair hooks - it is also known as cleavers for this reason and we called it goosegogs, relating to its name and to the tiny sticky round seeds like gooseberries...

The lawn is also a different matter from the rest of the garden, although most of my neighbours have dandelions, daisies, clover and speedwell in theirs. In the last few days I have noticed a new weed in our lawns – a tiny yellow clover-like plant – probably Lesser Yellow Trefoil.

Tiny yellow trefoil in the lawn - probably Lesser Yellow Trefoil (Trifolium dubium)...

All in all, it’s maybe a matter of scale. Wild flowers with their little blooms would make a wonderful garden for the fairy-folk…

Flowers for fairies - the tiny snapdragons of ivy leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis)...

More pictures from my wild garden on Flickr

Pictures of Wildlife on the wall on Flickr

My blog about mosses