Embracing the Weeds.

For me, one of the joys of gardening is to share my space with wildlife; this is my tenth summer in this place and yet I am still seeing new insects - today was a bright orange wasp of some kind. It was long gone before I found the camera!  But yesterday I saw this brown Argus, the caterpillars of which can be found on various species of crane's bill

But to have a range of native insects I need a range of wild flowers, many of which also get labeled weeds. I forget who said a weed is just the right plant in the wrong place, but it is a approach I embrace as much as possible.


Take a look at this enormous mullein, appropriately called the common or Great Mullein (verbascum thapsus) which appeared in the bottom of one of my vegetable beds. 

Luckily there is space to leave it - it is a biennial plant, seeded itself last year and will flower and throw seeds everywhere this year. I leave it in the hope of seeing the mullein moth, or rather the caterpillars. Maybe next time! But the little yellow flowers are pretty and the plant itself a beauty. Just look at those soft velvety leaves!

The other big plant that has taken up residence in the potager and elsewhere in the garden is the good old teasel. Covered in bees and butterflies today, like this silver-washed fritillary, later in the year the seed heads will be a food station for a variety of finches.

This particular one is a nuisance, the sharp spikes making walking up the grass path a challenge in shorts. But it is worth it.

Bindweed or convolvulus is a pain in the neck and I've found it quite impossible to weed it out of both the vegetable beds and the herb garden. I'm happy to let it run in places like the meadow where it will get cut down at least once a year; the pure white flowers are stunning.

Wild mint is another difficult weed that must be controlled to stop it becoming rampant, but it is vital for many insects. It is one that I allow to grow in quite a few of the more formal bits of the garden, but ruthlessly try and fail to remove it at the end of the year. It has free rein in the meadow and hedgerows, here the flower is feeding a painted lady.

Meanwhile the hedges are laced with wild roses, giving this comma somewhere to pose!

Some weeds are just garden plants that have escaped, sometimes self-sowing around like this borage. It appears all over the place and is one of the earliest things to flower in the spring -  if we have a mild winter. The leaves can also be used to make a liquid fertliser so a great weed to find.

I'm not sure which bee this is, but this long tailed blue butterfly was a nice find last year. This year I've seen quite a few.

Nigella also appears all over the place, in the case of this one in the middle of the pumpkin patch, the seeds must have been in the compost!

Obviously I have to be careful with weeds like dandelions and groundsel where the seeds will fly and set everywhere, but the flowers come early in the year when there is little else for the pollinators to feed on and later birds will eat the seeds. I just try to be vigilant with removing the bulk of nuisance weed seedlings, but there is a place for pretty much everything in my patch.

(Please let me know if I've made mistakes with the butterfly identifications!)