The other day I asked my gardener what these pretty yellow flowers were. "Weeds," he told me.
"But those blue ones? Surely they're not weeds..."
Yes, they're weeds too. In fact, whenever I ask about anything coming up in my garden, the answer is usually the same. Although I would call them wildflowers instead of weeds.
Forget-me-nots, bluebells, poppies, daisies, cow parsley, and whatever these lovely things are called, grow in wild abandon here, along the roadsides, in the woodlands, in pastures, in my shady garden.
I wondered, why is it the only wildflowers I can identify are dandelions? I've lived around the States—South, North, East, and West, and I've never noticed such a variety of wildflowers, i.e. weeds, before.
Maybe it's because in the U.S. we've eradicated them. Those herbicides that keep our lawns spotless and our crops free of Johnson grass also take out the wildflowers. Over time this has to have had an effect, despite the best efforts of wildflower enthusiasts like Lady Bird Johnson. I don't think herbicides are used as frequently over here, in fact the E.U. has banned quite a few of our favorites, according to Michael Pollan.
So maybe that's why I've got all these lovely weeds popping up in my garden. I like them; they come up every year with no prompting on my part. Unfortunately, the stinging nettle comes up too, in amongst the blackberries.
I guess you have to take the nettles along with the flowers.
