Weeds Have Rights Too !

[ScottBakula]

We , the weed collective have decided that its time to stand up for our weedy rights !
In particular at this time of the year all of our brethren are mercilessly up rooted and poisoned for no reason other than someone has decided that we are inferior to the flowers that humans like.

We bring nature back to derelict area's like neglected road side verges , abandoned gardens, cracks in paving stones , gaps in gutters and the brave ones even go up on to rooftops and live in the chimney stacks and gutters.

Nature isn't meant to be regimented with flowers in neat rows and groups so we come along and add a bit of normal back to your garden and what do you do ? You poison or up-root us . Which also can cause problems to your beloved plants.

We understand that you want things to look pretty, but please leave us a bit of space too.

We create just as much oxygen as your expensive roses and lilies , we feed bees , wasps and butterflies along with lots of other bugs.

We are just flowers that humans have decided they don't want , and that makes us sad.
Please help the weed collective by leaving us a little bit of your land and we promise that we will help to look after your environment.

( just incase nobody notices this is a bit tounge in cheek , but I do think that all plants help our environment and bees don't care if its a dandelion or prize rose that they get there pollen from)

@Stanislas , we come and go as we please to keep gardeners on their toes , you think you have got rid of us buf we were just having a bit of a rest .. We don't discriminate after all we are just plants that live were nobody planted us .

@NegroniMacaroni , we would love to bring some more colour to your garden , especially since they have such a cute name.

@Namechangedasouting987 , you get a gold ⭐️ , thank you so much for your donation to the weed collective.

@Sandy420 , I have a confession to make , with the exception of the tiny pale purple flowers in the 1st group of photos none of them are in my garden , in fact I don't have a garden I have a tiny paved yard that I can not change ( rented ) it gets bugger all sun too.
All of the photos are from areas that I pass on my way to work .
I was inspired to start this thread because the council have decided to spray all the verges / kerbs / waste land near me despite their singing and dancing about no mow may , and leaving patches of grass unmowed 'for the bees and butterflies.
I know at some point they will of needed to spray so things don't get out of control but they could of waited until the flowers had naturally died off.

Sorry, duplicate post.

My garden is full of "weeds". I tried to grow flowers but none of them were successful so now I love whatever will grow, especially if it has flowers. Herb Robert, Ragwort, toadflax, evening primrose, valerian, buddleia, even bindweed and dandelions, they are all welcome. I saw my first garden butterfly/moth (a cinnabar moth) and then found out that the caterpillars love ragwort. I checked my ragwort patch and I have five big fat caterpillars there at the moment.

I do try to trim the grasses every so often so that the garden looks less abandoned and more "on purpose", but tbh I'm just happy that the various insects enjoy hanging out in my garden.

I’ve got the orange flowered plant in my lawn, but I know it as Cow and Calves.

Also a primula, which I carefully mowed round, and then some heathen creature (fox or badger?) cr*pped right on it.

(This was from a few weeks ago - the grass is full of clover at the moment)

@RumNotRun The weed collective thank you , your donation is very much appreciated.

I have bad memories of Ragwort, I worked at a stables many years ago and in early summer we had to go out and try to uproot the stuff as its highly toxic to horses ( tho tbf horses are sensible + it's very bitter so the don't eat it on purpose) .
But you are right it's great for butterflies and bees.

@MagpiePi I wonder if yours and @NegroniMacaroni are the same plant and just called a different name in different regions?

The weed collective will do their best to grow something spiky around your cows & calfs to protect it.

Adding a few more members to the weed collective

@ScottBakula Yes, it's the same plant Pilosella aurantiaca, but I think I might have got the name wrong as google says that Cow and Calves is a common name for Cow Parsley.

I think that Fox and Cubs is a better name because of the colour.

I pulled up a ragwort yesterday as a reflex to being a horsey person when younger. 😆

I could flood this thread with ‘weed’ photos! I’ve been using the Seek app when I’ve been out and about, my plant list is over 100 now, the vast majority ‘weeds’, and I’ve not done all I could. The app probably isn’t 100% accurate but it’s made me more observant. On a recent walk alone along the nearby canal I noticed for the first time ever the branched and unbranched bur-reed - the former in particular would make a great botanical drawing print.

and such wonderful names - sometimes, as in the case of Enchanters Nightshade, more exciting than the plant.

@RainOnTins that is figwort Scrophularia nodosa

Thanks @JayeAshe. DH has been trying to turn our garden into something that looks like a woodland edge for years, so he’ll no doubt be delighted that he’s managed to attract a weed that’s often found in woodlands!

Giant Hogweed is a bastard though. Definitely one of the bad guys. He's toxic- phototoxic.
A relative got serious burns from the sap from one of those.

Ooh, just did a bit more googling and apparently figwort attracts a type of sawfly that looks identical to wasps. In that case, panic over and the plant can stay.

I did think the “wasps” I kept seeing were remarkably well behaved, but visually I really couldn’t tell them apart from real wasps.

@RainOnTins it looks like Figwort and, yes, beloved by wasps

Sorry @RainOnTins, I am late to the party and see that it has already been identified!

Now, ambivalent as I am about docks and nettles, docks provide food for small copper butterfly caterpillars, and nettles for tortoiseshells. (My particular sworn enemies on the allotment are bracken, brambles and burdock- the speed with which they have reclaimed my soft fruit patch is stunning ).

But anyway, back to the positive....I'll nominate the much maligned ragwort. Did you know it's a food plant for about 200 species of insect? Notably cinnabar moth caterpillars, and I was delighted to find some ragwort covered with them the other day.

Hmmm....my photo didn't post before 🤔

@crackofdoomi'm jealous, I only have four or five fat cinnabar caterpillars at the moment on my ragwort 😁

@ErrolTheDragon , the weed collective would like to see some examples if possible.

We are very good at - ahem - cultivating weeds in our garden. This is my current favourite - a scarlet pimpernel I think? I agree with a previous poster though, the horses/mares tail can bugger right off.

I cannot be 100% because the picture isn't brilliant, but I am 99% sure that your wild flower (I don't call you weeds) is Mallow - we have lots of it locally, and it can be quite long lasting / long flowering season.

And I agree with you, but I would like to make an appeal to all you wild flowers to please not grow where I don't want you - there's plenty of other space you can have but weeding my patio is hell!!!!

Here's my contribution - see if anyone can get this as it took me ages to track down what it was.

philipa is it oregano?

OP it's my new place that has the weed lawn. I moved years ago. Though sadly the gardeners have been and it's currently half inch short and minus any weeds 😢. That's a shame the council sprayed all the flowers, I love seeing them on the verges etc.

Ragwort I admit I'm not keen on. One plant produces a multitude of seeds, they blow far and wide and can survive in the ground for years, to germinate when the opportunity arises. The problem with ragwort and horses is that it only takes around a kilo to kill them and it's cumulative over their lifetime, so the odd bite here and there is a problem. It loses its bitterness when it's dead.

I'm like you and don't have much of a garden at the moment so no weed photos, but I have a lavender bush and sitting here watching every bee in the neighborhood visit it today 🐝 lovely

@Cassieskinsismad Nope. I was flummoxed as the nearest I could find was the Flying Hedgehog plant from the US - which was hardly likley to be growing wild in the UK, plus the stem was wrong and so was the habitat. After a great deal of unsuccessful Google Eye searches, website searches etc, I finally found it... Crow Garlic. There were only two plants, you had to be rather eagle-eyed to spot them.

Bees on lavender

Nature lover and beekeeping family here. Love weeds and wild flowers.

We've had three new lots of people move into our street this year. Two have completely concreted over their front gardens and I witnessed the newest ones gravelling and then spraying with weedkiller. People are utterly obsessed with 'low maintenance' now to a point of selfishness.

If you saw an ariel view of my street, it would just be concrete, concrete, block paving, resin, Gravel then Rainbow's Completely Wild Garden.

Disclosure: I'm also disabled and I probably don't do myself any favours by knackering myself doing watering every night, and I've had to get some uni students in this past week or so to give me a hand keeping stuff a bit neater and tidier (just in case anyone comes for me about the need for low maintenance)

I'm also disabled and I probably don't do myself any favours by knackering myself doing watering every night, and I've had to get some uni students in this past week or so to give me a hand keeping stuff a bit neater and tidier (just in case anyone comes for me about the need for low maintenance)

Me too, but I try to make a balance because it isn't just the watering. So a mix of patio, slate, raised beds and pots (and a very good hosepipe - I will cry if we get a ban!!!) I need low maintenance but it is possible to have loads of plants and still be low maintenance. And you should see my neighbours lovely garden - also low maintenance but lots of beds and pots - and she's 87, disabled, and not supposed to be exerting herself because she's been told it could kill her. Her family have several times told her that she won't have to worry about killing herself because they'll do it for her if she doesn't do as she is told. So far it hasn't worked.