Flower Power

It is raining today so I am looking back over the pictures I have taken in the wildflower meadow which was sown last autumn.  It is ready for hay harvest now but before the chop here are some of the residents when they were in their flowering prime,  No names - just enjoying the shapes and colours.

Corn Marigold

Kidney Vetch 

And here is a picture of the meadow which has provided all the above:

A Walk on the Wild Side

Yesterday we went for a walk on a familiar route.  A farm lane/bridle path that leads into the Pentland Hills just outside Edinburgh.  We regularly walk this path and there is always some eyecatching novelty to stop you in your tracks.  Due to the virus restrictions we haven't been this way for about ages.  The flora and fauna haven't missed us and are thriving.

First to greet us this chicory flower:

Next a novelty I had to look up.  Yes it looks a bit like white ragwort or even blackberry flowers but this is Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica)

Here's a picture with the leaf to help identification

The big attraction is the knapweed which is proving a magnet for many species

Another insect magnet is this:

My best guess is Hawkweed, but "dandelion like flowers" covers an extensive range of plants.  A check of the leaves suggests  Leafy hawkweed (Hieracium umbellatum)

As we get higher a heathland favourite appears

A bank of harebells

Now here is the most camera shy wildflower .  My camera's autofocus is fooled every time I try to get a close up.  It is Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)

The much maligned ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)  is hosting an insect party

Another commonplace plant: Yarrow  (Achillea millefolium)

Looks like Cow Parsley - I reckon this is a Hogweed seedhead

Next a real surprise up on the moor: Wild Basil?

Clinopodium vulgare

Not to confused with White Horehound (Marubium vulgae) found a quarter of a mile further on 

Last to feature although the plant is long gone these Sweet Cicely seeds are hanging on in their characteristic configuration.

Time to head for home.

Red Orach - Weed or Veg

 

Here's another 'wild' plant I have a soft spot for when it turns up in my vegetable patch.  It is just so striking and distinctive and edible.

It's Latin name gives away that it was a mainstay of the vegetable garden in the past: Atriplex hortensis.  The story is that green and red orach used to be common until the upstart spinach arrived and displaced it from the plate and garden.  One or two pop up each year and are not weeded out, but I must admit that their appeal is aesthetic and I have not to date eaten the leaf.

Spot the Tomato

 They are there - honest.  Check the extremities

                                            Back Garden Tomatoes

There are two Tumbling Tom in growbags centre stage.  Lots of flowers but no ripening fruit yet.  To the left and right there are pots with Totem which are now offering the first fruit to harvest.

Here is a close up

On checking my tubs there are some here too. Totem again.

And some Sungold in the greenhouse

And another Totem closeup 

Don't ask me yet what they taste like - They haven't been picked yet. I may have gone a bit over the top with this post but I do feel a sense of achievement to have grown and ripened outdoor tomatoes in Scotland this year.  There could be a few more to come before the nights close in.

Back To School

The children return to school today and here is what will greet them in the school garden:

Now it is time for a spot the difference quiz:

A

B

Aside from the net to keep the pigeons off the kohlrabi, the difference is that a mature bulb of Florence fennel along with its feathery plumage has been removed by an agency unknown (middle left square foot) leaving a much weaker bulb.  I hope this remaining specimen will grow on now its competition has been removed.

These are in the "Autumn" square foot bed. The neighbouring "Winter" bed is already full to brimming.  It is the Swede that has been ravaged by the pigeons here (and now has a net over it)

You would have thought a tomato in a bucket in  a greenhouse would be safe?

 

Well you would be wrong.  Somebody selected a specimen from the back of this greenhouse .  Curious because - as you can see the fence is higher than the greenhouse (7 or 8ft high)

Now before the bell rings don't forget the neighbouring wildflower meadow.  I think it is high time for a haircut!