Hello from Bath and London

Hello All,

Just joined! We just moved to Bath and have a lovely new garden needing work; also an organic allotment

My partner has a lovely garden in london also needing work so I figured it was time to learn a bit more about gardening!

Hope I can help some of you too. I know a little bit about landscaping but not much.

I really want to learn more about medicinal plants and grow lots of those, as well as fruit and veg, also love roses and fragrant flowers so would love to learn about these year round.

If anyone reads this I’m most interested to know what this plant (probably a weed) is (attempting to attach a photo) it’s like a dock plant but with little white bumps and little white mini spikes on its leaves. Can’t remember it ever flowering. You can touch it no problem it’s just a little rough not spiky! Any ideas?! We have loads of it! Thank you for any replies!

 

That looks very much like a teasel.


Hey thanks so much for the reply @shiney

My parents who know loads more about gardening than me said teasel, it may well be, I only posted on here as:

- I’m 99% sure theyve never made any teasels in the last few years, they literally just look like this year round!! Do teasels make teasels every year? I’ll definitely keep a closer eye on them this year!

- some of ours have purply stems towards the bottom and little white spikes and the white bumps are very pronounced - still really close to your photo !

Should we keep them then? As they are growing like weeds! How about digging them up and making a teasel patch?!

I’ll look up teasels to see when they do anything!

Thank you!

 

Hey just to add, I can’t post links yet as I just joined but I learned that teasels don’t do anything much except like my photo and shineys in Year 1 and then they go mental in Year 2 growing huge and making their teasels!

So maybe that’s why I’ve not seen anything last year! We will be busy making a path, a shed, some raised beds and generally tidying up so these guys can stay for now and I’ll see how they develop!!

 

Hey Shiney,

Thanks again for your reply! Why do you think they’re a nuisance? Most interested. Totally value your opinion!

Is it just that they’re huge? Are the roots huge in year 2?

It sounds quite nice that they attract birds and bees!

Is it that once they seed you’ll always get more?

It said online they are biennials? Ie die after 2 years! Nature is so clever isn’t it! So it makes max seeds in Year 2 so you’ll get more indefinitely if you don’t dig them out?

Cheers!

 

Welcome to the forum LoveSunshine

 

Thank you

 

Hey Shiney
Thanks for this, yes the leaf is a bit
Meh... the flowers look lovely - totally agree with you there’s nicer things to put in the space! I suspect they're from a box of “country meadow” seeds he liberally sprinkled a couple of years ago!! This is in a back bit so not the main garden which isn’t huge, hence we’ve just let it do it’s thing sorting a bit at a time so far!
Your garden and charity event looks brilliant, if we are around then we might well come. Thanks for letting me know about it!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Love Sunshine.

 

Hi @LoveSunshine

Welcome to Gardenrs Corner

 

Thanks @Sheal

 

@LoveSunshine welcome to the forum! I agree, you can fit a heck of a lot more plants, ones that are nicer, than those in things.

I don't know what a teasel is as I guess they won't grow here... ,

 

Thanks @KFF and @CanadianLori

Lori I bet you know what teasels are - they grow huge and were introdyced to North America from Europe, they grow 2-2.5m tall on long prickly stems, not prickly like roses but small little prickles, they have purpley flowers not a million miles away from thistles - apparently bees love the flowers and birds love the seeds, they’re used a lot in flower arranging and after seeding what’s left is too,

I’ll find some photos and post some screenshots until I can post links here! I’ve seen tons in the uk countryside - I like them so as the back bit is a bit wild we might leave them this year until we’ve done the other tasks but see what we have time for!