{"id":1312,"date":"2012-05-16T21:33:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T20:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2015-07-20T00:18:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T23:18:53","slug":"one-little-weed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/one-little-weed\/","title":{"rendered":"One little “weed”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I referred to my one little “weed” in my last video blog<\/a> but if you missed it, here it is…<\/p>\n

\"Foxglove<\/a><\/p>\n

Any ideas? I hadn’t a clue what it was when I first spotted it growing in my ‘roots’ bed. It was certainly nothing I’d ever planted or seen growing in my veg beds before.<\/p>\n

I was intrigued – what could this stray little plant be? I didn’t pull it out as I had been doing all morning with the creeping buttercups and dandelions.<\/p>\n

I let it be until it had been identified as a friend or foe.<\/p>\n

\"Foxglove<\/a>I racked my brain – what had been growing in this patch in previous years? Nothing we’d ever planted of that I was certain. So I headed indoors with a cup of tea, fired up the PC and spent a half hour or so googling “weed” images but came up a blank. Hmmm dilemma, what to do now? Thank goodness for friendly gardeners – I sent off a picture to a gardening guru friend for some professional help – they were thrown too given it’s location. However, a couple of days later a simple text reply came back and I laughed, as no doubt they had too…<\/p>\n

Haha! How could I have missed it? My little ‘weed’ was none other than a foxglove (Digitalis purpurea<\/em>)! These biannual plants are currently popping up all around our hedgerows but I hadn’t dreamed of or expected to find one in my veg patch and it had me completely thrown.<\/p>\n

\"Foxglove

Image courtesy of foxglovelane.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Foxgloves are such pretty plants, the bees love them and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said<\/p>\n

\n

“What is a Weed? A plant who’s virtues have never been discovered”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well in this case the foxglove’s virtues have most definitely been discovered – both ornamental and medicinally. I have no plans to use it for the later – extracts from it are used to treat heart conditions making it toxic to those of us who aren’t chemists. I love to see flowers growing in vegetable gardens though – from nasturtiums to marigolds, Calendula to borage. They attract insects and give vegetable gardens character and colour. My foxglove will be just another addition – albeit a stunning one.<\/p>\n

\n

“A weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So as I’ve decided that all the stray foxgloves are staying exactly where nature intended them to be, that now puts them firmly in the flower category …<\/p>\n

Do you have a favourite flower growing in your garden that others might classify as a weed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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