Ten ‘Popular’ weeds


Japanese Knotweed and Bindweed making a happy display on my allotment every summer!

We made a new video showing ten more common weeds, which after this post hopefully will also be more popular! Unfortunately the embedding did not work this time so please click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=777Or-msBFo

A brief description of the weeds with pictures by my partner Matt Summers, unless stated differently, follow below this introduction. Most weeds have been covered in a more detailed post in earlier posts and then mostly about their whole family for which there is a link on the start of each plant description.

Weeds are not at all bad; they are just inconvenient for us human beings!

Maybe we were just going to plant another more attractive plant in that place or maybe we desperately needed that exact spot for making a new drive for all our vehicles we need to park in front of our house? Or another more common reason is to just remove it as it looks aesthetically not pleasing to our tidy eyes!

Don’t worry I can just be as bad sometimes and not have a really proper reason for removing a weed…

But this is the exact reason why I write about them and try to make us see all their known good uses they got.

All their bad reasons for existence are mentioned already on many websites and this is hopefully not why you came to my site in the first place?

Continue reading “Ten ‘Popular’ weeds”

Polygonaceae; Knotgrasses and Knotweeds: Part two!

Last week we talked about the more prominent genera and species of the Polygonaceae, this week about the other group, which has one famous non native weed: the Japanese knotweed!

As we have all heard about this infamous one I would like to explore a little bit about its positive site, if there is any, and if there is anything we can do about its spread.

Japanese knotweed and native bindweed looking beautiful and innocent near my allotment boundary!
Japanese knotweed and native bindweed looking beautiful and innocent near my allotment boundary!

Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica)

is a fast-growing and strong clump-forming perennial, with tall, dense annual stems. Stem growth is renewed each year from the stout, deeply-penetrating rhizomes (creeping underground stems).

It is a very costly affair to have it removed see more here:

Continue reading “Polygonaceae; Knotgrasses and Knotweeds: Part two!”