Gardens

Technically I suppose a garden is a space someone has planted with great care and love, or in some cases not so lovingly, or where plants once established are allowed to grow and multiply. So on days I go out cycling I find myself stopping off to admire a different kind of garden: Mother Nature's Garden and the weeds most of us try to tame or get rid of when it invades our personal garden spaces.

Someone once said "A weed is just a plant that's not growing in the right place". In the setting of the formal kind of garden I tend to agree when it comes to some plants and yet I love it when something I planted self-seeds itself in a different part of the garden or when I see a familiar looking seedling growing in a spot I didn't plant it in, in the courtyard at work. Anyway here's some pics of Nature's finest which I took on a bike trip to Terlet.

Grasklokje/Hairbell/la Campanule à feuilles rondes/Companula rotundiflia
Don't ever pick these, they're a protected species in the Netherlands.



Hemelsleutel/Livelong/l'Orpin Reprise/Sedum telephium
Which is not unlike the sedums I have in the garden as well


This looks like a species of Euphorbia to me
However I do confess I don't know for sure, the flowers are similar to the types I grow myself



Wilgenroosje/Fireweed or Rosebay Willowherb/L’Épilobe en épi/Chamerion angustifolium
The leaves cab be used in salads and soups or dried to make tea.
It's the official plant of the Yukon Territory in Canada.



Sint-Janskruid/St. John's wort/Millepertuis perforé/Hypericum perforatum
Has been in use in witchcraft and as a medicinal plant for millennia.
In Ireland Leprechauns bury their pots of gold underneath this plant



Slangekruid/Viper's bugloss/Vipérine commune/Echium vulgare
The first time I saw this plant was in the dunes at Scheveningen.