A plant in the wrong place is a weed but some weeds are more pernicious than others and that includes many wild flowers that inhabit our gardens

One weed that some gardeners wish they were able to grow – well then can but not always legally. A form of grass that if you water it with neat whiskey it comes up half cut! Holy smoke a reefer plant

Couch grass is an invasive perennial garden weed. In the north of England it is called twitch but elsewhere it is called quick grass, quitch, dog grass, quackgrass, scutch grass, and witchgrass. The latin is Elytrigia repens or Elymus repens. What is Couch Grass Couch spreads under ground and can get amongst your other plants. [...]

A sea of Dandelions It is the time of the year where dandelions are popping up everywhere. This shot of Dandelion flowers is quite attractive (taken by Oxford Castle Mound). But, in the border and lawn dandelion is classed as a weed. In particular dandelion leaves will smoother the grass and make it weaker in [...]

Gorse is a spiny weed that grows in rocky scrub. Weed it out if it spreads to your garden

On a hot summers day (what is that ? ed.) there is nothing better than a woodland walk with its distinctive scents and surprising colours. Well spaced decidious trees often provide the best displays as the filtered sun helps develop then highlight the woodland growers. Aconites are one of the earliest woodland flowers and do [...]

Mare’stail or Horsetail is a common garden weed that flourishes on damp soil. Even the RHS is prone to Horsetail as the picture taken at Harlow Carr Gardens demonstrates. I look forward to seeing how they cope! Why it is a Problem The plant reproduces by spores that are readily wind dispersed but most problems [...]

Unfortunately, my lawn has a lot of moss (if you look closely) this is because I’ve gone for the ‘wildlife effect’ i.e. too lazy to mow the lawn. Moss is a signal of a lawn with problems. To control the moss, it is important to tackle the underlying causes of moss. Causes of Moss Damp, [...]