tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604405472210133021.post546530715793408762..comments2023-03-23T07:15:01.367+00:00Comments on Little Garden Helpers: I wonder...Garden Mumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14632252721947346861noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8604405472210133021.post-27402353888102847072009-08-26T15:31:12.921+01:002009-08-26T15:31:12.921+01:00If you're going to do it empirically, should ...If you're going to do it empirically, should think you'd have to leave a good sized patch fallow for a couple of years or more, maybe cropping it back (like a meadow, in June)and just see what comes up.I'm sure there would be seeds of native plants still there in the ground, but hard to guarantee there wouldn't also be seeds of other things too. Japanese anemone has suddenly appeared in my garden this year and I don't remember planting it! <br />The border in our front garden regularly throws up wild sweetpea, a common woodland plant here in the South East of England, even though it's been under cultivation since the 1930s. <br />This is a really interesting idea, be interested to hear how you get on. I am sure you will find lots of beautiful places and plants. There was a gorgeous photo of an ancient meadow in Oxford, absolutely covered in fritillaries, in The Garden (RHS magazine) a few months ago. Apparently it hadn't been ploughed for centuries. These rare places in our long occupied and cultivated countryside are often declared sites of Special Scientific Interest, and I should think, hold much of the native plant life. Locally to us there are small areas of unimproved downland pasture which also are rich habitat for plant species.<br />I found Jenny Uglow's A Little History of British Gardening an interesting read, right back to the monastery gardens of the middle ages. And I do think of our long term history as being clearing of the forests for food cultivation, which might suggest that woodland plants must have been among original species. But then, the trees themselves evolved from smaller things didn't they?Scattered Gardenerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036280727246164559noreply@blogger.com