Weeds
They say a weed is just any plant that is growing in the wrong place - well, let's take a look at some of the weeds that have made an appearance in Project Samwise.
Chickweed
Chickweed is a fast frowing plant that is particularly fond of cultivated soil. If left unchecked, it can smother or otherwise outcompete planted crops.
However, I've gone reasonably easy on it this year - because it's a favourite food for small animals (so we're picking and feeding it to our guinea pig. It's also edible as a wild salad vegetable.
Cereals
I didn't deliberately plant these, but I've got a few stalks of wheat, oats, barley and some kind of millet growing alongside my first planting of peas.
We've probably dumped some sweepings from the guinea pig hutch, and/or gerbil and budgie cages there during the winter.
I'm going to let them ripen and see if I end up with enough grain to make a small bowl of muesli or something.
Opium Poppies
Otherwise known as ornamental garden poppies or breadseed poppies (but all the same species - Papaver somniferum). We've grown these as ornamental flowers elsewhere in the garden in previous years - I expect these got here when some seeds survived composting.
I'm leaving them to grow because they attract bees - and I'll maybe harvest the seeds to use on a loaf of bread.
Black Nighshade
Solanum nigrum - this relative of tomatoes, potatoes and capsiucms is a common woodland plant in my locality and is a persistent weed in my garden.
I pulled it all out of the veg patch, because it can act as an alternate host to the pests and diseases that bedevil potatoes and tomatoes - and because its vigorous growth can smother planted crops.
Sun Spurge
Euphorbia helioscopia - probably the most common and persistent weed in my vegetable patch.
It exudes an irritant, toxic latex when broken or crushed - I keep pulling it out, but it's a losing battle. The plant itself isn't particularly troublesome in growth, except that it appears in such profusion, it must be competing with the crops for soil nutrients.
