garden withoutdoors

I love access to the railway line - a guaranteed isolated area for wild flowers to grow. The problem is so many of the railway lines in London are fenced off, walled off, inaccessible. This one area of the north London line where the Overground and freight trains run is at least visible through railings which allow my small camera to fit through so I can take photos and I don't see evidence of weedkiller along the tracks recently. 

And as a bonus the Post Office Tower is visible in the distance.

This is the year (or time of year) of hoary mustard (Hirschfeldia incana)! I have seen so much of it, especially along the railway line here.

hoary mustard in front of the railings and behind the railings to the right, hawkweed oxtongue to the left behind the railings, Post Office Tower in the distance

this line runs underneath the line above, smooth sow thistle and hoary mustard

Oxford ragwort (Senecio squalidus), famous for spreading along the railway lines of Britain

Oxford ragwort on the left, hoary mustard on the right

purple toadflax and hawkweed oxtongue

hawkweed oxtongue (Picris hieraciodes)

a huge hawkweed oxtongue initial basal rosette

aster amellus, Michaelmas daisy in flower

aster amellus Michaelmas daisy in bud

toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)

more toadflax with a dandelion amongst it

stinging nettle nearby with huge leaves

I saw a lot of rosettes yesterday, some before the flowers grew but some with flowers where the rosette was still there.

Shepherd's purse, quite variable. Sometimes there's no rosette at all when it blooms but this one has a full rosette and flowers in the centre.

I saw a lot of hoary mustard, some just rosettes and some with flowers and rosettes and some with flowers but no rosette.

These hoary mustard have both the rosette and flowers.

these are just the rosettes

hoary mustard

hawkweed ox-tongue and hoary mustard without obvious basal rosettes

hoary mustard, hawkweed ox-tongue and buddleja along the railway line with the Post Office Tower in the background

I saw a few bristly ox-tongue, some flowers with bees. The leaves have those distinctive blisters.

horseweed (Erigeron canadensis) rosette

hawkweed ox-tongue (Picris hieracioides) rosette

hawkweed ox-tongues  with no visible rosette

Geranium molle rosettes

Autumn hawkbit (Scorzoneroides autumnalis), rosette with flowers

with all this surrounding growth, the rosette / leaves are not visible

autumn hawkbit, to the right shepherd's purse and an autumn hawkbit rosette above that

the recent rain has brought some new growth: the salvia sclarea var. turkestanica has some new flowers and buds, scabious in the background

closer view of those buds, I don't know if there's time for them to open

a hollyhock self-seeded in the pot with the melancholy thistle, I didn't want to disturb either so I left them both

the sage I grew from seed recently is doing ok but it won't bloom this year, random snapdragon in the pot and I see some verbena bonariensis which I see self-seeding a lot

sunflower in bloom - amazing as the first bud was eaten by slugs but the plant came back and produced a new one, bee enjoying it

It's a common problem to differentiate between foxglove, borage, comfrey and green alkanet before flowers appear. I have blogged about this before but I saw queries online recently and happened to notice I had all four in my garden yesterday so was inspired to take photos and blog again. This is a particular challenge if there are no flowers (all the flowers are quite distinct). 

I happen to have a green alkanet (bottom) below a comfrey (top) which makes comparison easier. This is my only comfrey and it's in bloom so ID is easy. Green alkanet is variable so further examples below.

closer view of the comfrey

I do love green alkanet and at a certain point in the spring my back garden is covered with it so I have decided it is not necessary or possible to have it in pots (it would soon be in every pot!) as well so I have pulled this one out of a pot. The green alkanet leaves have a bristly feel unlike the soft foxglove leaves.

another example of green alkanet

more green alkanet

these are foxgloves which had self-seeded and I planted them in this flowerbed (behind is a bedraggled hollyhock leaf), the foxgloves are soft unlike the green alkanet which have a bristly feel

another foxglove

I happen to have a borage at the moment as well. They do come and go more quickly than the others. The initial borage leaves are more distinctive. This one is from an established plant in bloom.

another borage leaf

more borage

Forget-me-nots

I have forget-me-nots self-seeding in my garden every spring, in bloom generally March and April. I never knew exactly which type but looking now, seem to be wood forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica).

they have distinctive leaves

I was surprised to have this new plant self-seeding with different leaves but something about it said forget-me-not. It has finally bloomed and appears to be Chinese forget-me-not (Cynoglossum amabile) which I've never actually seen before. No idea where it came from. 23-7-2020

a few days later, 26-7-2020, more buds have opened

this was it a few days previous before it bloomed, with quite different leaves from my usual forget-me-nots

As the season progresses, my lack of bees is becoming more pronounced. No bees so far on my globe thistles - usually a real bee magnet or my new monarda Cambridge Scarlet, which I haven't grown before but I understood it was attractive to bees.

just recently I'm seeing a lot of hoverflies, on the hollyhocks (also have seen bees on them)

scabious

a bit overexposed but there is a hoverfly on one of the flowers

earlier in the month, bees on the centaurea dealbata

hoverfly on the centaurea dealbata

echium Blue Bedder with a bee

cornflower with bee

sea holly with bee

This has been a very difficult time with hot dry weather. It finally really rained this week but how long the effects of that last, not sure. The slugs are back wreaking havoc. The only positive thing about the drought was fewer slugs and snails.

The poppies have been amazing for the bees. "The" plant of this spring. in the background, sea holly, echiums vulgare and Blue Bedder which the bees are visiting but as long as there's a poppy in bloom (sadly they don't last long) that takes the bees' attention.

the melancholy thistle is blooming and has had a few visits from bees but I guess I just don't have that many bees, sadly

viper's-bugloss (Echium vulgare) with bee, knautia macedonica and nepeta in the background

the salvia sclarea var turkestanica is blooming but so far I have not seen a bee visiting, sadly

the nemophila is blooming, first flower of the Penny Black

Penny Black on the left, Five Spot on the right, the two are wildly different in their seed germination, each pot was one packet of seeds

my first veronica flower of the season

viola

centaurea dealbata

echium vulgare on the left and echium Blue Bedder on the right, Lauren's Grape poppy

hollyhocks (teasel to the right, artichoke behind) sadly crawling with hollyhock weevil

I loved seeding bees on the monkshood this week

a bee has climbed right inside a flower, bottom left

I like to identify the smallest seedlings so I can keep what I like and remove those I don't and not fill up pots with seedlings I don't want. I have about 10 pots that seemed to be all self-seeders rather than something I planted, I'm not sure why. There's a lot of repitition as each pot has attracted a lot of the same self-seeders.

pot 1: largest is nepeta, underneath it, widest is poppy, top left is snapdragon, bottom is verbena bonariensis, bottom right is passionflower

pot 2: a number of red deadnettle, 3 verbena bonariensis, one on the right I'm not certain of

pot 3: clockwise from top left, verbena bonariensis, snapdragon, poppy, another poppy, another verbena bonariensis and wild basil

pot 4: clockwise from the top, 2 verbena bonariensis, common field speedwell I think, poppy, red deadnettle

pot 5: clockwise from top, snapdragon, plantain?, verbena bonariensis, poppy, forget-me-not and salvia in the middle

pot 6: same as pot 5 but from the other side

pot 7: red deadnettle at the top, poppies, foxglove bottom centre

pot 8 is 7 from the other side: clearer view of the shoo-fly on the right just under the foxglove

pot 9: clockwise from top left, snapdragon, poppies, viola (better view in next photo), verbena bonariensis,

pot 10: same pot as 9 but from the other side with a clearer view of viola at the bottom

At this time I am impressed by the flowers that are blooming without any water at all.

iris foetidissima

stachys byzantina, ox-eye daisy

will be adding more photos

The relief about the rain was short-lived. Weeks of no rain and high temperatures. The only good thing about it, the slugs and snails seem to have been curtailed by this weather.

bee on a green alkanet

first lupin in bloom and some buds coming below

lupin buds

I got this yellow flag iris last year. It was a small plant and did not bloom last year but I guess it's gotten established in the small puddle that is my pond and is happy enough to produce flowers. I look forward to those buds opening. I see a bee on a green alkanet I didn't even realize was there when I took the photo nor when I processed it until just now.

iris foetidissima, it's nice to have a few stalworts in the garden that will flower with zero effort on my part and regardless of it raining or not and regardless of how much sun it gets, I even saw a bee on one in the front garden

the melancholy thistle has required constant slug survelliance, it's the one plant I keep on my patio table but it has some buds so maybe I'll actually get some flowers this year

the first bloom in that huge red poppy that self-seeded in that pot

the nepeta is blooming and it's tempted the bees away from the green alkanet, nice fat lupin buds to the left, foxglove just blooming, sea holly front right with flower stems, sadly one stem was destroyed by slugs, I was putting the pots on the table every night for a while but couldn't keep that up

I do find the seed sowing can get stressful but I feel I've turned the corner this year where things are a bit more manageable. The nepeta cataria (catnip) is potted up.

I have 5 seed trays left, easier to deal with than the 10 I had before. 

delphinium, centaurea dealbata and rudbeckia Green Wizard on the top shelf, hopefully to keep them away from slugs and snails, if the Green Wizard actually blooms it will be my first after years of trying from both seeds and purchased plants, each time the slugs have had them

the slugs and snails have also been savage with the melancholy thistle so I am keeping them on the table