Jack Go To Bed At Noon
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Concentrate mentally on soil and digging which is done, solution will come...
ReplyDeleteI have housemaid's knee, so I sympathise. My solution so far: butch it out and dig anyway. Probably not a medically recognised therapy, but what the hell.
ReplyDeleteIgnore the digging - difficult I know but there's no point in making your elbow worse. Read seed catalogues instead :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with easygardener, let it heal, then go back to it. If weeds are worrying you peg down some black tarp or similar to suppress them. With the rain we are supposed to get this weekend the soil won't thank you for working it anyway. For you - try gentle exercise to keep it mobile, gentle massage, glucosamine, arnica, either topically or as a pillule, or other anti-inflammatory, acupuncture (I swear by this), and reflexology are beneficial too. (I just got back from 2 hours with Rachel, yay!)
ReplyDeleteHope it's feeling much better soon xx
Zoe's idea of the weed suppressing membrane seems very sensible. Hope the elbow gets better soon - probably too much knitting!
ReplyDeleteVP, I would loan you some monkeys, but there is a large body of water in the way.
ReplyDeleteEwa - I do hope so
ReplyDeleteSoilman - that's exactly what I've been doing, with the help of Ibulieve!
Easygardener - that's very very tempting!
Zoe - I'm thinking of raisding the local supermarkets for lots of cardboard. Will cause some controversy up at the plot, but what the hell!
PG - thanks! And possibly too much blogging!
Deb - that's a nice thought :) I thought of borrowing your Label 'I'm a wimp' when I was writing this ;)
I can loan you SomeBeans - he's bereft now he's finished digging our allotment. All he needs in return is cake.
ReplyDeleteWhen can he start? I'll start baking right now...
ReplyDeleteThe digging will still be there when you are fit enough to tackle it. Not worth aggrevating your poorly arm. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna. It's just a bit depressing as my plot's covered with weeds now and everyone else's has lots of lovely dug areas.
ReplyDelete