An automated post, because as you're reading this my brother and I are attempting to cook a sumptuous three-course meal for our parents to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary earlier in the week. Nottinghamshire Fire Service, this is your warning...
Watching some old garden programmes, I saw the Postcode Plants Database at the NHM mentioned. I gather it's been kicking around for quite some time, but I wasn't aware of it. And I thought it would be rather good fun to see how many of my plants were local.
So here is the plant list for my postcode. Quite a lot there. How many of them do you think I'm growing, at least intentionally?
One.
The only local plant I have is Asplenium trichomanes. There are some common genera - Dryopteris and Equisetum, but I don't have local species. I am at least pleased to see that the maidenhair spleenwort is deemed "garden-worthy", although I don't know that I would care if it wasn't.
But I do sometimes get a bit of navel-gazing going, and sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing more bad than good by growing exotic plants. Some of my plants are drought-tolerant, yes. But a lot of them require a fair bit of water, and more so because they're all in pots.
So. What do you think? Is the world still better for my plants being tended and growing and absorbing carbon dioxide? Or is all their hard work negated by the fact that the majority of them have thousands of air miles attached? Could I do with more angiosperms? Do the bees and butterflies hate me, or will spring bulbs and summer annuals in the front garden appease them?
Watching some old garden programmes, I saw the Postcode Plants Database at the NHM mentioned. I gather it's been kicking around for quite some time, but I wasn't aware of it. And I thought it would be rather good fun to see how many of my plants were local.
So here is the plant list for my postcode. Quite a lot there. How many of them do you think I'm growing, at least intentionally?
One.
The only local plant I have is Asplenium trichomanes. There are some common genera - Dryopteris and Equisetum, but I don't have local species. I am at least pleased to see that the maidenhair spleenwort is deemed "garden-worthy", although I don't know that I would care if it wasn't.
But I do sometimes get a bit of navel-gazing going, and sometimes I wonder whether I'm doing more bad than good by growing exotic plants. Some of my plants are drought-tolerant, yes. But a lot of them require a fair bit of water, and more so because they're all in pots.
So. What do you think? Is the world still better for my plants being tended and growing and absorbing carbon dioxide? Or is all their hard work negated by the fact that the majority of them have thousands of air miles attached? Could I do with more angiosperms? Do the bees and butterflies hate me, or will spring bulbs and summer annuals in the front garden appease them?
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