November 07: Allotment gardener Michael Rand finds self-seeders have gatecrashed his plot
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| Michael Rand: allotment gardener
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'There are two things I love about ragwort: it provides food for the striking yellow-and-black striped cinnabar moth larva, and the plant seems oblivious to the season as it can flower at any month of the year.'
(November on the allotment) When it comes to self-seeded plants, it's always intriguing to let a few specimens 'get away'. This year I've been following the undisturbed progress of a dozen or so interlopers on the plot, and have picked out a few to mention here.
Amaranth
One is amaranth (
Amaranthus caudatus), also known, strangely, as love lies bleeding, which may have something to do with its vivid reddish-purple colouring. This, in fact, was what I first noticed about it and, despite my accidentally standing on it (twice!), it grew up into a magnificent bush with copious tiny flowers corkscrewed around upright stems. Native to Central and South America, the Incas prized the seed for making cakes.
Californian poppy
Next is californian poppy (
Eschscholzia californica) with its large, open, blowsy flowers throughout the summer of a Day-Glo orange colour – the Teletubbies would love this one.
Caper spurge or mole plant
Caper spurge (
Euphorbia lathyris) has strictly vertical growth. With opposed pairs of lance-shaped leaves evenly spaced up the stem, this plant has an almost architectural quality. Quite how anyone ever mistook its fruits for proper capers is a mystery – they look nothing like them and are extremely toxic. This toxicity is said to discourage moles, hence its alternative name of 'mole plant'. I once transplanted a few onto some molehills which had been pushed up on the plot, to no apparent effect. No little white surrender flags ever poked up out of the ground.
Ragwort
Ragwort (
Senecio jacobaea) is a raggedy and cheerful customer with abundant yellow flowers. There are two things I love about it: it provides food for the striking yellow-and-black striped cinnabar moth larva, and the plant seems oblivious to the season as it can flower at any month of the year. Not that everyone shares such approval: ragwort is poisonous to horses and cattle, so many strenuous attempts are made each year to eradicate it from grazing land.
I mostly give up weeding in the autumn months. It seems natural at this time of year to let things get away, especially since most seedling plants will have long since grown big enough to stand up for themselves.
Nasturtiums
Many allotment holders at Fitzroy Park appear to agree and one effect of this is the huge swathes of nasturtiums (
Tropaeolum majus), a genuine late-season's pleasure, especially in low evening light when it can seem, to paraphrase Colonel Kurtz, that 'heaven has fallen to earth, in the form of nasturtiums'! No doubt, the first frosts this month will terminate this wonderful show for another year.
About the author
Michael Rand tends an allotment in North London and is the author of
Close to the Veg: a book of allotment tales, price £10.99, published by Marlin Press.
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