On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 11:19:33 +0000, K wrote:

lloyd writes

That's what I was thinking, and of course the lovely smiley flowers.

I think you have to be quite careful. The "dykes, ditches and plots of
apparent wasteland" might be wildlife refuges amongst the arable land.
before introducing anything, you should familiarise yourself with what
is already there (plant and animal), perhaps through your local wildlife
trust.

Yes I shall do that. I think we have a Nature guy fairly local I saw
in the shop window.

I know this isn't your situation, but just as a thought: orchids seem to
thrive in abandoned industrial sites, with large multi-species
populations on an alkali waste dump in Lancashire and in various
abandoned quarries and lime kilns in the Yorkshire Dales. One of the
greatest threats to this sort of site has been well-meaning agreements
in the planning permission that the site should be landscaped once the
quarrying has finished.

It is wonderful how apparent wastelands that look like they had been
nuked can recover in such a wonderful way. If mankind was to disappear
tomorrow I doubt Mother Nature would have much trouble restoring
things.