We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

On 3 Jan, 09:41, lloyd wrote:
We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

It's never a good idea to plant non-native species where they cannot
be controlled. it's probably not very polite to plant anything on
other people's land. If you introduce invasive weeds you could be
charged with trespass or criminal damage.

If you do want to brighten up a scrap of land, you ought to be
thinking of native wild plants. Your local wildlife trust may have
information, and possibly even sell seeds. http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factshe...adow/index.php
- and do get the permission of the landowner

On 3 Jan, 09:46, bobharvey wrote:
On 3 Jan, 09:41, lloyd wrote:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

It's never a good idea to plant non-native species where they cannot
be controlled. it's probably not very polite to plant anything on
other people's land. *If you introduce invasive weeds you could be
charged with trespass or criminal damage.

If you do want to brighten up a scrap of land, you ought to be
thinking of native wild plants. *Your local wildlife trust may have
information, and possibly even sell seeds.http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factshe...adow/index.php
- and do get the permission of the landowner


Go Ahead, the mice will love them and if any grow then the birds and
mice will have a feast in the autumn.
David Hill

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 01:58:15 -0800 (PST), Dave Hill
wrote:

On 3 Jan, 09:46, bobharvey wrote:
On 3 Jan, 09:41, lloyd wrote:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

It's never a good idea to plant non-native species where they cannot
be controlled. it's probably not very polite to plant anything on
other people's land. *If you introduce invasive weeds you could be
charged with trespass or criminal damage.

If you do want to brighten up a scrap of land, you ought to be
thinking of native wild plants. *Your local wildlife trust may have
information, and possibly even sell seeds.http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factshe...adow/index.php
- and do get the permission of the landowner


Go Ahead, the mice will love them and if any grow then the birds and
mice will have a feast in the autumn.
David Hill

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

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 01:46:58 -0800 (PST), bobharvey
wrote:

On 3 Jan, 09:41, lloyd wrote:
We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

It's never a good idea to plant non-native species where they cannot
be controlled. it's probably not very polite to plant anything on
other people's land. If you introduce invasive weeds you could be
charged with trespass or criminal damage.

If you do want to brighten up a scrap of land, you ought to be
thinking of native wild plants. Your local wildlife trust may have
information, and possibly even sell seeds. http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factshe...adow/index.php

That's a good idea.

- and do get the permission of the landowner

How does one find out who the landowner is? The tractor drivers who
work the fields just seem to be subbies.

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.

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.
--
Kay

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.

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 14:00:26 GMT, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from K contains these words:

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.

Wildlife includes anything from beetles and native plants to
breeding birds and lizards. Such considerations may form part of
the owner's longterm economic strategy; or study appraisal by advisory
groups who grant funding. His income, or wildlife support plan, may
depend on leaving that land
exactly as it is.

Isn't that what K said!

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.

A large leaved introduction like sunflowers, might easily shade out a
colony of wild orchids, preventing them from ripening seed.

I was talking about the odd seed here and there not planting a crop!

I suspect we are just being trolled

That's a shame, I bet you suffer from terrible indigestion! Do you
still look for reds under the bed!

On Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:41:14 +0000, lloyd wrote:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.


oops

* Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain,
it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the
landowner or occupier. Uproot is defined as to dig up or otherwise
remove the plant from the land on which it is growing, whether or not
it actually has roots; and, for the purposes of the legislation, the
term plant includes algae, lichens and fungi as well the true plants
mosses, liverworts and vascular plants. Similar general protection is
given to all plants in Northern Ireland, under the Wildlife (Northern
Ireland) Order, 1985.

Even plants growing wild are the legal property of somebody, and under
the Theft Act, 1968, it is an offence to uproot plants for commercial
purposes without authorisation*
http://www.thewildflowersociety.com/...of_conduct.htm

I picked lots of plants along the road side when we were cycling last
year. Though nothing ever grew again in the garden, but I suspect
that's my fault rather than therrs.

I was thinking of picking some of the twigs in the hedges and planting
them hoping to start a hedge, the brids seem to like the ones with
little red berries espcially.

Have we gone all sissy or what? Must add swag bag and goggles to my
birthday wish list

On 2010-01-03 09:41:14 +0000, lloyd said:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

The land belongs to somebody who hasn't planted it for a reason.
Whatever you plant may well become a weed to their crop and be deeply
unpopular. You really can't plant up land that doesn't belong to you
and especially not in farming regions.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

lloyd writes

* Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain,
it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the
landowner or occupier.

I picked lots of plants along the road side when we were cycling last
year. Though nothing ever grew again in the garden, but I suspect
that's my fault rather than therrs.

I was thinking of picking some of the twigs in the hedges and planting
them hoping to start a hedge, the brids seem to like the ones with
little red berries espcially.

It's uprooting that is against the law (except for specially protected
plants, where you're not allowed to pick any bit of them). In general,
you're allowed to pick the "four F's" - fruit, flowers, foliage, fungi.
(Fungi in the sense of fruiting bodies). Obviously, do it sensibly - as
a good rule of thumb, start from a default position of not picking. But
if you do pick, do it so as not to be noticed. If there's only one
flower stem, don't pick. If there's only two, still don't pick - you'd
really notice the difference if you did. If there's 30 flower stems,
perhaps pick one, or two at the most.

Have we gone all sissy or what?

No. We're realising the problems of a highly populated and intensively
used countryside, coupled with the devastation from people who see a
quick and easy profit - eg by digging up all the bulbs from a bluebell
wood for onward sale to a garden centre which is not too conscientious
about checking its sources.

In reality, you as an individual won't do too much harm provided you're
careful along roadsides, you're discreet and don't encourage others to
copy, and you never pick anything in an area where the wildflower
diversity is high. But without the legislation, there's no way to deal
with the unscrupulous.

--
Kay

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 15:28:47 +0000, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-01-03 09:41:14 +0000, lloyd said:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

The land belongs to somebody who hasn't planted it for a reason.
Whatever you plant may well become a weed to their crop and be deeply
unpopular. You really can't plant up land that doesn't belong to you
and especially not in farming regions.

Yes I think that's quite apparent now. Seems such a waste. However I
shall try and find out who owns the land and talk to them about
planting some wildlife trust approved wildflowers. The ditches are cut
once a year, and the verges twice, but the ends of the ditches are
left completely wild, so they may let us plant something there
hopefully which would be nice.

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 15:44:01 +0000, K wrote:

lloyd writes

* Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain,
it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the
landowner or occupier.

I picked lots of plants along the road side when we were cycling last
year. Though nothing ever grew again in the garden, but I suspect
that's my fault rather than therrs.

I was thinking of picking some of the twigs in the hedges and planting
them hoping to start a hedge, the brids seem to like the ones with
little red berries espcially.

It's uprooting that is against the law (except for specially protected
plants, where you're not allowed to pick any bit of them). In general,
you're allowed to pick the "four F's" - fruit, flowers, foliage, fungi.
(Fungi in the sense of fruiting bodies). Obviously, do it sensibly - as
a good rule of thumb, start from a default position of not picking. But
if you do pick, do it so as not to be noticed. If there's only one
flower stem, don't pick. If there's only two, still don't pick - you'd
really notice the difference if you did. If there's 30 flower stems,
perhaps pick one, or two at the most.

Yes I did appreciate that philosophy anyway, obvious really.

Have we gone all sissy or what?

No. We're realising the problems of a highly populated and intensively
used countryside, coupled with the devastation from people who see a
quick and easy profit - eg by digging up all the bulbs from a bluebell
wood for onward sale to a garden centre which is not too conscientious
about checking its sources.

In reality, you as an individual won't do too much harm provided you're
careful along roadsides, you're discreet and don't encourage others to
copy, and you never pick anything in an area where the wildflower
diversity is high. But without the legislation, there's no way to deal
with the unscrupulous.

Shame.

On 2010-01-03 15:49:39 +0000, lloyd said:

On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 15:28:47 +0000, Sacha wrote:

On 2010-01-03 09:41:14 +0000, lloyd said:

We have some large dykes, ditches and plots of apparent wasteland
around here, in amongst lots of arable farmland. What would you think
if I were to plant some sunflower seeds evry now and again on this
land?

I did read somewhere one should never plant corn flower seeds anywhere
apartf rom your own garden as they are quite prolific once they get
started and the farmers hate them. I obviously don't want to get in to
trouble.

The land belongs to somebody who hasn't planted it for a reason.
Whatever you plant may well become a weed to their crop and be deeply
unpopular. You really can't plant up land that doesn't belong to you
and especially not in farming regions.

Yes I think that's quite apparent now. Seems such a waste. However I
shall try and find out who owns the land and talk to them about
planting some wildlife trust approved wildflowers. The ditches are cut
once a year, and the verges twice, but the ends of the ditches are
left completely wild, so they may let us plant something there
hopefully which would be nice.

Good plan. I think that's the best way to go about it - talking to
them, I mean. Then, if they have a good reason for not doing it,
you'll know why and they'll appreciate being asked. OTOH, if they just
haven't go the time or inclination to plant them, they might be glad
for you to do so, if you tell them what plants you're going to use.
They might what you to be very careful not to plant anything that would
encourage birds onto their crops. We've got crow-scarers going off
round here right now.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

lloyd writes
Yes I think that's quite apparent now. Seems such a waste. However I
shall try and find out who owns the land and talk to them about
planting some wildlife trust approved wildflowers. The ditches are cut
once a year, and the verges twice, but the ends of the ditches are
left completely wild, so they may let us plant something there
hopefully which would be nice.

You might be interested n the work of the Plantlife charity. Their 'Back
from the Brink' programme aims to bring 'back from the brink' seriously
rare flowers, which they do largely by creating the conditions for the
plants to regenerate from the seed bank in the soil where they used to
grow. For example, they've had some success with starfruit, which relied
on cattle coming to drink at the pond and churning up the mud at the
edge. In some sites where Plantlife have replicated this mudchurning,
they have had starfruit reappear.

http://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/plant...k-from-brink.h
tml

Being the age I am, I can remember when road verges were routinely mown
short, and it is a real pleasure to see the wildflowers returning to our
verges, some of them, obviously, planted as a deliberate re-seeding of
wildflowers, but some of them reappearing by themselves (for example a
roadside colony of frog orchids which certainly weren't part of any
planting programme)

And much as I love daffodils, I do get a wee bit bored of the King
Alfred types creeping along the road verges at the edges of so many
villages.
--
Kay