Plants and Shrubs: A viewpoint

Take what you want, says God, and pay for it, according to a Spanish proverb. Broadmayne, in line with late-twentieth-century fashion, opts for the civic values of tidiness and a cared-for appearance. In exchange, we have given up a few natural amenities and diminished the variety of our local flora. A productive blackberry bush outside the children’s play area off Chalky Road – an amenity valued by a few elderly people in the village – has been replaced with a neat patch of mown grass.

The roadside verges are cut, and their predominant flora reduced to a few lawn- weeds, whose leaves can press closely to the ground. They are mostly daisy, dandelion, plantain, clover and buttercup, with their familiar pretty flowers; but if you look closely you may sometimes see the small dovesfoot cranesbill or a tiny yellow trefoil, and here and there the short turf sets off the jewel-like colours of discarded sweet papers and sun-glinting pieces of torn plastic. At the back, or where the mowing has been rougher, there are cow parsley, nettles, docks, the pink and white field bindweed and some of the taller and more vigorous grasses. Where other weeds do creep back, they are more likely to be garden escapees such as love-in-a-mist and pink and red valerian than meadow flowers, for modern farming techniques leave few reserves of these to provide fresh local supplies of seed. All in all, a worthwhile bargain or a bad one, according to your point of view.

Elizabeth Vince