All Posts in "Weeds"

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Flying into England during the summer months, we could see fields of yellow interspersed in the fields of green.  We have never been able to identify the crop.  As we drove around the countryside, we saw that the yellow plants were flowers of some kind.  Sometimes, those plants can be scattered along the roadside.  My first impression is that they looked like some weeds, or wildflowers that used to grow in our backyard in America.  But I can’t believe that farmers would be planting fields and fields of them.  As we drive by, sometimes we can detect a fragrance from them, but it’s hard to say whether it was actually from the plants.  You see, it’s not exactly a pleasant fragrance, like you would expect from flowers.  (Then again, I don’t think all flowers have pleasant fragrances.  Take marigolds, for example.)

Now that spring is here, I’m starting to see those yellow fields again.  During the winter months, those same fields looked fallow and I never suspected that they would be growing these plants in the spring.  So, what are they?  I haven’t found anyone who might know.

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Yank by — April 23, 2009 in My Journey 4

As the green campaign is very important in the EU, we’d like to do our part.  Our grass, which stayed green throughout the whole winter practically, shot up in the last month.  It is nearly a foot in some areas, with the weeds even higher.  We don’t have a lawnmower and it seems a waste to get one.  We would have no place to store it anyway.  The edge of the lawn by the fences are nice and trim due to the sheep sticking their heads through and feeding to their content.

We had considered letting the sheep graze on the lawn to keep it low.  We see that they are doing a wonderful job along the edge.  But we worry about the smell and mess of sheep manure.  After all, the kids still like to run around in their barefeet.  The landlord had even suggested this option when he saw the lawn, so he would have no problems with it.  It’s been rather tricky catching the farmer, though.  He visits once or twice a day, very briefly to do what he has to do.

In the last couple days, one of the lambs has found his way outside of the gates and was grazing on common grass areas.  I was tempted to lure him into our yard and let him feed, but the sheep and lambs are still somewhat wary of us (except for the flocks that chased us in the fields).  Even the ones feeding on the edge would turn and rush away when we open the front door.

As I said, we’d like to do our part to reduce carbon emissions and there’s no greener lawnmower than a sheep or goat.  We just need to resolve the manure issue.  Oh, and get the farmer’s permission as well.  We wouldn’t want him to think we were stealing his animals.

Yank by — April 22, 2009 in My Journey 4