Daisy, daisy

We have had some considerable rain over the past couple of weeks.  This makes lawn cutting quite difficult as it never dries out long enough to be dealt with.  I am not a lawn-fanatic, it never gets special treatment but I do like to keep it quite neat on the formal lawns.  That sounds so pretentious it is ridiculous, but I have the wild bit of the garden, the front side lawn, the formal lawn and the dancing lawn (on which no one has ever danced).

When I lived at a previous house the lawn was much smaller and more narrow, no more than a path really.  It disappointed me hugely though as it did not have any daisies in it.  In my world it is not a proper lawn unless it has daisies growing in it.  Thankfully there is a wild flower nursery not too far away and I bought some lawn daisies.  People I knew thought I was bonkers introducing what they saw as weeds into my lawn, but I love them.  Clearly other people see them as problems too as I see web-pages dedicated to their eradication, so sad that this page recognises they are pretty yet does not suggest just letting them be.

I found it interesting that their latin name:  Bellis Perennis means 'in time of war, everlasting', not sure if that is a good or bad comment on them?  The common name daisy is a derivative of the words 'day's eye' because the flower opens and closes according to the sun. 

When I first moved into this house there was one small patch of daisies growing.  I try not to mow them every time I mow the lawn to let them flower and seed a bit and now there are three or four patches.  They are coming on quite well.

The dandelions are coming on well too, I am not so fond of them, but they are pretty.  I do mow them though.  As ever the judgement of what is deemed pretty and acceptable as opposed to what we see as the plant in the wrong place and a nuisance makes its random and often inconsistent judgements on what lives or dies.

Who has not sat and plucked the petals from a daisy wondering if s/he loves me, s/he loves me not? Daisies are also used for making daisy-chains.  I will leave the D H Lawrence readers to their own thoughts at this point.....