Contradictions

I dislike strong yellow and orange colours although there are many such flowers growing in my garden. They were planted by previous occupants and they are all sturdy specimens.

I have been digging up one clump of particularily garish orange flowers for several years, each winter thinking that I have successfully eradicated the horror, only to find it rearing its ugly head in spring, choking and obliterating my chosen, more delicate replacements of delphiniums and campanula, 'Chettle Charm'.

It pushes up through a mound of purple sage creating an outrageous colour combination.

Now I am pulling up the plants once more, but it has got to the point where, if I were successful in getting rid of the thing, I might just regret it!

Haiku

Fickle gardener!

For a dandelion field

such contrary praise

I'm busy in the fruit cage with a pair of scissors disentangling convolvulus from the autumn fruiting raspberry canes. How I hate this weed! It has a beautiful flower but it's character is sneaky and mean, it gets right in at the root of of some precious plant and then climbs up and proceeds to throttle its host.

Yet, every year I plant a dark purple convolvulus and encourage it to grow wherever it will in the garden, on walls and fences and up through the bean stakes. When it has finished flowering I carefully collect the seed so that I will have plenty to plant the following year.

How contrary can you get!