They're known as hell strips -in this case a bus stop hell strip. Today it leaped out of place as background -the unseen, and I couldn't have planted it better. First, it's all weeds, and they take care of themselves. Secondly, a designer's sensibility seems to be at work. A mass of warm-weather Mallow, soon to be flush with pink flowers, companion-planted with the atmospheric, flowering stalks of the cool-weather mustard called Shepherd's Purse. For some that would be enough to carry the strip, but not this strip, no. Adding contrast to the wispy flowering stalks and mat-forming masses of round leaves are the strongly cut leaves of the upright Mugwort in brilliant green. And as if that is not enough, nature conspired to accentuate the whole of it with a large-leafed Plantain on one end and a spidery daylily on the other!
Common Mallow, Malva neglecta
Common Plantain, Plantago major
Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris
Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris
Common Daylily, Hemerocallis fulva
And every single one of these plants is useful! Either edible or medicinal. Way to go.
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