what can i plant?

Almost all of the land in Britain has been "managed" over the last few thousand years. It is thought that only a few tiny islands on certain Scottish lochs contain natural wildwood that has never been planted, lopped or grazed. Very few wild plants can said to be native if by "native" we mean that they have always grown here without human introduction. Those plants would be a very few Ice Age survivors. More would have spread from the European mainland while the North Sea was stil dry land. The rest have been brought across the water by incoming farmers and traders.

Someone mentioned ground elder - that was brought in by the Romans as a medicinal herb. Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan balsam, bindweed and ragwort are our worst weeds and were all brought in fairly recently as garden plants.

Nevertheless, we do have an idea of what plants look well in a "natural" setting and which don't. I am all in favour of plants that can live and reproduce year by year without human cultivation. The date when they first arrived has less importance. I just hope botanists, gardeners and tourists have learned a lesson or two on the way and won't thoughtlessly and avariciously introduce any more thugs. Yet even on GC - we hear people boasting of what they have brought back from their foreign holidays

 

Thats right Hornbeam you have said what I was trying to say.
The only thing that I would like to say is,....that you are "happy with plants that look well in a natural setting and reproduce year by year without human cultivation".
What happens if your ideas are different from others ideas?
Surely its a matter of choice, who is the great person who deciedes these things?
The whole country is virtully a "planted garden" and if someone wants to put a few daffs in the countryside I for one wont complain, there are far too many old bikes and supermarket trollies that wind me up.
:D

 

I agree Pete. I was trying to say that I, personally, am "happy with plants that look well in a natural setting etc" I don't insist that everyone else shares my view. I love daffs too, but our "native" wild daffs are fast vanishing because people prefer to plant cultivated varieties. Fine if you plant them in your garden, but not so clever if you plant them in the wild. Pretty soon, the wild ones will be lost through hybridisation. Does that matter? Well, yes it does to me - but that is my personal opinion