If you don’t have time to digest all the lists that you find or you just want a handy top ten wild & garden plants ( and a few of my favourites) to start off with then this is the list for you;
Wild plants · Achillea millefolium (common yarrow) • Cantaurea scabiosa (greater knapweed) • Digitalis purpurea (common foxglove) • Eupatorium cannabinum (hemp agrimony) • Lonicera periclymenum (common honeysuckle) • Origanum vulgare (wild marjoram) • Thymus pulegioides (large thyme) • Trifolium repens (white clover) • Verbascum nigrum (dark mullein) • Viburnum opulus (guelder rose)
Garden plants • Caryopteris x clandonensis (caryopteris) • Dianthus barbatus (sweet william) • Hesperis matronalis (dame’s violet) • Hyssopus officinalis (hyssop) • Jasminum officinale (common jasmine) • Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) • Lychnis coronaria (rose campion) • Monarda didyma (bergamot or bee balm) • Verbena bonariensis (purple top) • Weigela florida (weigelia)
My top picks; · Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) · Borago officinalis (borrage/star flower) · Any type of herb that will grow!!
I know my list has cheated by lumping several in one, but I have yet to find someone who, at a whim, has got a small pot of herbs left them on the window sill and then complained that they have got them. They cost next to nothing and when they flower they instantly attract most pollinators in the area, and once they have had there fill and the flowers have died back, you get a herb garden that you can use to. Sometimes its not the most expensive of time consuming things that make a change, some times its that £1 pot of Thyme that you picked up that can make a real difference to the wildlife near you. (Plus it helps that I am told that borage is great it gin!) Happy gardening J