Country diary: the ravishing dishevelment of tall herbs

Rowberrow Warren, Somerset: Hemp-agrimony, the Miss Havisham of this vegetation type, is my favourite - and Flo the horse loves it tooThe flowering plants lining the track through the forest are now up to my elbows, and I'm riding a horse. This is the tall herb community - the most voluptuous and ravishing of our vegetation types, recalling an unruly Gertrude Jekyll border. Plants of edges, fringes and clearings, they flourish where they find damp soil and sunlight, growing vigorously in spring, flowering wildly through summer and dying back in winter. Continue reading...