CATASTROPHE CORNER

I seeded a small area of my garden with a wildflower mix. This looked wonderful in the first year, but subsequent years have been disappointing. I supplemented the seed mix with wildflower plugs obtained from the garden centre and this helped a bit.

Then, on a visit to the local recycling centre, I noticed that someone had dumped large clumps of what I call “motorway daisies” (real name oxeye daisies) in the garden recycling bin. I rescued a small clump to plant in my wildflower garden and they thrived.

But it was the equivalent of bringing in the Trojan horse — that one plant has multiplied, and the daisies are now everywhere. In the walls, the lawn, cracks in the brick path, and even the vegetable patch! Motorway daisies look lovely, and are on the RHS “perfect for pollinators” list, but you can have too much of a good thing. So now the daisies will have to be weeded out – and the clumps taken to the local recycling centre!