For anyone who missed it last night - The Wonder of Weeds.

[dipsydoodle]

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins celebrates the humble and sometimes hated plants we call weeds. He discovers that there is no such thing as a weed, botanically speaking, and that in fact what we call a weed has changed again and again over the last three hundred years. Chris uncovers the story of our changing relationship with weeds - in reality, the story of the battle between wilderness and civilisation. He finds out how weeds have been seen as beautiful and useful in the past, and sees how their secrets are being unlocked today in order to transform our crops.

Finally, Chris asks whether, in our quest to eliminate Japanese Knotweed or Rhododendron Ponticum, we are really engaged in an arms race we can never win. We remove weeds from our fields and gardens at our peril.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01224kv Can that be accessed outside of the UK ?

or here which is definitely UK only : http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01224kv/The_Wonder_of_Weeds/

[oldironside]

1. The first link is...

not available in Germany. Shame. I used to like a little weed. :hippie:

[non sociopath skin]

2. She was Bill and Ben's friend, too, right?

:smoke:

The Skin

[oldironside]

3. Ah, such happy memories.

[fedsron2us]

4. I love weeds.

I particularly like the way they resist all human attempts to eradicate them. Every time some barbarian block paves his entire front garden I get a little frisson of pleasure when I see a year later that the human wasteland is already bearded with green along all the joints. I tolerate the tough little buggers in various corners of my garden and I am rewarded with more wild life than some of my more pristine neighbours

[Nihil]

5. "A weed is simply a plant growing where you don't want it."

> I tolerate the tough little buggers in various corners of my garden and
> I am rewarded with more wild life than some of my more pristine neighbours

Some of the "weeds" are actually quite lovely in their own right - teasel, clover,
buttercups, daisies, campions and forget-me-nots (one of my favourites).

:hi: