Phacelia tanacetifolia

Green manure!

It was 5 years ago that I discovered this purple flower and had it identified by TonyG as Phacelia tanacetifolia. The farmer whose field I blipped in 2013 had used it again this year a couple of fields further on. He plants it in that tractor-wide band around the crop where the combine can't get at the barley to harvest it efficiently, the turning area.

This lovely purple flower produces high quality pollen and nectar then, after the barley is harvested it will be ploughed in to nourish the soil. Win-win situation!

We did a bit of printing today to replace things sold at the weekend.