A secret cache . . . .

A few years ago, when I'd had a couple of stone-edged beds built, I was lucky enough to be offered several pick-up loads of soil by a local garden contractor. Unfortunately it wasn't only the soil that came free, but a large number of 'volunteers' in the shape of crocosmia corms too. When these grew the following spring I managed to dig out a few hundred of them, some of them growing from very deep down. They continue to emerge year on year and if the whole string of corms isn't recovered then next year up they come again! 

As well as crocosmia a few attractive lilies also came up and these I potted. Various other bits and pieces appeared here and there, but last spring I noticed some seedlings growing on a small heap of spare soil at the top of the bank. These turned into a slender plant with tiny white flowers which were followed by flattened seed pods. It was something I'd not seen before, but I eventually came to the conclusion that they were Field Pennycress, Thiaspi arvense. A lot more came up this spring so I dried off some pods to collect the seed. They must have come in with the same soil as I've not seen them growing anywhere around here - they're described as an annual of waste ground.

As it's a wild, wet and windy day today I experimented with taking close-ups of one of the pods. It wasn't that successful as the pods are barely a centimetre across and therefore are blown up quite a bit and not as sharp as I would like. But it makes a change from boats, cats or flowers!