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One man's weeds

A Wallsend wasteground is more botanical wonderland than gardener's nightmare.

On the edge of an industrial estate is a wildflower meadow – or is it a gardener’s nightmare? One man’s weeds are another man’s wildflowers - and Bill Oddie is that man. This is a botanical wonderland not a waste ground. This is right by the Tyne and it’s called Wallsend. Would you believe the wall in question is Hadrian’s Wall? In fact this was the site of a very big Roman Fort and it’s covered in wild flowers. Have a close look and they’re very delicate and very pretty some of these. Hop trefoil, bird's foot trefoil and common daisy. For many centuries the daisy was quite rightly considered to be one of the classic pretty flowers. Daisy actually comes from 'day’s eye', meaning flower of the dawn, the one that cheers you up when you wake up. And we all know dandelion seeds are carried on the wind, whilst cleavers are carried on people and animals as they travel. And nobody travelled more than the Romans, carrying seeds with them. So what did the Romans ever do for us? Well they gave us weeds - or wild flower gardens, as Bill prefers to think of them.

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