THE NATURAL FORAGER’S GARDEN
With expert broadcaster, author and long-standing AG columnist, Anne Swithinbank
Amateur Gardening will celebrate its 140th birthday this year and I’m proud to have contributed to its pages for 25 years. In that time, our children have grown up, my parents who helped in the garden have passed on and I’m not as limber as I used to be.
Everyone has their own gardening style and looking back, mine has come full circle. My childhood garden was a ‘private, personal wilderness’ to quote William Robinson and I can remember primroses, forget-me-nots, lily of the valley and bearded iris free-growing. I made a ‘spider farm’, hatched caterpillars into moths and butterflies and rescued unwanted pets including two catfish. A 1970’s bedding plant phase was followed in the 80’s by a period where I enthusiastically collected difficult and unusual plants such as Chilean flame nasturtium (Tropaeolum speciosum) and Blue Himalayan poppies, only to watch them slowly but surely die. In the 1990’s we cottoned on to the ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy just in time to colonise the dry, sandy soil of our Surrey garden with Mediterranean type plants. Here in East Devon, we hope our garden sits comfortably in its borrowed landscape of rolling hills.
So what’s my garden now?
I prioritise wildlife by offering safe, undisturbed habitats and plenty of natural food and in return, common garden problems usually disappear without me lifting a finger. I allow anarchy in the borders and let plants seed themselves around. We’re a family of foragers, making teas from leaves and flowers, gathering fruits and herbs for brewing and growing crops to eat. In this new series from my garden, join our escapades as we make the best use of our wild-at-heart productive plot.
A long history of foraging for salad ingredients
Growing or foraging mixtures of leaves for salads might seem like a relatively modern idea but goes right back to the Romans and beyond, to hunter-gatherers. I picked up a reprint of the book Acetaria, A Discourse of Sallets written by author and diarist John Evelyn and published in October 1699 (when Willliam III, Prince of Orange was on the throne). Within are lists of how to prepare leaves, roots, stalks and buds, with suggestions of dressings made from good oils and wine vinegars.
Here are five lessons I learnt
1. I’m used to raiding the wild corners of our garden for young shoots of nettle to cook and ground elder but will now look out for the fresh tops of Alexanders. This plant from the parsley family is easy to identify but take great care and advice, as there are sever
