It was dark at both ends of my work day today, it’s almost midwinter. So here is a photo of some Rosemary, plucked as I came home, from the geveltuin (pavement garden) beneath my apartment. Tasty, beneficial and free!
Feverfew today, in a pavement garden. This plant has long been used to help relieve and prevent headaches and migraine. It has a very bitter taste and a traditional way to take it is between bread as a sandwich.
Today Black nightshade (Solanum nigra) – Toxic. It’s nice to see the reason for the name of this plant, those beautiful black mini tomato-like fruit.
And next is a photo of Chickweed (Stellaria media) in Paris last week. My friends Elodie & Herman were visiting there and spotted this lovely specimen. Even the drains look beautiful in Paris!
Today a very big and healthy looking Greater Celandine (NL: Stinkende gouw). It is protected from passers by in a tiny raised bed, with hardly any competition. A good spot to harvest useful weeds. This plant is toxic; the bright yellow sap inside is extremely irritant but dabbed on some areas of skin, it may help fight herpes and small skin growths.
I took a walk around my block today, with Katja and Dennis, looking for various edible plants. We found plenty of Chickweed, young Garlic Mustard, Barbara mustard, Shepherds purse, Hollyhock, Wormwood and other useful plants, even if you wouldn’t fancy picking them, given the roadside locations.
Here is Wormwood:
And here is a nice amount of Wild Rocket seed, collected from the park at the weekend, now nicely dried out in a canvas bag and ready to save or sew.
With today’s stormy weather I didn’t feel like taking my little girl to the park and I then forgot to take myself there at all! So rather than a street or park photo, here is one of an Elder (Sambucus niger) cutting which lives on my balcony. All of the Elder babies (made from cuttings in the early summer) continue to do well. I decided not to repot mine, just before the colder weather set in, in case it was too much for them to handle. So I continue to cross my fingers that they will fair well over the winter in fairly small pots. If you have Elder cuttings be aware that they don’t like soggy feet (let them drain freely to avoid roots rotting or freezing) and they should survive whatever the Dutch winter throws at them, if in a sheltered outdoor location.
There are plenty of Elder trees/shrubs in city woodland/hedge settings, still with enough green, leaves on to harvest a few for ointments of needed. Elder never ceases to astonish me!