Wild garlic at home. Home garlic?

[Chris]

In my 0.001 acre woodland in the garden (see also: 4 trees at the boundary) I have spotted something I am quite excited about.

Last March or April time I planted a some very ropey looking wild garlic bulbs in a bit of unmanaged garden, just to see if they’d take. Given how soggy it gets down there and the really poor state of the bulbs, I hadn’t expected much.




We have leaves sprouting! Five in total (one not in shot).

I’d love to get a little foraging garden established down there, so keeping fingers crossed that these will take. I have an Elder and some brambles down there, it’d be nice to get some spring foragables.

 

[slowworm]

They do look like ramsons. I wouldn't pick any leaves this year, just let the bulbs fatten up. Collecting seed from some other plants and sprinkling about will help a clump establish.

 

[Chris]

They do look like ramsons. I wouldn't pick any leaves this year, just let the bulbs fatten up. Collecting seed from some other plants and sprinkling about will help a clump establish.

Plan for this year is exactly that. To be honest, probably won’t even pick any next year if these ones survive - this is a bit more of a long term project.

 

[William_Montgomery]

In my 0.001 acre woodland in the garden (see also: 4 trees at the boundary) I have spotted something I am quite excited about.

Last March or April time I planted a some very ropey looking wild garlic bulbs in a bit of unmanaged garden, just to see if they’d take. Given how soggy it gets down there and the really poor state of the bulbs, I hadn’t expected much.


View attachment 102187

We have leaves sprouting! Five in total (one not in shot).

I’d love to get a little foraging garden established down there, so keeping fingers crossed that these will take. I have an Elder and some brambles down there, it’d be nice to get some spring foragables.
View attachment 102188

Excellent news!

 

[johnnytheboy]

I planted three cornered leek and wild garlic! Nothing yet sadly!

Good luck!

 

[TeeDee]

I've planted some Wild Garlic in part of my garden but purely as a timely seasonal indicator to know what its coming up - meaning , I can then know when I need to go to the real wild garlic location to harvest.

Its been quite useful so far , just crank my head over the wall , eyeball it and react accordingly.


I'd be careful planting it in borders if unchallenged as it will like to spread and run abit. And once established may be more foe than friend.

 

[Toddy]

I can only echo what others have said, and suggest you find some pignuts and gather the seeds later on in the year, scatter those too among it .....Mine's coming up in the gravel again, if it seeds, and I mind, I'll offer.

 

[TeeDee]

Kerching!

Conopodium majus - Pignut - Emorsgate Seeds

£ / 1g : £3.50 £ / 10g : £10.00 £ / 100g : £63.00 £ / 1,000g : £580.00 £ / 10,000g : ---

wildseed.co.uk

 

[Toddy]

At those prices you'd think we'd be up for domesticating them. Pignuts are good food. A nice crunchy like water chestnut sort of.

 

[Broch]

At those prices you'd think we'd be up for domesticating them. Pignuts are good food. A nice crunchy like water chestnut sort of.

Yep, I've used them exactly for that - stir fry. I love the taste but, unfortunately, can't eat them raw

 

[Broch]

Kerching!

Conopodium majus - Pignut - Emorsgate Seeds

£ / 1g : £3.50 £ / 10g : £10.00 £ / 100g : £63.00 £ / 1,000g : £580.00 £ / 10,000g : ---

wildseed.co.uk

I think I'm sitting on a fortune

 

[TeeDee]

I think I'm sitting on a fortune

No change there then Sir Broch.

 

[slowworm]

We've also have carpets of pignuts on our land, not got round to hunting for them really but love the flowers. Personally I'd try and collect seeds from as close by as possible if you want to grow them. Growing them in a pot also makes harvesting easier.

Ramsons can spread if it finds somewhere it likes, although we eat enough of it that we could keep it under control by just eating it. Previous years floods have unearthed ramson bulbs and I've collected quite a few to plant elsewhere. Saves them washing out to sea.

A word of warning with three cornered leek, it is a non-native invasive and it's illegal to plant in the wild or allow it to escape.

 

[HillBill]

Make sure the soil is always wet. They dont mix too well with other plants, due to both water needs and how dense they tend to grow in the correct conditions.. I had some in containers a few years back, grown from wild seed... more hassle than they were worth in a container. Needed constant watering in the summer, even with a tray under the containers... Think... Venus fly trap level of pain in the a ss.

Throw a load of sphagnum moss down, and keep it wet at all times, and they might do ok. Its in first couple of years where the main effort is, until they get established. After that, they provide their own shade/ground cover which helps keep the soil moist and your job easier.

As said above... leave them alone for a couple of years, other than lots of water/mulch.

 

[slowworm]

Perhaps in a pot ramsons might need a fair bit of watering but once established I've found them trouble free and on the verge of invasive.

Vast areas grow on the chalky slopes of the north downs, under trees, so they can cope very well with dry conditions.

 

[slowworm]

I'm not at home now but this is a photo from last year of one of the patches of ramsons planted in my woodland. Started out at about 20 plump bulbs 15ish years ago. Not rapid but a nicely established now.

 

[HillBill]

Perhaps in a pot ramsons might need a fair bit of watering but once established I've found them trouble free and on the verge of invasive.

Vast areas grow on the chalky slopes of the north downs, under trees, so they can cope very well with dry conditions.

Thats what i said... Get them past the first 2 years (established) and they sort themselves out. Well, when planted in the ground. I gave up with pots as it was just too much work for little return.

 

[Chris]

We've also have carpets of pignuts on our land, not got round to hunting for them really but love the flowers. Personally I'd try and collect seeds from as close by as possible if you want to grow them. Growing them in a pot also makes harvesting easier.

Ramsons can spread if it finds somewhere it likes, although we eat enough of it that we could keep it under control by just eating it. Previous years floods have unearthed ramson bulbs and I've collected quite a few to plant elsewhere. Saves them washing out to sea.

A word of warning with three cornered leek, it is a non-native invasive and it's illegal to plant in the wild or allow it to escape.

AtomicShrimp of YouTube had a huge battle with three cornered leek at his previous house, he didn’t plant it but suspects it came in via some compost or something. He has been hesitant to even forage it for eating just in case a seed drops at his new house. I think I’ll learn from his misfortune there.

The area shown in the picture has had a lot of heavy machinery and general work done on it due to being a newbuild estate on some old farm land. There’s actually a big drainage tube underneath there about a foot down, so it shouldn’t stay boggy for too long. I’d like to get some native woodland species down there just as a mini ‘rewilding’ project, although it’s only a small space. Would be nice to give something back to the environment after so much of it got built on so that I could have a home, and perhaps go some way to making up for the hideous plastic astroturf some people have replaced their gardens with.

 

[slowworm]

AtomicShrimp of YouTube had a huge battle with three cornered leek at his previous house, he didn’t plant it but suspects it came in via some compost or something. He has been hesitant to even forage it for eating just in case a seed drops at his new house. I think I’ll learn from his misfortune there.

I think in a small space I wouldn't want it around. The patches locally don't seem to spread much though but I have heard of some problems with it.

Because it often grows at the side of the road, like many other invasives, it'll be spread about by the councils who are the ones who should enforce against anyone spreading it around...

 

[Toddy]

Avoid few flowered leek too. It's very tasty, the bulbils actually pickle well, but by heavens it's prolific and it spreads anywhere one of those wee bulbils ends up.