What I am sure about is that we owe it to every other lifeform on this earth to try and be less damaging
Amen to that!
What I am sure about is that we owe it to every other lifeform on this earth to try and be less damaging
Not necessarily so, and that illustrates why care needs to be taken. I warn people that ramsons can be invasive but it can also be tricky to establish. I've planted a patch on my woodland (using purchased bulbs from a sustainable source) and it's taken about decade to get to the stage where I can harvest as many leaves as I want. I wouldn't have been happy if someone had turned up and yanked out half the plants in the first couple of years.Wild garlic? Jeez that's one plant that seems to stand a bit of harvesting. We've harvested our garden and it'll keep coming back. Can't keep the plant under control, we throw a lot just trying. Maybe if we don't clear the cut down trees they might not grow back.
Established isn't the same as establishing it. The well established patches can be grazed quite harshly ime.Not necessarily so, and that illustrates why care needs to be taken. I warn people that ramsons can be invasive but it can also be tricky to establish. I've planted a patch on my woodland (using purchased bulbs from a sustainable source) and it's taken about decade to get to the stage where I can harvest as many leaves as I want. I wouldn't have been happy if someone had turned up and yanked out half the plants in the first couple of years.
I think the plastic bag mushroom and wild garlic gatherers aren’t picking for their pot, they’re looking to sell to local pub kitchens or make Ramson infused oils for financial gain. It’s just rampant greed and pillage, learned behaviour considering our heritage and government.Exactly. I have been studying edible plants and fungi since I was a kid and I have hundreds of acres of land with permission to shoot and forage over, and I'd still struggle to forage enough to substantially add to my pantry. OK, yes, at the right season we can pick enough berries to make jam to last the year, and we can add to flavour in some cases, but it won't substantially reduce my food bill!
If people suddenly get the idea from the media that they can 'live off the land' by nipping out to the country for the day and gathering wild plants and fungi, all that will happen is a lot of stuff will be pulled up and wasted
It’s the same where ever you go now. Green belts being moved, colossal industrial estates & massive housing estates being built on once farm lands.The plain fact is, the countryside is in crisis.
I live in a national park, so we get a lot of visitors from towns who realy have no idea how to act in this environment.
They have no real understanding of how nature works, resulting, for one example, as we see every year, in bbq fires destroying huge habitat areas that take years to recover.
Paths eroded and litter left everywhere, dog poo bags left hanging on branches, and many other things, including houses built on sensitive habitats, taking more and more of the countryside away.
I used to live in a small Hampshire village..900 people. It was a great place with allotments hop fields, wooded dell's, and fields full of horses.
Now those places are all gone. The allotments are now a surgery and car park, the fields and dell's are all gone under housing and a huge car dealership, a massive by pass has been built, destroying a large area of land, close to an idyllic quiet river. My favourite little wood that my pals and I spent many happy hours building dens, and waiting for the yearly crop of puffball to take home for a meal, is now a posh house, and garden.
It's no longer a village where everyone knew everyone, but a commuter dormitory.
I've not been back in person, but have watched the village grow with Google earth. Heartbreaking.
Soon what is left of our countryside will be gone altogether.