Feasting on Weeds

How good it is to see the new growth bursting through the soil in the garden.

As well as the crocuses, daffodils and the promise of tulips, there are inevitably some less welcome arrivals. Just before these plants develop into full-grown thugs though, some are worth a little harvesting. If for no other reason, it is always nice to be reminded that the pleasure of picking and collecting food from my own garden is not so far off now and the fun of foraging further afield is also coming up.  Picking 'wild food' in the garden combines both pleasures.
 I like to add just a few leaves to supplement shop bought salad greens. Newly emerged they are more tender and delicately flavoured than they will be later. Having researched the possibilities and consulted Richard Mabey I choose from the weed cornucopia bursting forth in my backyard. 
 Ramsons or wild garlic (shown above) is my first choice, partly because it is very close to the backdoor and partly because a continental friend introduced me to  picking and eating these leaves so I am confident about identifying it as edible. Some of the banks of the sunken lanes near here will be thickly covered in masses of  this wild allium for the next few weeks. Once the pretty starry flowers come out, the air will be pungent with their garlic aroma and then they will fade and be gone before summer. I can tolerate this plant in the garden knowing it will give way to the campanula and peonies before very long and it is fairly easily contained so long as I take off all the flowers before they set seed. Small amounts of these leaves add a fresh garlic punch to a green salad.

 Bittercress seems to pop up everywhere in cracks in paving and in most of the outdoor pots. Just a few of the tiny leaves add a pleasant bitterness. This element is also provided by young dandelion leaves, certainly not hard to find.
Like all of the leaves they need to be thoroughly washed and picked over to make sure that no other leaves have got caught up in the harvest.
 

 And finally, cleavers or goose grass. I have  to admit that this one is very satisfying. Apart from the pleasant taste it is good to know that in the coming months, as I work in the garden there will be just a few less of the strands sticking my legs and less to be eradicated. There is a perverse kind of pleasure knowing that the nutrients from these fresh wild greens might be fortifying me for the battle to keep them in their place later in the year.
I use these and nettles to make plant feed too.

I know that there are gardeners who might remember all too clearly just how much they wrangled with these invaders in past years and be keen to dowse them with herbicides the minute they appear. The ones in my garden haven't been subjected to this. My approach to weed control involves pulling up plants, digging out the roots and trying to stop them setting seed. This may explain why they re-appear year after year. In two or three weeks, they will be the bane of my gardening efforts and worthy of being considered as weeds with all the nuisance implications of the term.  For now there is some pleasure in the wild harvest.