The Stray Gardener is written by Rudding Park’s Kitchen Gardener, Fiona Slight.
Fiona has worked in horticulture for over 30 years in the UK and abroad, and specialises in growing fruit and vegetables for fine dining.
We’ve made it! March is when things really start to spring in to action in the garden. The bleak winter is over and with lighter days plants start to come to life.
Spring flowering plants are especially important as a little more warmth in the air means honey bees, bumble bees and other pollinating insects start to get going and they need the early flowers to start their amazing lifecycles. Not only that, they lift our spirits and send a message letting us know that good weather is on the way and things can only get better. I have included a few of the plants that really lift my spirits and make me feel good as I work in the garden at this time.
A magnolia bud
Flowering shrub wise, my absolute favourite are Magnolias. They start tempting you with the wonderful show that is going to come at the end of March and in to April with their beautiful velvety furry buds that gradually get larger and swell before the white, pink, cream or purple petals finally burst forth. My favourites are good, old fashioned M. stellata and M. loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ which are perfect for a small garden, and M. soulangeana ‘Black Tulip’ which has wonderfully dark purple flowers and could still be grown in a smaller sized garden, eventually growing to around eight metres in time.
Looking closer to the ground, you can’t avoid the wonderful creamy/white flowers of the Primrose (Primula vulgaris), my favourite flower of all time and a real magnet for pollinating insects. You need to get down on your knees and up close with this beauty as it has the most beautiful scent and should not be missed when in full flower. Plus, even better, the flowers are edible and can be used for decoration on cakes and even as a botanical in gin. What’s not to love about that!
Cyclamen hederifolium
However, even before the Primulas gets going, Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemallis) hold up their wonderful yellow heads, and not long after come the Cyclamen with their fantastic white, pink or purple flowers, followed by the many wonderful different types and colours of Helleborus. H. argutifolius is a particularly hardy and lovely choice with pale green/cream flowers, with the many different types of orientalis also making an impact when not much else is around.
Helleborus orientalis
It doesn’t always have to be flowers that lift our spirits. In the vegetable garden, garlic plants are starting to produce the first of their leaves in preparation for their tasty cloves to develop later in the year. Purple sprouting broccoli start to produce the first of their wonderfully tender and sweet florets, and they don’t just produce one crop, oh no – they are cut and come again and will produce many florets over a few weeks in the spring.
March is a perfect time to get planting, so what’s stopping you? It’s a great way to see the flowers, ensuring you know you have chosen the colour and the type of plant you will really appreciate and love for years to come. I know I do!
Happy planting!
Read More:
Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Free Food
Stray Kitchen is our column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie is a champion of food produced in the UK and particularly in Yorkshire and the Harrogate district.
There is an air of optimism about the Moon household these days, a light at the end of a very long tunnel for us all and of course our beloved hospitality industry.
On my walk today out in the sunshine I was in high spirits, delighted to see the green shoots of wild garlic peeping out and even a few fresh nettle shoots. Free food is all around now, and it is the time to start getting out there to find your own.
I have always been interested in wild food. I can remember bringing in the cows for my Dad at milking time as a young lass, eating the wild strawberries growing in the side of the road. One year the farm had a field mushroom phenomenon, and we ended up filling washing baskets and cardboard boxes to give to relatives and friends. This is a hobby that is healthy and great for mindfulness, as it gets you outside soaking up the sun and breathing the fresh air. What is not to love?!
We are always encouraged to make the most of natures bounty, so here are a few easy tricks to foraging if you are new to the pastime.
- Start with something easy
- Nettles or Wild Garlic are great this time of year, with young tender shoots
- Nettles grow everywhere, but you should avoid picking from roadsides where car pollution may have occurred. Wild garlic likes leafy woods and often with water nearby
- Wild garlic tends to have long green leaves, white delicate flowers on a tall chive-like stem, and a bulb like a garlic bulb but much scrawnier. The amazing smell of the leaves will hit you before you see it, so if in doubt just rub it: if it is wild garlic, it will give off a garlic aroma. The young tender shoots are the most tasty
A wild garlic leaf
- If picking nettles, wear plastic gloves to avoid being stung – if you are stung this is very mild with tender shoots and wears off fairly quickly. Someone once told me a nettle sting is good for arthritis, but that could be an old wives tale. Once you have cooked a nettle it looses its sting and the young ones are very tasty- a massive hit with the Victorians apparently, although not so much in food fashion these days unlike its punchy partner wild garlic on every chef’s ingredients list this time of year
- Be careful not to pick on land where pesticides may have been used
- You cannot dig for free without permission
This is a very old photo of my dog Honey who is now 8 years old… yes I know, ‘Honey Moon’! As a puppy she started her foraging years early.
- Watch out for dogs! For fairly obvious reasons, do not forage where dogs are walked
- Try to pick under the shade of a tree, as the leaves are often juicer having been less baked by the sun
- Avoid picking right next to the water’s edge. Not only because you might fall in, but who knows what you might pick up
- Avoid picking lots of one plant in one area. To be respectful of nature, spread out instead so it does not affect next year’s crop
- Make sure you know what you are picking and avoid picking other plants at the same time. If you rush, you may get more than you bargained for as not all plants are edible!
Happy cooking,
Steph x
Read More:
- Stray Foodie recipes: the joy of Wild Garlic
- Stray Kitchen: the most fun you’ll have with a frying pan