Allium ursinum AKA Wild Garlic

Welcome back! Life is truly good when there is an opportunity to balance work with pleasure and not to be disturbed that you haven’t “put in” the hours. Spring does that for me. I come out of my dark palace and begin the process of invigoration. Wild Garlic is the touch paper for this optimism.

This wild garlic patch straddles the boundary fence that marks the tame and wild side of our allotment. The border between what we try our best to control and the uncertain, seasonal and nature determined that is uncontrolled but valued . We liberated this wonderfully pungent and free crop from Powerstock, a deep dark Dorset village near Bridport. Some we gave to our eco friends Rose and Hanna and the rest was planted in Woking.

Wild Garlic is wonderfully forgiving and thrives mercilessly in the most challenging of situations. It can be used in various ways too, from a salad leaf to a tasty addition to a potato salad. It’s short but exotic life ends in May but last year Toni and I found it in rural Derbyshire in early July. Some use the buried bulbs too after the season has passed, we, however, prefer to leave them be to spread themselves in the years to come.