Liberation Day

I did go to the garden this afternoon. I brought my vegetable peels, eggshells and toilet paper inner rolls with me to add to the compost heap.

I took photos of plants which i have been told are beneficial weeds. I’m still learning these names and facts. My knowledge of plants, vegetables, herbs and weeds, beneficial or not is extremely limited. I did do some searches and readings this afternoon. The following plants are the ones i have studied.

The bed with chard is almost completely covered with clover, klaver. Its main use is in animal feed. They are also valuable as soil-improving and soil-conserving plants. It adds about 55-170 kg per hectare of nitrogen.

Comfrey, smeerwortel, is a medium sized plant with purple flowers and large leaves. Daniel told me he used the comfrey root for a wound. Ordinarely that wound would be healed in around four weeks, but with the use of the comfrey root, it was healed in a week. He explained to me that this was because the plant contains a organic molecule allantoin. This stimulates cell growth and repairs and depresses inflammation.

Vetch, wikke, is a wide family of around 140 species. Broad beans, tuinbonen, are part of this family. Lentils and peas are relatives of vetches. They are nitrogen-fixing plants.

Dandelion, paardebloem, is to me a well known yellow flowering plant. Its seed heads are also well known here in western Europe, with the white seeds in a wide sphere with fine hairs surrounding the seeds, making it easy to follow the wind over a wide area. The wikipedia page describes its many uses: food, wine and medicinal.

I did publish a photo of wild garlic, daslook, in my last post about the garden. Its leaves are lovely and have a mild garlicky taste. Cows which have eaten wild garlic give milk with a slight garlic taste. The leaves can be used as salad, herb, boiled, in soup or in a pesto as a substitute for basil.