Gardening in the dark

The Untamed Gardener

Aisling Blackburn

I became mildly livid when a situation occurred recently. We had netted the fig tree to keep the birds off and I was using frost protection fleece as it was what was handy. A willing volunteer had been asked to remove it by a ‘helpful’ gardening associate thinking that there was no fear of frost in July. Communication is of paramount importance to avoid confusion as many volunteers arrive without knowing one end of a hoe from another.

There may be language obstacles to overcome as well; it’s fun sometimes to try to translate the names of tools – even the word tool. In the community garden in Milltown, their signage reflects the national language of the participants, some as Gaeilge, German and Dutch.

Most people know that you can’t or shouldn’t eat the leaves of many common fruits and vegetables. There are certain parts of a plant that are edible and some that are not. There is also a time when a fruit or a vegetable is edible as well. For instance, lettuce is both a culinary and a medicinal plant that produces a latex in the stem and leaves and has been used as a pain killer and sleep-aid in herbal concoctions. As it goes to seed it tastes quite bitter and both animals and humans tend to avoid it when flowering. This is a defence mechanism by the plant to ensure the next generation as it goes to seed. Lots of leafy plants become bitter as they age, rocket is another example.

Kale tastes better and is more tender after the frosts. Some apples only become delicious about a month or two after picking. I discovered this myself in the walled garden which is populated with many old fruit trees. In the far left-hand, corner of the garden is a large healthy tree that produces very large, pretty but tasteless apples when first picked. I thought they would be worth storing anyway for apple crumble in the winter, so we put them in boxes in the cellar.

As the months went on, the apples took on a rosy hue and fragrance and tasted great. I tried this with some of the other apples as well. One In particular, a very healthy large green apple growing on a small tree – I didn’t know it was a ‘golden delicious’ - until it turned gold in storage.

What if this basic knowledge gets lost. Young people may think that an app on a phone is an oracle, a tool that will tell them everything they need to know. But we need actual experience and interaction with the world - not only virtual experience. Never mind foraging in the wild, just the basics will do for a start.

As children we were told never to eat any berries that we found. This was sound advice, albeit perhaps ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’. Of course, we can eat ‘some’ berries, like blackberries - then again other berries will kill you stone dead in moments. I am speaking of the Yew tree, Taxus baccata; often the cause of livestock poisoning. By the time the vet arrives, it is often too late; the tell-tail green leaves still in the mouth of the unfortunate animal.

Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tobacco plants all belong to a commercially important group – the nightshade family. When we hear this, we might think of deadly nightshade, aka belladonna; so- called because young girls were known to have used the plant to make the pupils of their eyes dilate, thereby becoming more beautiful to the beholder. There is an element of poison associated with this group, so it’s a good one to get to know properly. The leaves on the above species are all toxic to a certain extent, while the fruit and tubers are edible – not the fruit of the potato though - it looks like a tomato but is highly poisonous.

On a final note, they say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as there’s so much to learn about growing edibles, here are a few drops in a bucket of knowledge that you will eventually fill as you get yourself regularly out into the garden - your Grandad’s or a community garden somewhere: