Gems the hedges hold

The Untamed Gardener

Aisling Blackburn

This is my letter to the world

That never wrote to me

The simple news that Nature told

With tender majesty" Emily Dickinson

The short repetitious stroll along the lane has been a little more interesting lately. Just like my dog sniffing about and ‘reading the news’, I am scanning both north and south facing sides for anything new in the fabric of the hedge.

They are mostly perennials on the lane. For the first five meters or so, Rosa rugosa and Geranium macrorrhizum have escaped a little and have begun to merge with other bossy garden escapees - ground elder and false box. That last one is a little irritating. I would not have chosen to live with it and its tiny leaves and spiky branches, even though it is an evergreen and gives good cover for wildlife. The rose and geranium are very good at holding their own against the ground elder, as is the newly introduced wild garlic or ramsons.

Wild plum, privet, and variegated elder, signal the end of cultivation at around 10 meters, and are replaced by familiar honeysuckle, gorse, bush vetch, hedge bindweed, nettle, grasses and numerous ferns. There is no bindweed on the southwest facing side of the lane, while the opposite hedge is abundant with it, due I suppose to the different styles of land use. My side of the road gets cut every few years when it threatens to overreach its boundaries. It looks so beautiful, our Irish morning glory. It’s huge pink and white trumpets and heart shaped leaves is a pariah in most gardens, they are produced on long twining stems that do their best to choke their hosts but never really seem to.

There are also a few annuals in the mix. They somehow manage to germinate in a thin footprint of soil, or a hollowed-out bit of earth where a badger has been snuffling.

Herb Robert and Cleavers. The latter is known as; sticky willy, robin run the hedge has germinated all over the place due to its seeds, that stick to animal and human alike. It has also managed to hook itself up on social media. Lots of posts about the lymph cleaning qualities of the herb say, “Simply grab a handful and let it sit over night in a jug of water: drinking the strained liquid is very good for health”. I strongly advise cross referencing this information if you suffer from any health condition, but it tasted good, a bit like cucumber and is generally safe.

It took only a few days for some blackcurrant leaves to dry on the rack in the glasshouse. There are lots of plants that can be dried and used for tea in this way. Right now, elder is a good choice, not the leaves though, (very stinky), only the flowers for a refreshing tea. You might make some elderflower champagne or cordial too.

The elder tree is a little spooky. The fairy folk are associated with it, like the hawthorn, in general the overall gist of it is protection. In “A Modern Herbal” by Mrs. M. Grieve, she has devoted 11 pages to the plant’s lore, and effigies. It has also said to be ‘the medicine chest of the country folk’.

The berries are often used in cough medicine, and in the making of red wine. You must cook the berries if you are using them. The seeds are a strong laxative! If you are planning to try any of the above, research well. I have been poking around in gardens, hedgerows and fields my whole life and the rest of the time, head stuck in some herb book or other and I never, ever, use any plant without heaps of time spent with other experienced foragers or book. Elderflower time is ending, but you might come across some late blossoms.

It won’t be long until you can gather blackberries to your heart's content by the side of the road. There will be a bumper crop by the looks of it, and there, nestled in among the leaves, is one little fellow I would like to mention. The cuckoo spit, so called as it appears at the same time of said species of bird. Although it looks like spit, it’s not a disease, but simply a safe hiding place for a frog hopper in which to develop. If you lightly blow the froth away, you can see the tiny green-yellow nymph looking at you with the cutest tiny eyes. They will catapult up to 70cm into the air when mature.

Irelandswildlife.com describes it as “a true champion among nature's jumping fraternity”.

I never knew that there was one, did you?