GROW CAREERS WINNER: elizabeth woodcock
Towards the end of last year, we ran a competition at the Grow Careers event at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, asking students to pitch ideas for their own article in Scotland Grows magazine. From the many excellent entries received, Elizabeth Woodcock's pitch stood out and we commend her full piece to you below on a topic about which she is passionate.
Let’s look at the big five: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Dock (Rumex obtusifolius), Couch (Elymus repens), Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria), and Buttercup (Ranunculus repens).
Now let’s call them ‘herbals’, and look at some of the good they can provide.
The first two have similarly long tap roots and abundant seeds - over 400 seeds per dandelion head, and potentially 60,000 annually on dock – a phenomenal reproductive capacity.
Those powerful roots break up compacted soil and accumulate nutrients. Dock is high in trace elements phosphate, potassium, and magnesium, while dandelion is chock full of calcium, copper, cobalt, iron, sodium, and sulphur. Both are great for the compost heap: if your composting system is hot and dark, compost all; if more open, only compost the leaves, not the root or seed.
Both plants are rich food sources for insects and birds. By giving these herbals a chance, you give life a chance. Dandelion flowers offer the first, early season source of nectar and pollen. Charms of goldfinch feed on dandelion seeds, while dock seeds provide a winter feast for finches, dunnocks, and house sparrows.
‘Dockens’ are also eaten by a host of moths with glorious names like black rustic, garden tiger, and grey chi. A hundred other species also munch on it such as spiders, beetles, woodlice, and butterflies. If we eliminate dock, we eliminate a vital food source for invertebrates, which are facing an extinction crisis.
In his book ‘Weeds’, Richard Maybe writes, “And to the question, ‘What are weeds for?’ One answer might be moths.”
In Scotland, on average, moth abundance has declined by 29% since 1975 and has almost halved since 1990.
We can eat both dock and dandelion too. Anna Canning, Edinburgh-based medical herbalist, ethnobotanical researcher, and forager says, “Harvest dandelions in late spring for their flowers. Add them to omelettes and fritters, bake them into cakes, and sprinkle the pollen on food for decoration.” Edible except for the stem, dandelion is a superfood and medicine. Pick the leaves early, when less bitter. Try making dandelion root ‘coffee’, flower wine, and whole plant kimchi.
Young dock leaves are tasty in spring, whether raw in salads or pesto, or cooked with other greens in a curry, but go easy as they have a high oxalic acid content. Dock seeds, rich in fibre and protein, can be baked into bread or oatcakes, and the root is traditionally used for dyeing and ointments.
Both plants benefit us and wildlife. Both are easily managed to prevent spreading: de-head them before seeding, dig up, and eat the young plants, or add them to enrich your compost heap.
Couchgrass and ground elder are our next two ‘herbals’. Common to both is rapid growth from underground rhizomes that remain viable if even a fragment is left in the soil. Both plants bring biodiversity to a lawn and shady border.
In folklore, couchgrass was used for spells and as a bathing infusion to attract and keep a lover. With Valentines’ Day approaching, you might want to try bringing a little of this olde magic back!
Couch is a native wild rye grass and traditional fodder plant that has evolved to withstand and thrive under constant footfall. Shallow-rooted, it survives in poor quality soils but loves nitrogen, so will grow toward your flower beds.
Certain larvae love to feed on those fleshy rhizomes and it’s an important source of food for butterfly and moth caterpillars, including speckled wood, ringlet butterflies, and Essex Skipper. Couch seeds are also loved by buntings and finches.
It’s the same story for ground elder as a food source for over 25 different species of invertebrates including the larvae of the frosted orange moth. And they eat it, unbiased by the food industry, as it’s highly nutritious, full of potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, and vitamins C and A.
We too can feast on its raw young leaves in spring salads, or use it instead of parsley. With hints of celery, it’s a great flavour-enhancer in soups, stocks, risottos, and middle eastern dishes like tabbouleh. It’s also delectable fried or steamed.
Both have medicinal attributes too. 17th-century physician to the poor, Nicolas Culpeper, held couch in high esteem as “the most medicinal of all the quick grasses… and although a gardener be of another opinion, yet a physician holds half an acre of them to be worth five acres of carrots.” One use was as a tea made from the dried rhizomes, to treat urinary tract conditions such as cystitis.
Meanwhile, ground elder’s other common name ‘goutweed’ hints at its use in folk medicine.
And ground elder is perfect for a shady spot where little else will grow. So if you find it there, enjoy the pretty umbels of white flowers from June to August that are attractive to many insects. Consider planting foxgloves, red campion, and oxeye daisies there too.
Both plants are at their weakest in the spring, when their starch reserves are depleted. A perfect spring job if you need to remove some of it is to tease those rhizomes out and, to make it more fun, play how-long-can-you-go-without-it-breaking!
There’s no scientific evidence that these plants deplete soil nutrients, so please don’t use any chemical weedkillers on them – you’ll only destroy soil integrity, and not the plant.
The last of our ‘famous five’ is buttercup. Meaning ‘little frog’, Ranunculus species hop around the garden. Unique in the plant world, their reflective petals generate flashes to attract pollinators and direct warmth to promote seed maturation.
Anna Canning says, “Some buttercup species - like lesser celandine and meadow buttercup - were historically used to treat sores, piles, and rheumatic pains, but they’re quite toxic so please don’t try this at home!”
Wildlife loves buttercups: honeybees, butterflies, moths, and beetles collect their pollen or nectar. Let them grow as a living pathway, intertwining with wild strawberry. Or appreciate how it can hold banks of soil together. It’s a stunning native wildflower which is versatile and perfect for a troublesome boggy corner.
Far from being a gardener’s nightmare, these plants are powerful, naturally adaptable, and resilient. They thrive alongside us, forming a partnership with us, providing our earliest medicines, foods, and much besides. Embrace them and the gifts they provide to your garden and the natural world. If the insects come, then the rest of life will follow.
Elizabeth Woodcock is a regenerative gardener, a Garden Organic Master Composter, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture. The health and well-being of all creatures, including us, drives her gardening practice as she creates and tends beautiful, biodiverse spaces. She is available to give talks to local communities on the power of the natural world. Find out more at http://www.closetotheearth.co.uk.