Vasili's Garden Episodes
Unwanted Herbs
With all this beautiful rain we’ve been having lately, surely the water tanks and all the buckets lying around in the garden would be full by now?
Give us plenty more I say, ’cause you can never get enough of that precious liquid.
But one thing’s for sure, not only have the buckets filled with water, so have the gardens with many unwanted plants!
Weeds!
Well that’s what you call them if you’re a little naïve like me, and in next to no time run out into the garden at the first sign of a break in the weather and attempt to pull them out or spray them with some sort of herbicide.
But wait!!
If my friend Marion has anything to say about this she’d tell you to leave them alone.
“They’re not weeds” as she’d say. “They’re herbs!”
And that is exactly how her garden is, full of weeds….. I mean herbs.
On this weeks show I went over to visit Marion out in Surrey Hills, just so I can brush up on my herbal knowledge, but not only did I learn a thing or two, while walking around in the garden with Marion we practically ate everything in sight.
It’s not often that I can say this but I think I met my match when it came to eating herbs.
Did you know that you can eat clover? Here we are trying to stop this so called weed from spreading throughout the garden and along comes Marion and asks me if I’d like some to eat, I must say it did have a nice lemony taste.
But there are so many other varieties of herbs that we take for granted and class them as weeds just because they grow so easily in our garden, take Stinging Nettle for example.
This plant has stinging hairs which detach from the plant when touched and release a cocktail of irritants that are injected into the body but when it’s cooked or dried, it neutralizes the toxic components.
But apart from all that, it’s considered a delicacy in Scandinavia and even in my house hold too, it’s rich in vitamins A, C, D, Iron, Potassium, Manganese and Calcium, so it should be at the top of the menu list in all restaurants if Marion had anything to say about it.
After spending an afternoon with Marion I came to realize that there are so many herbal plants that grow so wonderfully easy providing you don’t mind the garden looking a little bit scruffy, and the fact that you can eat most plant varieties too which are not even vegetables.
But I must stress to be careful at all times as there are still many varieties that are very toxic to humans.
So play it safe, if you don’t recognize the plant don’t eat it.
Knowing the fact that Marion uses no chemicals what so ever to control insects or viruses, and that she even makes her own organic compost to feed the plants, made eating out of her garden all the more enjoyable. But Marion’s efforts don’t stop within the boundaries of her own back yard, everything that she grows, she also propagates to share with many friends and neighbours too.
So everyone gets to benefit and enjoy the same pleasures and satisfaction that Marion receives from her wonderful herb garden and you can too.
Herbs for everyone I say!
Maresi!
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