Sunday, June 24, 2012

Robin Hood herb walk

This afternoon I went on a herb walk in a small community garden in Clapton near the Lea Navigation. The Robin Hood Community Garden has not been going very long (2 years, I think)but it already has a lot in it. The "walk" was led by Elsa Hamaz, a medical herbalist, and it was very interesting. We looked at both the medicinal herbs that had been planted in the garden and the medicinal weeds. We must have looked at several dozen, sheltering under the elder and talking about the uses of its flowers and berries during the shower. It was interesting to hear how many herbs are anti-allergic, considering how many allergies people seem to have nowadays. Also,what I thought was sow thistle is actually wild lettuce. I have checked my wild flower book and both the sow thistles do look more thistley. We were invited by two people who help look after the garden to take samples of anything of interest, and I took a handful of mugwort leaves which is supposed to give you vivid dreams that you remember. I'll make a tea later and test it out!

No comments:

Post a Comment