Today, up on the Linden Field, I found the wild garlic is all set to flower. I’d rather forgotten about harvesting the leaves. Now there is a lush Ramsons verge the entire length of the lime tree avenue. And there are carpets of them too along the old railway embankment and in the woods below Windmill Hill. It’s not too late to gather the leaves either, though best to be picky and opt for the newest growth. The flowers can be used too, cooked in soups or raw in salads and pesto sauce. Both leaves and flowers are fairly mild in flavour and consumption provides the added benefit of pepping up the constitution since they are rich in vitamins K and C. The only drawback for many is the smell. It can be especially pungent on warm afternoons and earned it names such as Stinking Nanny and Stink Bomb. But garlicky odours aside, the freshly opening flowers do a fine job, creating their own terrestrial starscapes, lighting up the woods and shady peripheries.
Tish Farrell 
Such clear, beautiful images Tish!
‘Carpets’ of wild garlic – I can imagine how heady the aroma!
So beautiful; a real spring treat 🙂
Definitely a spring treat. Must remember to go harvesting 🙂
We just seem to get the three cornered leek here, and they are so difficult to remove from the garden. You can eat them, rather like a spring onion, but boy do they smell too!
Ah, yes. It’s on the next page after wild garlic in Richard Mabey’s ‘Flora Britannica’. He says it was introduced from the Western Mediterranean in 1752, and then began to escape all over the South West. It’s also heading our way.
Wow wish could have wild garlic here. Beautiful images Tish.
Years since I’ve set eyes on wild garlic….
Must’ve all migrated to the Linden Field 🙂
😄
That’s a lovely shot, Tish! Smelly though 🙂 🙂
Yes, smelly it is, but not so bad in all our chilled air.
Lovely shots Tish!
Always wanted to plant wild garlic pretty flowers too
Hello, Ana Maria. You can get seed on the internet, though I see you’re running out of pots!
Thank you. A very nice neighbour gave me a sack full so now am sorted.
That’s good news. Well done that neighbour. It’s so upsetting to run out of pots.
oh how lovely. I love coming across this in a proper wood, also amazed we’re at that time of year already!
Just been ‘talking’ to Jude about that. I’m sure things are ahead of the usual schedule.
I definitely have late May in mind for wild garlic, but there again I haven’t been out walking in woods for years in the spring so maybe it is my memory playing tricks