Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 8:47 pm Post subject: Wild Garlic... Result!
i've just bought a hundred bulbs of wild garlic (Allium ursinum) on ebay for a tenner, including postage. I'm delighted. It's onbe of my favourite plants, and as it likes a bit of shade it's going to be allowed to spread in the shady bits of our garden.
It's one of my favourite plants. I wonder why it isn't a really common garden plant.
sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 8:59 pm Post subject:
Isn't it illegal to lift the bulbs? Or is that only if it isn't your property? I'm tempted to grow it in our front garden which is tiny and north facing, so pretty useless otherwise.
Guest
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 9:18 pm Post subject:
sean wrote:
Isn't it illegal to lift the bulbs? Or is that only if it isn't your property? I'm tempted to grow it in our front garden which is tiny and north facing, so pretty useless otherwise.
You're not meant to take roots of wild plants from anywhere that isn't your own property, but other than that I wouldn't have thought it's illegal. It's common as muck across most of the country.
judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 804 Location: Pembrokeshire
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 9:29 pm Post subject:
As long as its not a protected species I'm sure you can dig it up on your own property.
sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 05 9:31 pm Post subject:
I think guest (whom I suspect of being Cab) has summed it up.
Botanically it's a good marker for old woodland, I'm told.
I think guest (whom I suspect of being Cab) has summed it up.
Botanically it's a good marker for old woodland, I'm told.
I do keep forgetting to log on
It's not one of the ones that I'd normally think of as a marker for ancient woodland, but if you find a big patch that's normally a sign that the woods have been undisturbed for a good while.
There are some woods close to home which are riddled with it. Unfortunately the combined sewer overflows do their job very well when there's heavy rain and give the valley floor, where the garlic is, a good swill of diluted sewage three or four times a year. this kind of puts me off but I a scheme is in place to sort them out in the next five years. I'm waiting to see what the woods near work throw up in the spring.
It arrived. I just got home to do some work here this afternoon, and had a jiffy bag full of wild garlic. The sender had cut the tops off the leaves to get it in the post, so it won't be happy, but I dashed out and planted it in various locations in the garden to keep it happy (and put, say, fifteen bulbs into pots indoors too). Seemed important to get it done straight away.
At a certain time of the year a small country lan we regularly drive down absolutley stinks of garlic! It's a nightmare if you are hungry!
Am I allowed to seek it out and pick some do you think? That would be a great start to the veggie growing!
Technically, you can't take take roots from the wild. If you can find a landowner with some wild garlic and ask nicely, then you'll almost certainly be allowed to nick some.
moogie
Joined: 02 Feb 2005 Posts: 525 Location: Near Bridgend
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 05 11:09 am Post subject:
Ok have checked with the NP I am currently working for and they said this: Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which covers Britain, it is illegal to uproot any wild plant without permission from the landowner or occupier. Uproot is defined as to �dig up or otherwise remove the plant from the land on which it is growing�, whether or not it actually has roots.
Even plants growing wild are the legal property of somebody, and under the Theft Act, 1968, it is an offence to uproot plants for commercial purposes without authorisation.
Which I think they took from the BSBI but it is the law and it applies to all wild plants not just the rare ones.
Whilst I don't think anyone would appear to arrest any of us for doing it we do need to go careful or it will become a rare species.