Category: Herb Walks
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May Herb Walk
For May we returned to Cam’s Vale Hospital, there is so much to see in the beds around the carpark, the quiet garden beside the hospital, and the healing allotment beds. We were here last year in July, wanting to enjoy the lime trees, but catching them just after their best. This year, we arrived…
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April Herb Walk
April marks the true awakening of the herbal world with new treasures blooming at our feet and blossoms overhead. Since the days of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales it has been considered a month of sweet showers (‘shoures soote’) and rejuvenation. Following the lead of the Medieval pilgrims, who set out as the sap started rising, for…
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March Herb Walk
Our last walk before the Spring equinox, nature’s start to spring, when the unfurling begins. A visit to the Rackleaze Nature Reserve (behind Tesco’s in Cam) was a chance to catch the awakening in action! Promise of Spring Appropriately, our first plant was Primrose (‘the prime rose’ or ‘first flower’) – an embodied promise, heralding…
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Wild Resources
We’ve reached the time of year when green shoots entice us outdoors more, and their growing abundance may lead to ideas of gathering and foraging. Our definition of herbs as ‘plants with a purpose’ recognises the many ways herbs can be used for medical, creative, culinary, utilitarian, or other purposes. However, we’d still caution care…
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February Herb Walk
Typical of most our days this February, it was raining on the morning of our monthly herb walk. However, a trusty group were undeterred so the dozen or so of us, and slightly fewer umbrellas, enjoyed the walk along the Cam in Littlecombe. First leaves Our first pause was appropriately by the willow. This is…
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January Herb Walk
Breakheart Quarry was our chosen location for our January herb walk as a space of renewal, a good place to start the new year. This 54 acre area of land has been a community space now for over 15 years. In nature’s terms this is still young, a gradual recolonisation taking place so we expected…
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December Herb Walk
On our December herb walk we were particularly looking out for the winter plants that have become a natural part of our festivities at this time of the year. Having met at the tall pine trees outside the police station on Dursley Road, we didn’t need to move far to find copious examples of fantastically…
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November Herb Walk
The first Saturday of November this year was right the beginning of the month, 1st November, traditionally celebrated as All Saint’s Day and preceded by All Hallow’s Eve, more commonly known as Halloween. Stepping between worlds Responding to the liminal spirit of this time, when the veil between worlds lowers and spirits abound – a…
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October Herb Walk
I’m often asked ‘do you do the herb walks all year round?’. The answer is ‘yes’. There are plants around us all year, we’ll simply see different things as the seasons progress. Those who’ve attended our spring and summertime walks will know there can be more around than we’re able to talk about, we have…
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September Herb Walk
The start of September 2025 brought our Anniversary Herb Walk. The first Cotswold Herb Centre herb walk took place on the first Saturday in September, 2024. Twelve months, and twelve herb walks on, we are able to see how things have changed through this past year. We now have official confirmation that 2025 was the…