June Herb Walk

The recent fantastically sunny weather means plants are growing at pace, responding to the lengthier days, high sun and their own desire to flourish and reproduce. The lack of rain, however, has parched many places meaning gardens and roadsides look more like their washed-out, desiccated August versions of themselves, instead of the typical vibrant green June scene, bursting with potential.

So it was with some trepidatious anticipation that we ventured on our June herb walk. What would we find, and would it all be out of season? And, to confuse us further, would we need our raincoats and umbrellas after all? We need rain, but preferably not for the hour between 10am and 11am, first Saturday of the month (please!).

Long Street’s Herby Welcome

Our walk of two halves, started at Long St car park, the gateway to Dursley for so many of our visitors. If your typical interaction with this space is zipping round, glad to find a parking slot then beetling off up the hill into town, next time think about putting a two minute pause into your day to walk around the edge of the car park first. You may be surprised how many plants there are in the broad banks along the town-side edge, and even the narrow bed at the back of the carpark is a little treasure trove, when you know what you’re looking at.

The area by the bicycle park is being managed as natural grassland, a microcosm of the beautiful rolling landscapes the Cotswolds are famous for. It’s a space where we can nurture the classic grassland plants and be up close to see them cycle through their seasons. As this evolves, it should be possible to gather seeds from this collection to share and disperse further these species that are best adapted to our local environment.

Up on the bank is a sprawling plant, identifiable by its ‘palmate leaves’ with five lobes. It’s called cinquefoil, referencing those five leaves. You need all five fingers to count the uses this little plant has traditionally been put to: managing fevers, providing an antiseptic mouthwash, creating an astringent cleansing cream, reducing skin inflammation and used to support detoxing helping with withdrawal.

Moving along, a casual eye may just see the sprawl of green continuing. Look closer, and you’ll see there’s a different plant, with just three leaves. And among it, little red berries. Once you see one, you get your eye in, and then you keep spotting more and more! They’re wild strawberries. Much tinier than the pumped-up things selected at Tescos, but give one a try and you’ll find they pack all the flavour in. Have you ever noticed the fancy Bonne Maman jam (you know, the one with the red checked lid)? They have a plain ‘Strawberry Conserve’ and then a more expensive ‘Strawberry and Wild Strawberry Conserve’. The wild strawberries are too little to fill the jar for them, but are included for the flavour. You could copy their approach if you’re making your own strawberry jam – go on, go wild!

There’s a lovely display of ox eye daisies, also known as ‘moonflowers’, their flowers stay open at night and are almost luminescent. Seeing them reminds me of the story of the ‘Dursley Lights’. The Dursley townsfolk were invited each year to a party at Stancombe Hall where there was much merriment, all dressed in fancy ‘black tie’. Returning late at night necessitated walking up and over Stinchcombe Hill back to Dursley. To keep sight of each other, the men would let their shirt tails hang out at the back so the white fabric could catch the moonlight, original high-vis clothing!

Passing shuttlecock ferns (their ‘fiddle horns’ – the tight roll before the leaf unfurls – can be gathered, boiled and eaten as a vegetable), thyme and rosemary, the shiny-faced flower of yellow scabious stood out.  It’s surprising that this is part of the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), as colour seems to be the only similarity.

Tucked in behind is a delicate bittersweet flower, one of the Solanaceae family that includes deadly nightshade, renown for its powerful ability to poison, and therefore sometimes classified as ‘witchy’ plants. Certainly ones to be aware of, if only to avoid, but also to acknowledge the part they can play in medicine. When there’s things we want to get rid of in our body, plants can help expunge them. The difference between a killer and cure can be in the size of the dose. Later in our walk we found Wolfsbane, another ‘witchy’ herb, otherwise known as ‘monkshood’ because the purply blue flowers look line the cowl that would cover a monk’s head.

Far more palatable are the wild mustard, nettle, cleavers and marshmallow. The fluffy sweets we toast over the bonfire were originally made with the mucilage from within the stems of this wild, pink flowered, soft leaved plant. Next time you’re in the car park, look for her in the narrow bed along the back wall, she will appreciate you saying ‘hello’. Touch her leaves and see how soft they are. A little indication that, used in skincare, that mucilaginous plant is wonderfully soothing and softening.

More sweet herbs are tucked into the very back corner. Apple-scented chamomile (the name means ‘apple on the ground’ because when you walk on this ground-hugging plant, it releases a smell of apples), and white flowered clover, traditionally called ‘honey-stalks’ because you can suck honey out from the base of the flower. Even if they weren’t in flower we’d recognise clover by her trefoil leaves, and we could even tell that she would have white flowers by looking under her leaves – white flowered clover has no hairs on her leaves, red flowered clover has hairs on the underside of her leaves.

We must mention the ivy leaved toadflax happily nestled into the stone wall. These plants like to find old walls, pavements and shingly areas to live. This one has made her home in reputedly the oldest wall in Dursley, and it suits it very well.

You’ll probably also notice the huge hips on the roses at the exit, by where the motorbikes parks. These were the classic school boy’s favourite, opening them up to access the ‘itching powder’ within. That aside, deeper within still, you find the rosehip seed, fantastic source of vitamin C. In the war and post-war years, women and children were sent to the hedgerows to gather rosehips for creating rosehip syrup, an important natural dietary supplement. The pressed rosehip seeds also make one of the very best oils, unusual for its vitamin A content and ability to lessen scars.

Magical, isn’t it to think what can go on in small space, in broad sight, though largely overlooked!

Step into the magical garden

For another touch of magic, we crossed the road to the Chantry Centre. Through the side gate, into the ‘secret garden’ where Alchemilla (or Lady’s Mantle) sits in the steps. Her name translates to ‘little magical one’ and she was a favourite of alchemists. You’ll often find little droplets of water on her leaves, looking like dew drops, or raindrops. They’re actually secretions from the plant, and were treasured – not just by those following ancient instructions to gather one each morning in their quest to make gold, but also by those looking to reduce wrinkles and improve their complexion through making lotions with Alchemilla.

This garden is a wonderful green space in for the town and abundant with herbs, again almost hiding in plain sight. The garden is open along with the café on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It’s worth going for the cake alone, but while you’re there, have a wander round and see how many of the herbs you can spot.

Many herbs are not put off by a little rough ground, such as around the hard-standing. In fact, they flourish there. You’ll find more ox eye daisies, feverfew, valerian, frothy bronze fennel, frilly pink poppies, vipers bugloss – that’s alkanet, we get red dye from its roots, which was traditionally used to colour medicines. Then wisps of blue nigella, romantically called love-in-a-mist, a colourful pop of nasturtiums and our native ‘oregano’, wild marjoram. It’s said having marjoram in your garden means you never need be ill, just eat a little every day (can be dried for use over winter too).

Over on the steps with Alchemilla there are thymes, chamomile, and more wild strawberries all finding their niche. And hops scramble over the pergola – come back later in the summer to see their pendulous flowers, those are what brewers use to flavour beer, they’re also dried and used with herbs like lavender and lemon balm to create sleep pillows – no wonder beer can be so soporific!

The bank in the Chantry garden has been planted with many purposeful and productive plants, from juicy strawberries, gooseberries and apple trees trained against the wall to herbs like southernwood, chives, calendula and bay. Even the decorative plants have their uses, like iris, (their roots are powdered to form orris powder, a fixative to help cure pot pourris and pomanders), and the curiously, prehistorically elegant ginkgo which has been found to support our memory function, as the oldest species of tree on earth, her memory goes back a pretty long way.

Look up and find the purposeful trees in the garden too. Witch hazel strides the line between shrub and tree; holly changes her form when high or low (the spiky leaves are only at the bottom, they’re smoother higher up where she doesn’t need to protect herself from munching animals); birch is an indicator of change, often being the first tree to colonise the space while fig provides a constant, unusually producing fruit multiple times a year.

Everywhere you look, the plants are longing to tell us their stories and take part in our lives.

See you next time

Come along to listen and take part, meet plant friends and people friends on our monthly herb walks. They take place every first Saturday of the month (thoughout the year). We meet at 10am and walk for about an hour. Each month we change the location but we’ll always be in and around Cam and Dursley. To find out the starting place, look on the calendar page of the Cotswold Herb Centre website.

www.cotswoldherbcentre.uk/calendar

Our July walk will be on Saturday 5^th, meeting in the carpark of The Vale hospital, Littlecombe at 10am. Head to the lower end of the carpark, by the allotments.