Welcome to Love Wild Plants
This is a website I created to share my passion for the wild plants that grow all around us.
As I outline in my mission statement: I believe that engaging with wild plants is fundamental to our own wellbeing, as well as the future of our planet. I also believe that we cannot really understand who we are as humans, and where we came from, without having some awareness of our relationship with plants in their historical context. These are the themes that I will be in this blog.
Many people know that you can eat nettles, but surprisingly few know that nettle seeds are also very nutritious. See my entry on nettle for more.
Why now?
Creating this website is something I had been thinking about for quite some time. As my book collection on wild plants was growing (see 'resources' section', and my forays into the woods with my basket were getting more regular, I have felt an increasing need to share what I have been discovering. That these plants, commonly thought of as 'weeds', are in fact the victims of bad PR. That the green blur we see on the motorway verges holds so much more value than we could ever imagine. That an unsprayed lawn is full of herbs that can heal.
My own discovery of the value of these plants has been juxtaposed with a realisation of how few wild spaces there are around us. Living in London, you expect wild places to be few and far between - though actually when you look, there are probably more than you realise. The real shocker has been moving out to countryside and realising that actually, the vast majority of land is managed by humans. And on holidays to 'remote' places, such as rural Wales, I have been struck by how many fields are grazed with sheep with yet again very few wild spaces.
Image above shows view looking out from a rewilded area into the one tone sheep grazed hills which dominate much of Cambrian Hills in Wales.
How to use Love Wild Plants
I will be using this blog to explore the themes that interest me about engaging with wild plants. Stay tuned for more on foraging, wild crafting, and the importance of wild spaces and plants.
Alongside the blog, I also have two standalone areas for those who want to get to know the plants themselves:
Plant A-Z - which includes profiles on some of my favourite wild plants. I will be adding to this as I go so keep an eye out for new content!
Resources - These are the materials that keep me captivated, inspired, and engaged with the wild plants around me. Obviously to get to know wild plants all you need to do is walk outside your house and look at one. But a bit of context helps spark the imagination! (and is also pretty important to safety if you want to touch and possibly even consume plants!)
So, let me know what you think, either by leaving a comment below or sending me a message! Thanks for reading :)