Control by Eating

[watervole]

 We have Allium triquetrum in our garden.



It's a very pretty plant and I originally introduced it myself.  It's a wild garlic that's native to southern Europe.  It grows well in dry shady corners and under trees.  However, it is a little bit invasive.  It isn't as bad as some plants, but it's spreading beyond where I really want it.

Having looked it up on Wikipedia, I'm pleased to confirm my guess that the plant is edible (all of it, bulb, leaves, even flowers).  I'm already used to eating 'wet' garlic which we get from Riverford . Wet garlic is the normal kind of garlic, but  much younger and you get the leaves as well as the bulb.

We also eat ransoms., which we get both from Riverford and our own garden.

Ransoms are also pretty and grow in shady corners. They are the native English garlic.







So, instead of trying to control the Allium triquetrum by weedkiller or anything else, I'm simply going to eat them until they're confined to the area where I want them!

Comments

[ranunculus]

Sounds like a good plan!
The allium triquetrum looks like a plant that some nurseries sell here. Hmmmm.

[kerravonsen]

\o/

[pensnest]

Well! You may have solved a mystery for me—when we got to this our new house, there were many pretty white flowers, not unlike opened snowdrops on steroids. They are still blooming. I'm not *totally* convinced, because the flowers may dangle in a slightly different arrangement, but my first impression was certainly, Oh, that's what they are! They are certainly growing all over the place, but they're so pretty I really don't mind.

Do the plants smell at all garlicky? I've experienced a mini-wood laced with wild garlic, which certainly did, but I'm not sure about my garden's mystery plants.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I am glad that you also know wild garlic. Here we call it "bear garlic" for some reason - of course it was imported here. Now it grows freely and thanks to several articles from some healers on the internet, it became very popular. Exactly like you say: it is controlled by eating.:-)
And - venison with wild garlic is extra yummy!!!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

"Bear garlic" is reflected in the Linnean name Allium ursinum. In English it's ramson rather than ransom; the spelling is important in this case because in all the English place names like Ramsey and Ramsden, the "Rams-" part refers to the wild garlic rather than a male sheep. The above examples mean "Garlic Island" and "Garlic Valley".

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is very interesting! Oh English spelling is ALWAYS important, I know to well! Thank you!

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I have a shady spot that needs plants, and it's right at the end of the garden, which is probably far enough away for the garlic smell (which is all very well unless you're trying to eat cake, for example) to be avoidable. I wonder how much ramsons spread? Spreading a bit is fine, but I'd rather not turn the garden into an all-out battle between that and the ground elder (also edible, but grows much faster than I want to eat it).

[pennski.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking exactly the same thing!

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

I thought for a moment those were white bluebells. There's no wild garlic in my area, but I've seen in en masse in Cornwall and Devon; it does look (and smell) gorgeous in woodland with bluebells. Happy eating. ;-)

Btw, my hybrid pea plants are doing well, and there's no sign of recessive yellow colouration from Golden Sweet in any of them, which means I've probably got my cross. :-)