“If you grind them down you can use them as a coffee alternative,” he adds.“They don’t taste exactly the same as coffee, but they can give you a slight uplifting feeling, similar to caffeine.”
greenhouse, but once they get to the point where they’re going to be dropping seed, I’ll take them out to ensure they don’t drop seed all over the beds in there.”
Not all weeds are all-rounders
Nettles are the new spinach
“Some weeds I definitely wouldn’t recommend having in the garden,” says Walton, flagging “unwelcome” plants like bindweed, Japanese knotweed, couch grass and giant hogweed, which might have some benefits (“Bindweed produces white trumpet-like flowers which are really beneficial,”) but they’re inedible and can really crowd out the plants you’re actively trying to grow as food.
“I grow spinach, but equally you can use nettles in a very similar way,” says Walton.“They’re actually far more nutritionally beneficial and have a lot more benefits for the garden as a whole.” Packed with iron, nettles just need cooking or blanching to take the sting out of them, so you can throw them in soups and stir fries, or swap them in any time you’d ordinarily use spinach, kale or greens. Nettle tea is also widely considered to have anti- inflammatory, antihistamine and diuretic properties, and even the sting itself can be useful.“There’s a growing body of research that shows how beneficial nettle stings can be in certain contexts,” notes Walton.“For example, regularly stinging yourself with nettles can actually help with things such as hay fever and arthritis.”
Foraging need to know
Not got a garden? Dandelions and nettles can be easily foraged.“It’s just knowing what you’re looking for and making sure you don’t pick something accidentally that you shouldn’t,” warns Walton, who says lots of plants have “lookalikes” that may or may not be safe to eat. If you’re not sure you’ve identified something correctly, do not pick or eat it. “Harvest from areas that are not right next to a dog path and haven’t been sprayed with a load of pesticides and herbicides,” he adds.And remember, weeds are relied on by other creatures too.“If you’re picking wild plants, you want to make sure that you leave enough to regrow and support wildlife.” Nettles And Petals: Grow Food. Eat Weeds. Sow Seeds by Jamie Walton is published in hardback by Leaping Hare Press, priced £16.99 (ebook £11.99). Photography by Samuel Binstead.Available now. For project guides and a hoverfly spotter sheet, visit wildaboutgardens.org.uk.
Keeping on top of weeds
Walton may be a fan, but he’s not recommending you let weeds run riot.“If you let dandelions go to seed, you’ll end up with dandelions everywhere. So you have to keep on top of managing them,” he says. Picking the flowers before they transform into dandelion clocks will help control their spread, but he also suggests growing dandelions and nettles in pots to harvest from. “Then you can move them around the space and utilise the benefits. Nettles are really beneficial to have in the greenhouse through summer, near your tomatoes and other heat-loving crops,” he explains – they provide a habitat for insects like ladybirds that will help keep aphid and caterpillar numbers down.“I have them in pots in the
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