Bowthorpe Heritage Group Community Garden

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Last Saturday, along with other members of Grapes Hill Community Garden Group, I visited the Bowthorpe Heritage Group Community Garden. It was a cool, dull day but we received a warm welcome from the volunteers who met us, showed us around and supplied tea and biscuits.

Bowthorpe Community GardenThe garden is just off Tolye Road in Bowthorpe, next to Bowthorpe Church. It was started in 2001 when a half acre of discused farmland and a crumbling nineteenth century flint barn were cleared from the site. Local residents formed Bowthorpe Heritage Group and rented the land from Norwich City Council and created the garden.

A large flowerbed in the shape of a butterfly was created in 2006 and the garden was extended in 2008 to include raised beds and hard surfaced paths and again in 2011, when a wildlife garden, orchard and water storage facility were added. There is also a curved pergola at the entrance (with climbing roses) and a History Wall, which illustrates the history of Bowthorpe through a series of mosaic panels.

The garden is open 24 hours a day yet vandalism is almost non-existent. The paths give access through the garden via a variety of routes and local residents often pass through on the way to school, shops or work, as well as making visits just to the garden. Surrounded by houses, the garden feels like a village green rather than part of a Norwich suburb.

When we visited the garden was full of colour, with early summer flowers such as Oriental Poppies, Aquilegia and hardy Geraniums. The highlight for me, though, was the sea of white Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) and Oxeye Daisies in the wildflower meadow.

Sweet Rocket and Oxeye Daisies

Wildflower meadow: Sweet Rocket and Oxeye Daisies

The Bowthorpe Heritage Group doesn’t have a website but can be contacted by telephone – Adrian (07765 350383) or Madge (01603 734767). There are regular garden tasks, on alternate Sunday afternoons.

Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea

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Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea, is another of my favourite flowers of spring and early summer (April to July). It is a widely distributed native in the British Isles (see map) and is also native in other parts of Europe and southwest Asia. It has been introduced into the United States, where it is now widespread (see map) and considered to be an invasive weed in some states.

Ground Ivy

Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea

Ground Ivy isn’t related to true Ivy (Hedera helix), but it trails along the ground in a similar way, albeit on a much smaller scale. A perennial member of the family Lamiaceae, which includes herbs such as Mint, Marjoram and Thyme, Ground Ivy has the square stems and pairs of round, blunt toothed leaves that are characteristic of many members of the family. The leaves are slightly aromatic and in full sun they are sometimes tinged with red. The flowers have three lower and two upper petals and are a pretty shade of blue/violet, often with darker blue or mauve blotches. The flowers are popular with bumblebees.

Ground Ivy is just one English name. Others include Alehoof, Gill-over-the-ground, Gill-go-by-the-Hedge, Creeping Charlie, Haymaids, Tun-hoof, Hedgemaids, Lizzy-run-up-the-Hedge, Catsfoot and Robin-run-in-the-Hedge. The name Alehoof was given because Ground Ivy used to be the most common flavouring in beer (before hops were used, from the 16th century onwards). Most of the other names refer to the plant’s low, spreading habit as it grows in wooded places and hedgerows.

Ground Ivy is reported to have several medicinal properties and these are described on a number of websites, including Plants for a Future, A Modern Herbal, Rowan Remedies, and Health from Nature, including treatments of headaches, inflamed mucous membranes, bruises, ear infections and kidney disease. The Sigma Aldrich website refers to several interesting pieces of research which suggest that Ground Ivy has antibacterial and insecticidal properties and can stimulate platelets, inhibit tumour production and boost the immune response. Ground Ivy is poisonous to horses and is avoided by rabbits (reference).

Ground Ivy leaves are rather bitter but are edible when young. They can added to salads for a slight aromatic tang or cooked like spinach, added to soups or used as a flavouring. I have nibbled the young  leaves and found them quite palatable but I haven’t eaten them in any quantity or in any recipe.

There is also a variegated form of Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea ‘Variegata’, which is often grown as a low-maintenance plant for hanging baskets.

Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa

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A few weeks ago I wrote about Dandelions and Lesser Celandines. Another of my favourite spring flowers is the Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa, with its starry white flowers.

Like the Lesser Celandine, its leaves grow rapidly in early spring, then if flowers and dies down, so there is no trace of the plant by summer.

Wood Anemones

Wood Anemones (with Primroses and Dog Violet), East Sussex

At the end of April we spent a week in East Sussex. We had expected to see Bluebells and Apple blossom but the Bluebells were only just in bud and the branches of the Apple trees in the orchards were bare, a consequence of our cold late winter and early spring. But the carpets of Wood Anemones in the local woods more than made up for this. They are normally at their best in early April, but not this year.

The Wood Anemone is a good indicator of ancient woodland. It rarely sets seed in Britain so it is reliant on its slow vegetative spread, which has been estimated at about six feet in a hundred years. It can also be seen in hedge banks, especially in the south-west of England, on heathy grassland and open moorland and in limestone pavements in the Yorkshire Dales, though many of these colonies may be relics of former woodland. Wood Anemones occur throughout the British Isles, in suitable habitats (see map).

It is possible to grow Wood Anemones in the garden and in our back garden we have a small patch that has doubled in size (to about six inches) in about ten years. (We planted some in Grapes Hill Community Garden too.) It is important to choose a partly-shaded spot – in full shade the plants will struggle and the blooms are best in sunshine. There are several cultivars – indeed, in the wild the flower petals can be pure white, pinky-purple streaked or, very rarely, sky-blue (var. caerulea).

Wood Anemones are members of the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Anemone means “wind flower”, which is also an alternative English name for the plant, along with Grandmother’s Nightcap and Moggie Nightgown (“Moggie” means mouse in this instance, not cat). Another name, referring to the scent of the leaves, is Smell Foxes (Richard Mabey, Flora Britannica, Sinclair-Stevenson 1996).

Wood Anemones are not edible. They contain the irritating, acrid oil protoanemonin, like the Lesser Celandine and other members of the Ranunculaceae. See the Plants for a Future website for more information.

The small, goblet-shaped cup fungus Dumontinia tuberosa can sometimes be found on bare soil near Wood Anemones. It is a parasite and grows from dead or dying rhizomes of the plant (reference).

Wood Anemones