Health Benefits Of Wild Garlic And Tips On How To Grow It In Your Garden
April and May are the months of bear’s garlic or wild garlic or ramsons (lat. Allium ursinum), which is called “killer of poisons”. In fact, there is no plant that can clean so well the digestive system and blood as wild garlic, which is why you need to eat it as often as possible. In the spring it is the most effective, since is the perfect blood cleaner, as wall as for the gallbladder and liver of toxins that have been deposited during the winter in the body.
It has a very strong effect on intestinal parasites and prevents infectious inflammation of the intestinal lining. It lowers the high blood pressure, prevents atherosclerosis, and alters the whole cardiovascular system. With the help of wild garlic is possible to eliminate headache and insomnia, to facilitate breathing if you suffer from bronchitis. It works antibacterial and helps wounds heal much faster.
Biochemists claim that wild garlic even healthier than garlic, and because of the abundance allicin, wild garlic rejuvenates blood vessels and makes them flexible. Wild garlic is rich in essential oils, valuable mineral salts, sugar, vitamin C, carotene …
Wild garlic have always been considered to be very healing, and famous German herbalist and priest Johan Kincl has especially emphasized its value, stressing that people would be completely healthy if they regularly ate it. Young leaves full of vitamins represent the perfect combination with lettuce, and can be used as an addition to soups and sauces. However, you should stop with the picking of leaves as soon as the plant starts to flower, but later on, in the summer and autumn months you can collect the bulbs and prepare various medicinal preparations. You should be careful when picking the leaves and bulbs of the wild garlic, because it is similar to the autumn crocus, lily and hellebore which are toxic.
If you decide to pick wild garlic, make sure you do not accidentally choose another plant with very similar leaves (such as leaves of lily of the valley – which are toxic), although in your favor will surely outweigh the intense smell of wild garlic, so the error is almost impossible. Wild garlic plant is the first spring salad and also the first vitamin food, the only problem is that the plant is available very shortly and not throughout the year.
Freshly harvested it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to ten days. With the cooking and drying of wild garlic you will significantly lose its healing properties, so it is best to prepare tincture of wild garlic in the spring – popular wild garlic drops as they can be used whenever needed. In the summer appear the first unripe fruits that can be used as a piquant spices in the kitchen.
How to grow wild garlic in your garden
Growing wild garlic from seed is simple when the correct developing states of damp forests are imitated. Its blooms, leaves, stems, seeds, roots and the wild garlic bulbs are all edible. You can grow wild garlic in the garden by planting little bulbs in pots or containers.
You can sow seeds, plant bulbs or purchase wild garlic plants prepared to be planted out. Wild garlic can be planted ‘in the green’:that is immediately after flowering.
Remember that if it sets up itself in your garden it will most likely develop much better to anything you expected or even desired. It is not a bad idea to allocate a specific space and to keep on top of its growth from the start. Wild garlic is a perennial plant, so will come up year after year.
Tip: Planting cyclamen, which requires about the same growing conditions as wild garlic, might be an approach to control the spread of wild garlic. The bigger cyclamen bulbs seem to keep and the thick leaves prevent the wild garlic to assume control.
See also: How to care for cyclamen
Set up the soil by digging over and including some ericaceous compost (soil enjoyed by rhododendrons and camellias: moss peat). Well decayed garden fertilizer is a decent option. Continuously utilize a good organic fertilizer.Then you should water the soil.
Sow the seeds thinly in early summer and cover them with a thin layer of soil. If you plant bulbs do as such in late summer, diving them in little clusters about 12 cm (8 in) apart. Once more: add some ericaceous soil or garden manure to the soil and keep the soil moist. However, if you want certain success with this plant, you should consider the third choice and plant wild garlic plants directly into the soil amid its growing season.
Growing wild garlic in pots – You can grow wild garlic in pots, utilizing a blend of multipurpose and ericaceous compost. Seeds can be sown thinly on the surface and be secured with a thin layer of soil. Bulbs can be gently pressed into the compost. Water seeds, bulbs and plants.
If you grow this plant in the open ground, wild garlic will take care for itself. But those developing in containers must be watered religiously and need once in a while nourishing with liquid fertilizer.
