Wild Plant Picking! :D

[aya0aya]

Please be very careful with wild plant picking. Take a guide book with you and if you're not completely sure what plant you have, don't give it to your degus. You can poison them if you give them plants that you're not sure about. Some are very similar and hard to tell which one is it and some are suitable only in small amounts.
Some very experienced plant foragers are still not confident with cow parsley, so if you're not completely sure what is it, don't do it. We are all here for degus welfare, so please, be careful and use common sense.
Here is how similar they are www.torrens.org.uk/FFF/plants/A/Anthriscus/Sylvestris.html

[saddlers]

May 8, 2013 12:18:24 GMT Jus said:

Aw this looks great!i really wanted to go out foraging and got excited about doing it this summer Neil I looked at the thread regarding the legality if foraging. Ami right in thinking you need land owners permission, and if its public land I.e. owned by the council you can't forage. So it's publicly owned land only? Which in the UK is only commons? Was a bit confused about the whole thing and wasn't sure where it would be okay to forage other than the town moor, which is mostly just grass and scrub. Can anyone offer a bit of advice! Or even better, name anywhere locally?

All council owned land is publicly owned land, but they just like to forget it now and then. The problem is that when you ask a question like "can I..on council land" there is a tendency to say no because it is the easy answer, and if any risks are involved with the activity there is a fear of potential litigation.

Any reasonable activity on council land should potentially be fine....just don't go hacking down chunks of the local greenery I think the legality is based around personal use being okay... but don't quote me on that one!!

I would guess private land is a completely different matter!!

[xxxshadsxxx]

I was just looking through this as it is the right time of year for thinking about gathering again, and was just wondering, is Cleavers (Galium aparine) the same plant that is often know by the name Sticky willows/willies (or at least in my part of scotland there is a plant that looks like this that is called by this name) they have small round burs that will stick to clothes, hair fur etc, and the plant itself has small hooked hairs that will stick to your clothes as well.
We have loads of those in my area, and some in my garden, so if it is the same thing and is something i could give them, that would be something new to try them on

[anita]

Was harvesting nettles yesterday (with the thought of is the money really worth this pain!) and was constantly rubbing myself with dock where I had been stung maybe I should have dried them too!

[davx]

Apr 18, 2014 21:50:10 GMT xxxshadsxxx said:

I was just looking through this as it is the right time of year for thinking about gathering again, and was just wondering, is Cleavers (Galium aparine) the same plant that is often know by the name Sticky willows/willies (or at least in my part of scotland there is a plant that looks like this that is called by this name) they have small round burs that will stick to clothes, hair fur etc, and the plant itself has small hooked hairs that will stick to your clothes as well.
We have loads of those in my area, and some in my garden, so if it is the same thing and is something i could give them, that would be something new to try them on

I assume it is the same, because there aren't much plants looking similar and are sticky.

anita you need gloves . Nettles are good plants, rich in nutrients and give also a good fertiliser for plants, but they aren't very friendly to collect.

Edit:
Sticky willow is in fact cleavers:
uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090609033400AAZlDbo

[anita]

Had gloves,sweatshirt,wellies but still got stung on the chin when hanging them to dry lol

[xxxshadsxxx]

Just on the mention of nettles, are these safe for degus? If so, just the leaves and stems, or could they have the roots too? While I was out today I saw a lot of people picking nettle tips to make nettle soup, and was considering trying this myself as I've never had it, and we have a lot of nettles in the garden, so I was just wondering if this was something I could pick for the goos? (I ask about the roots, because a lot of the nettles are growing in places I don't want them, so will most likely be digging them out as some point!)

[anita]

Apr 19, 2014 22:20:25 GMT xxxshadsxxx said:

Just on the mention of nettles, are these safe for degus? If so, just the leaves and stems, or could they have the roots too? While I was out today I saw a lot of people picking nettle tips to make nettle soup, and was considering trying this myself as I've never had it, and we have a lot of nettles in the garden, so I was just wondering if this was something I could pick for the goos? (I ask about the roots, because a lot of the nettles are growing in places I don't want them, so will most likely be digging them out as some point!)

They can eat the whole plant I dry them first though so they loose their sting have never tried them fresh! you can also cook them like you would spinach or make beer

[toothbrush]

I usually just blanch nettles

[Karma]

-sigh- harvesting plants ...... Soon in a couple of months lol. We finally have green grass pointy out why do I live in canada again?

I really need to hit the garden store and get my indoor plants going so the degus can have some fresh (errrr dried) food.

[anita]

Apr 24, 2014 19:16:23 GMT Karma said:

-sigh- harvesting plants ...... Soon in a couple of months lol. We finally have green grass pointy out why do I live in canada again?

I really need to hit the garden store and get my indoor plants going so the degus can have some fresh (errrr dried) food.

Sorry Karma for rubbing salt into your climate wound 

[brydyslass]

Apr 18, 2014 21:50:10 GMT xxxshadsxxx said:

I was just looking through this as it is the right time of year for thinking about gathering again, and was just wondering, is Cleavers (Galium aparine) the same plant that is often know by the name Sticky willows/willies (or at least in my part of scotland there is a plant that looks like this that is called by this name) they have small round burs that will stick to clothes, hair fur etc, and the plant itself has small hooked hairs that will stick to your clothes as well.
We have loads of those in my area, and some in my garden, so if it is the same thing and is something i could give them, that would be something new to try them on

Cleavers is sticky willie. Apparently it can be roasted and made into a coffee!

[moletteuk]

The hedgerows are looking lovely and lush and full of new growth where I live (Cumbria), so I've started collecting again.

Here are some pics of safe plants I've been picking:

Cleavers/ Sticky Willies (Galium aparine)




Broad Leaved Plantain (Plantago major)


Narrow Leaved Plantain/ Ribwort (Plantago lanceolata)



Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)


Blackberry/ Bramble (Rubus fruticosus)




Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) (not giant hogweed - poisonous)




Sow Thistle (Sonchus)




Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)




Daisy (Bellis perennis)


Broad Leaved Dock (Rumex obtusifolius)


Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)


Nettle (Urtica dioica)


Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca) remove any seed pods


Pineapple Weed (Matricaria discoidea)


Stitchwort (Stellaria)


Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)



A bagful out to dry in the sun


After they have dried

[animalmadchloe]

I didn't realise they could have dock leaves...

[ilikedegus]

May 11, 2015 16:40:08 GMT animalmadchloe said:

I didn't realise they could have dock leaves...

Me neither...or ground elder...rather profuse at one end of my garden at the moment...I will have to see if the boys like it.

I've been weeding dandelions from my border and flower pots and drying the whole plant; the plant is much liked by our lads.

I'm a bit paranoid about it not being dry enough but sealed some in a vacuum storage bag yesterday. I'll open it in a few weeks and see if it's got any mould in it.

[moletteuk]

Dock is high in oxalic acid, so it's best to feed younger leaves and/ or not too much.

Ground elder is a really good one, really easy to pick a lot in spring and then again late summer. Common hogweed is another good one, it's easy to spot as the leaves are distinctive, once it flowers you'll see it's a got umbelliferous white flowers like cow parsley, the leaves are quite thick so it doesn't shrivel to nothing once it's dried. Garlic mustard is a love or hate one with my lot, it's abundant right now but only for a few weeks.

[moletteuk]

Just remembered I meant to say that I never seal up my stored leaves. I keep them in a woven plastic sack, an old megazorb bag actually, but not sealed at all, lots of people keep them in cardboard boxes or big paper bags. I've never had a problem storing them through the winter. Maybe it depends on the humidity in your house. I think if you dry them to the level where they would be fresher vacuum sealed, then they would maybe be too crumbly.

[ilikedegus]

Excellent point Molette.

Maybe I'm misleading myself.

I had the idea that it's best to keep the air out to preserve nutrients; but horses get fed hay that's not sealed/wrapped!

I've just opened the vacuum bag (only been 3-4 days, smells fine, quite nice in fact in a herby sort of way) and found a paper bag.


Oh, I gave Scratchy fresh marigold petals yesterday. He wasn't even interested enough to try them.

[moletteuk]

I think it probably would seal in nutrients, but I think you would need to remove all the air or I think they replace the air with something like nitrogen in crisps, salads etc to prevent decay. It could be that you would be reducing bacterial decay but promoting fungal decay.

Another tip is to store flower heads seperate if you have collected quite a lot as I think there is a higher likelihood of getting moths with the flowers, so you don't want them to spread to everything.

Only one of my three likes marigolds at all, and she isn't that bothered, I think some goos go mad for them though.

My lot are going nuts for fresh cherry leaves this week.

[Maravilla]

May 21, 2015 13:15:27 GMT moletteuk said:

Another tip is to store flower heads seperate if you have collected quite a lot as I think there is a higher likelihood of getting moths with the flowers, so you don't want them to spread to everything.

This is an important point. I have to admit that we have a bigger problem with these stupid little things. Storing the dried stuff only in plastic or paper bags would not help preventing it from moths as those chew EVERYTHING! We store our stuff in huge plastic boxes from IKEA which we sealed with sealing strips for windows and even this material is chewed by the maggots! But at least all moths are kept inside the box.