a reader of books
Warren Veteran
That's a really nice-looking pile of branches! Lucky bunnies!
Matt carries secateurs and gloves on every walk, and in his backpack (which goes most places with him) as well as a folding pruning saw (backpack only or specil occasions, like when a willow branch needs felling). Most of his forage is branch-based because it's his head height!Superhaul of branches, j&b Will the leaves separate from the branches when they're dry? Do you routinely carry secateurs in your pocket?:lol:
I tried to forage this afternoon - was planning to mainly get Ash but concerned I might have accidentally got some Elder. is tree Elder toxic to buns - I know they can eat ground elder? Its a confusing one to google so if anyone knows that would be great
I saw a field full of the most gorgeous caramel & chocolate coloured cows Didn't have camera or phone so need to return for pics
I have always deliberately not fed Elder, thinking it was toxic. Looking at Medirabbit site, they list it as European Elder and it's on their toxic list. http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/Tox/Tox_en.htm
Walked home from work (brrrrr) yesterday so I could forage and got decent quantity of dandelions, cow parsley, grass and geranium. No early Hawthorn though and no sow thistle (well there was but only in likely dog traffic areas, same with plantain)
Come on Spring
No really *decent* quantities of anything here yet, apart from grass. I can see the beginnings of plants such as Plantain, Sow Thistle, Red Campion, Wood Avens and Dandelions, but certainly not big enough to rob yet. The Cow Parsley has grown quite a bit in the last few days and the small part of the perimeter hedge of Hawthorn, which is the earliest, has tiny green leaf buds You always do have much more wild Geranium than here. Red Dead-nettle and Chickweed under the Kale looks less happy this year than most.
We've got OK cow parsely, hogweed and as much stickyweed as the bunnies will eat (not that much it turns out :lol. There's a couple of HUMONGOUS clumps of chickweed but thye inevitably don't like it from there :lol: I have difficulty finding good grass! My lawn isn;t much of a lawn right now, it's mostly a barren wasteland, but they've been out there this morning eating the Rubbish Bramble Matt put in for them (so they've something to do in thewre, the lawn run is quite bare, has no toys etc. right now). Do other people's buns dislike certain cultivars of bramble?
Ours very much dislike very thorny ones like we have growing everywhere in our garden (rubbish plant, fruits are also pants), the small-leaved ones with the two lower lobes combined, that sort of thing. Mostly they're eating the buds at the leaf joins then everything else. Chickweed was a big favourite but I reckon I might have just got too much!Mine will eat Chickweed only if there's nothing else. Grass has become quite lush. I'm not sure that it's different types of Bramble, but it's a certainly a plant that they prefer at certain times of the year. I must admit I would term our Bramble rubbish at the moment too.
Scipio got his first real taste of forage this weekend. I got them hawthorn, bramble leaves, cow parsley goose grass and hogweed.
When I first put the tray down, he was all "Wtf is this?!" But he has decided that he really, really likes hawthorn and brambles. Doesn't mind goosegrass. But not keen on hogweed or cow parsley. Fudgie doesn't seem to care for cow parsley either, which is annoying as you can't move for the stuff at the moment!
Matt got ours their first hawthorn of the year the other day and that twig mysteriously disappeared too!This year she is really loving hawthorn & eating the twigs too