Just under a year ago we moved house. And for the first time, we have a garden.

I was excited at first, then daunted: I was used to my little patio with its manageable potted plants, not this wilderness. And then there was the rubbish. We filled two and a half skips with it but there was still more, and every time it rained bits of broken glass washed up from under the surface, decades old.

But slowly, slowly, it’s taking shape. We plan to leave a lot of it wild, but we’ve planted 16 trees and they’ve all survived the winter and budded. We’ve fenced off an area to grow vegetables, and garlic and potatoes are pushing up through the earth, and the corner of wild garlic I planted is flowering and spreading.

There’s a pleasure in going out every day to examine the buds, to see them awakening a little more each day. And even the rubbish is yielding treasure - wood from pallets and old sleepers, bricks and stones, all usable for making furniture, laying paths, edging beds.

The dogs love it. Sula is digging a hole big enough to hide herself in (which is why we fenced off the vegetables), Layla lies on old sacking, dreaming in the sun, and Raffi likes watching the hill that rises up in front of the house.

And we have weeds - lots and lots of weeds. The creeping buttercup that is trying to take over is toxic, but we also have dandelions, nettles and sticky willy. Sticky willy (also known as cleavers,) is that fun plant of childhood that sticks to clothes and animal fur. Its official name is Galium aparine, it’s a relative of the coffee plant, and is allegedly bursting with medicinal properties. It can be added to water and infused in the fridge overnight night for a refreshing drink that apparently acts as a lymphatic tonic. I also found a recipe for coffee which I’ve yet to try. But I did make nettle and sticky willy pesto.

I didn’t do measurements but I filled a sieve with sticky willy and young green nettle leaves (once the stem has gone purple they are past their best.) I rinsed them and put them in a pan with just enough hot water to cover. Once they were wilted down I drained them and added them to the blender along with 50 grams of lightly toasted cashew nuts, the juice of 1 lemon, 50 grams of nutritional yeast and a dash of salt and pepper. It was delicious on pasta but I found this batch ever so slightly too lemony so I’m going to use only half a lemon next time.

But the best thing about sticky willy is – it's also great for dogs! I found this recipe for healthy dog treats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOcIN-HT7Pw. I made these today and my dogs just loved them!

Free food is always a treat: even more so when it comes from your own garden. The concept of weeds is a state of mind - they provide food and shelter for wildlife, as well as, as it turns out, for us. Though I still don’t want that creeping buttercup in my vegetable patch...

Weeds