The Little Wild Library: Clover: Simple things to do with the plants around you. - Hardcover

Gogerty, Clare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1446315436 ISBN 13: 9781446315439

Publisher: Verbena, 2025

Synopsis

In The Little Wild Library: Clover, discover what makes this industrious and nutritious plant so special, with a host of recipes and makes to try throughout the year.

• Learn how to make the most of what this magnificent plant has to offer, all while gaining a better understanding of the ecosystem of which clover forms such a vital part.

• All the recipes and makes are beginner friendly, making it easier and more fulfilling to engage with the natural world and form a connection to the plants and flowers that decorate our lives.

• Learn how to identify the clover from the comprehensive botanical information included, and take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the plant in its natural habitat.

Through the book, explore how clover got its name, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this fantastic plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild Library: Clover will reveal the secrets of this magical weed and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

About this title

About the Author

Clare Gogerty lives on a smallholding in deepest Herefordshire which she is opening as a spiritual retreat in 2023. The sound of shamanic drumming often comes from her orchard, and herbal remedies are frequently cooked up in the kitchen. She has been interested in magic, druidry and folklore since a child, encouraged by her father, an enthusiastic dowser and leyline hunter. A former magazine editor, she is now a freelance journalist and author, writing about spirituality, travel, homes and gardens

From the Back Cover

In The Little Wild Library: Clover, discover how to make the most of this beautiful plant, with recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Once you’ve found your favourite crop of clover, come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Lying on a clover-studded lawn or in a meadow perfumed with its scent, with a honeybee going about its bumbling business close by, is one of the summer’s loveliest moments. Around midsummer, lawns, verges, and meadows are sprinkled with the small, fragrant pink-and-white blooms of clover. Emerging from a carpet of dark green leaves, the spherical heads of flowers are soon buzzing with bees in search of nectar. Each bloom is an intricate collection of individual tubular flowers arching up from the stem like the neck of swans, tempting the bees in to feast.

If ever a wild plant should be cultivated and not mowed down by rampaging lawnmowers then clover is it. Although it is grown intentionally, it often appears uninvited, spreading itself around in any soil as long as it is well-drained. It is the ultimate groundcover plant: easy to establish, requires little maintenance, friendly to wildlife, and provides nourishment to the earth. Fortunately, the movement away from grass lawns to pollinator-friendly wildflower swards has led to a growing appreciation of it – as increasing numbers of clover lawns spring up everywhere.

As we discover more about clover, we learn that it’s not only pollinators that benefit from it. Humans can also harness its many health-giving qualities. This book is packed with ways on how to bring clover’s magic into your life, from simple beauty lotions and balms to herbal remedies, tea, and jam – even a spell or two. You will wonder how you ever walked over a patch of clover without reaching down to snip a few blooms to take home and make something marvellous. Tie bunches of it into a floral crown to wear on the summer solstice or when there’s a full moon – and you may even see fairies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verbena
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1446315436
• ISBN 13: 9781446315439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112