It was cool, windy and liable to be wet by the time I came home from work today. Ben sprinted to the back of the garden to do his business and to then sharpen his claws on the black elder. I did wonder whether its his claw work that has made the old tree look the way it does as well as its age. It is another ‘original’ in the Magic Garden that I planted when the house was first built 18 years ago. It is just pushing out its foliage now as another sign of spring approaching.
When I originally planted the black elder (Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’) it was a small shrub that I bought for its feathery black foliage. I let it grow & now coppice it so that each year I get a fresh crop of black leaves and the pretty delicate multiflowers that acts as a foil to the rest of the Magic Garden
Black Elderflower and berries are part of folk-lore and medicine. Elder is associated with transitions and boundaries. It provides the wood of panpipes. To my amusement, the berries apparently have antidepressant effects in mice -can’t say I’ve ever seen depressed mice but at least I know how to keep Ben’s ‘mices’ happy!
