About

About the project:
I am making this blog for two main purposes, on the one hand I want it to serve as a hub for reference and supplementary/complementary information to my guided walks etc. See below. On the other hand, by making this blog, I can see how it will force me to research more and learn more - thus adding to my passion. In essence, it is like a concrete (paradoxically) manifestation of my desire to persue my passion for plants.
As for the title, well it is kind of a pun. There exists a great book called The Plant Crib (in many volumes) which helps distinguish tricky plants - however it is based in the UK and not openly accessible unless your local library have it or you own it. My aim is to do something specific to Ireland, on a much smaller scale of course.

Content:
While some of my posts and documents here will refer to specific walks, much of it will be about how to distinguish tricky (and not so tricky) groups. E.g. my guide to dandelions vs. their look-alikes [].

Disclaimer:
Whilst I have taken effort to ensure that anything I write here or in any of my documents is correct and accurate, there are likely to be mistakes etc. Hopefully they are just simple ones. However, I disclaim responsibility for what you do with this information. Please do your own research before trying plants I have suggested! This is your responsibility. And also, make sure you have positively identified the plant 100% before attempting to try it. If you are in any way unsure, ask someone who knows.
Where appropriate, I try to give links as references and for further information. I don't intend to 'steal' anyone else's information or images, but refer to them. On this blog, I plan to use images in 3 ways:
1). my own images - so they are copyright to me!
2). Creative Commons images - where I cite/link the author at the bottom of the page/document.
3). Other images, which I don't host on this blog, but rather link in. I try to use this sparingly, only where I can't find another. If you are an owner of an image I am using in this way and don't like it, please tell me and I will remove it and try to find an alternative.

About me:
I am 23 years old, living in Galway (Ireland) for several years. I recently graduated from NUI Galway with an Honours Bachelor of Science - Botany and Plant Science. I grew up in the countryside where I was always surrounded by plants. From about 5 or 6, I was curious about what plants are edible and toxic - though I'd never dare try unless I was assured by someone responsible. I suppose I thought such curiosity a normal part of growing up. Only much later I became interested in plants for medicinal usage etc. Despite having frequently harvested blackberries to make jams, crumbles etc. as well as some other plants, I didn't really consider wild foods as food until very recently.
Having completed my degree in 2012, I decided to test myself by giving a speech on wild plants as food (in June and subsequently in August). That autumn I gave some guided walks, mostly oriented towards tree identification, but also some on foraging. Now, with the creation of this blog (Dec 2012), I can see my passion out growing itself and maybe becoming something more...

Interests (besides wild plants): Gardening, Cooking, running, hiking, computers (programming, art etc.) and language learning/penpalling.

Contact: v matthew g (@@@@) Gmail dot com (remove spaces and correct)