Category Archives: Perennials

Indian summer flowers

There were unusually many plants still flowering in the garden in October this year as we experienced a bit of an Indian summer. We’ve now had our first frost, so time to publish this album of 116 pictures of over 100 species. Most but not all are edible / edimentals and, yes, I should have made a salad.




Early May Edible Flower Bouquet

A posey of edible flowers:
Primula denticulata 
Primula elatior (oxlip / hagenøkleblom)
Primula vulgaris hybrid (primrose / kusymre)
Claytonia virginica (spring beauty)
Arabis alpina (Alpine Rock Cress / Fjellskrinneblom)
Arabis caucasica (Wall Rock Cress / Hageskrinneblom)
Allium paradoxum (Few-flowered leek)

Mid-October flowers in the Edible Garden

No frost thus far in October and it looks like it could be a frost free month! That and record high temperatures and there are a lot of plants still flowering or reflowering! Most but not all are edible!

Cicoria Fantastica!

I love chicories, a huge diversity of vegetable and wild forms, some perennial, hearting types, dandelion like types, various colour forms often like this one splashed with colour, varieties used as root vegetables, coffee surrogate types, forms for winter forcing, hardy, tasty, healthy, beautiful when flowering (both white, red, blue and pink forms are available) and there are no pests or diseases here…what isn’t there to like about them?
I harvested them for storing in my cold cellar and forcing later on in the season. This one was used in an Indian curry with barley “rice”.

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Perennial thicket bean update

A hardy perennial bean has been a wish amongst permaculturists for some years, and one of the most interesting species is Phaseolus polystachios. Jonathan Bates of Paradise Lot fame (with Eric Toensmeier) kindly sent me seed last year. The 2-3 plants sadly all died. This year one of my remaining seed germinated and the resultant plant has grown well, kept indoors all summer.. It is now in full flower in the living room, but has been invaded by aphids. Is it self-fertile?
 
See my earlier blog post here http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3600

Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon/Chorogi/Madeira vine tuber harvest

Harvested roots of Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon (Tragopogon pratensis), an introduced weed in my garden. It is related to salsify and scorzonera – I eat the roots and force a few for early spring greens; Madeira vine is in the Basellaceae and isn’t everybody’s cup-of-tea as they are rather mucilaginous – they can also be forced in winter for the equally mucilaginous greens! I LIKE THEM, but always mixed with other veg. Finally, I harvested my long neglected chorogi which were surprisingly good yielding despite the fact that they were completely overgrown by weeds..
All are now stored in the cellar.

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Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon (Tragopogon pratensis) / geitskjegg

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Anredera cordifolia (Madeira vine)

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Chorogi or chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis)