An edibles walk and talk to myself at Kew Gardens on 12th April 2024! Pictures of spotted edimentals and other edibles below (names with the pictures):
My zoom talk “A Virtual Edimentals Walk Around Burnley Gardens” in Melbourne, Australia was recorded and is now available https://youtu.be/rHX3q3Dng4k I based the talk on Edimentals that can be grown in Melbourne, based on plant lists for Burnley Gardens and the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne! After the talk, Sam Taylor and his team made a salad from plants growing in the garden! See pictures below. Thanks for inviting me, it was fun to put this together, and thanks for allowing me to put the recording of this unique talk up on my youtube channel!
It was fun putting together my talk “A Virtual Edimentals Walk Around Burnley Gardens” today 6th March, although I’m not used to talking at 9 am! To explain, it was a climate friendly zoom talk from home with the good folks of The Herb Society of Victoria at Burnley in Melbourne, Australia. During 2014 when my book was published and COVID lock down in 2020, I travelled the globe giving talks based on the book and did many walks and talks in botanical gardens and other plant collections. About 1/3 of all plants are edible, so maybe over 100,000 species have been used by people around the world and there is never a shortage of edible plants to be found. This time I based the talk mostly on a plant list from the Burnley Gardens as well as one from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, so talking about plants growing locally. Although the talk was only for fully payed up members of the society, my brother in England Trevor Barstow (picture) managed to infiltrate the proceedings, probably informing security that he was my virtual roadie 🙂 Thanks to Sam Taylor and the crew for putting it on and dealing with the technical side of things! A major storm was at its peak as I talked and the house was rocking, but luckily the electricity supply held! These are the plants I talked about (the set list 😉 ) and there were a few new ones! Hosta Fennel Aralia cordata Aralia elata Angelica gigas Angelica archangelica Crithmum maritimum Yucca Heracleum lanatum Smyrnium (Alexanders) Dystaenia takesimana Asparagus Artichokes and cardoons Dahlia Aster cordifolius Aster scaber Jerusalem artichoke Rudbeckia laciniata Ligularia fischeri Horseradish Campanula punctata and other Campanulaceae Lilium davidii and Lilium lancifolium Allium stipitatum Allium fistulosum Allium tuberosum Allium schoenoprasum Allium ampeloprasum
You have to search for the small red tassels that are the female wild hazel (Corylus avellana) flowers that will be the nuts. They’ve probably been there for some time as the male flowers or catkins are almost over in this very mild winter. I’ve read that the wild hazel is a good pollinator for large nut hazel varieties, but there is hardly any overlap in flowering times here.
Growing winter vegetables is easy and sustainable without the use of plastics, fleeces, expensive greenhouses and energy by exploiting the “talents” of perennial and biennial plants that are naturally cold tolerant! End of February greens, many harvested in the garden in this very mild weather, used in a delicious green Mac and cheese! See the list of plants added below the pictures. The plants: Forced inside: Aralia cordata (udo) Hosta Aegopodium podogaria (ground elder / skvallerkål) Cichorium intybus “Witloof Væres Venners” (chicory / sikori) Allium senescens x nutans Petroselinum crispum (parsley / persille) Brassia oleracea (various perennial kales / flerårige kål) Cirsium oleraceum (cabbage thistle / kåltistel) Outside: Allium carinatum “Pulchellum” Hablitzia tamnoides (Caucasian spinach / stjernemelde) Allium stipitatum shoots (Persian shallot / Persisk sjalott) Rumex acetosa “Abundance” (sorrel /engsyre) Taraxacum sp. (dandelion / løvetann) Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard / løkurt) Dystaenia takesimana Scorzonera hispanica (scorzonera / scorsonerrot) Ranunculus ficaria var chrysocephalus (lesser celandine / vårkål) Cardamine raphanifolia Hemerocallis sp. Allium cernuum (nodding onion / prærieløk) Allium oleraceum (wild onion / villøk) Allium sativum (garlic / hvitløk) Allium paradoxum var normale Allium paradoxum var paradoxum (few-flowered leek) Armoracia rusticana ( horseradish / pepperrot) Smyrnium olusatrum (alexanders / sorte løpstikke); not a very hardy species, but I’ve kept it alive for many years growing up against the house wall protected by a leaf and sacking mulch (I overwinter tender plants in pots here):
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
The plants: