There are always plenty of kitchen herbs growing in my garden. This year I hope to add a few vegetables. I shan't be digging up the lawn and planting spuds but it would be nice to have some veggies which are either very expensive, like courgettes and aubergines, or hard to come by, like unusual varieties of beets and squashes.
Cooking in our house is my job. I use a lot of herbs from the garden but almost never fennel. I have tried it with salmon and in other popular recipes and although I don't dislike it, it's not great. It just seems like a waste of good food that would be better cooked some other way.
So instead it tends to get grown for its ornamental value in big clumps at the back of the border. From a distance the heads form a localised green mist and the new shoots come squeezing out of the stalk like some sort of furry animal escaping a pupum. And of course when the wind blows through it it fills the garden with its wonderful smell.
This is the remains of a big clump of bronze fennel. The wind has blown it flat across the lawn and it is just laid there mouldering quietly. I ought to go and clear it up, but at the moment I have my hands full restoring a semblance of order to the front.
Nice post, I love Bronze Fennel, but only as an ornamental. I actual despise the smell and taste of anise :-( It's such a lovely plant, however, I grow it anyway...although mine also succumbs to wind almost every year.
ReplyDeleteMy bronze fennel died right after I planted it. The green fennel is now growing like crazy, does it prefer colder weather? Oh I dropped by from Pam at Digging
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI'm no big fan of herbs, but fennel does look lovely, just for the photos and interest in the garden... I did buy some seeds, but I've no idea where they are!