Hello fellow gardeners!
I am back after the break to write some exciting updates from our permaculture garden. Lots of other perennial plants matured in our garden and I felt it is the time to take my camera and share these pictures with you.
You can check the first article about my plants here.
Lophantus (Lophantus anisatus) is a beautiful perennial aromatic herb in flower from August to October (in my zone 7). The plant is part of the nettle family, being very resilient, drought resistant and can thrive in relatively poor and dry soil. It is very rich in nectar and is used worldwide by bee keepers to supplement the feed in the autumn months when there are less and less flowers available. If you think this is enough to convince you to introduce this plant into your garden, this is not all. The flowers make a delicious aromatic tea and the leaves are edible in moderate quantities. They have a very strong flavor and it is used in desserts.
Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) is a pretty amazing plant with a huge potential for feeding the planet and producing oil on a global scale. It is a cousin of the Jerusalem artichoke and the annual sunflower, which brings the best of both worlds. It grows small edible tubers that spread and grow new shoots at a slower pace and it is a perennial. At the same time, the flowers form small sunflower-like seeds. It is admitted that they are very small and hard to eat like the regular sunflower seeds, but, at a medium scale they can be successfully used to feed chickens and, on a large scale, they can be mechanically harvested and processed into good quality oil. It is a beautiful plant and most people grow it as a decorative , not knowing the gifts it might offer. In our garden it developped slow and steady and proved to be a very resilient and non-invasive plant. You can check the research work on this plant in the US here.
Skirret (Sium sisarum) is an ancient forgotten perennial vegetable cultivated in the past for its roots. They form a bunch of thin tubers that taste like parsnip and carrot and used to be an important food in the Nordic European countries in the past. It is part of the carrot family and forms a similar flower in the first year after it was planted. Even though our plants seem mature, I will wait until October to check the root growth. Most of the roots we cultivate in our soil are not growing very well because of the hard texture. Last year, the carrots were not growing at all and seemed a waste of time to cultivate them in our no-dig garden. Skirret is the carrot replacement we were hoping for and, together with Jerusalem artichocke and scorzonera, they will be our potato-carrot alternative in our meals. Never heard about scorzonera? I will write about it in the next article. :)