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Edible Plants in Your Garden—Part2 |
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Written by Story by Dianne Stortz-Lintz
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Friday, 01 August 2008 |
Last month, Dianne Stortz-Lintz brought us an interesting and informative article about edible plants. Apparently, so much of our garden is edible (who knew?) that the story was too long to run in one issue. So we decided to break it up and run it over two months. Please enjoy part two.
Lemon Verbena: This is a lemony flavored mint that is hardy. It is tall and doesn’t have nice flowers, but the leaves make a great tea.
Lilac: The flowers of the common lilac are edible; they are lemony with a strong lilac floral flavor. Like pansies, the florets can be crystallized and used as decoration in desserts.
Malva: There are few varieties of Malva grown as ornamentals. These are spectacular flowering plants that are hardy and weedy. There is also a desert species native to Nevada but it’s picky about water. The flowers are edible but bland.
Chives: This is an easily grown, onion-like flavored perennial whose leaves and attractive purple flowers are edible.
Marigold – The petals of some marigolds have a spicy taste but others are bitter, particularly the white part of the petals. In general, they have a nice taste and are easy to grow.
Mints: There are a variety of mints that are attractive and can be grown easily. Most are vigorous and may well take over the garden. Stay away from spearmint and peppermint unless that is all you want in your flower bed; these plants are better cultivated in pots than in a flower bed. Other mints that are nicer citizens are:
Bergamont or Orange mint
Pineapple mint
Catnip
Catmint
Nasturtiums: Nasturtiums are a tender perennial that is grown as an annual in northern Nevada. All parts are edible. Most of the plant has a spicy nutty flavor, but the flowers are also sweet. Pickled Nasturtium buds are sold as capers. However, true capers are from the unripened flower buds of Capparis spinosa.
Okra: Okra is a tender vegetable that has beautiful flowers. Although many okra varieties will not produce the slimy edible seed pods in northern Nevada’s short growing season, the flowers are also edible. The flowers have a bland and sweet flavor.
Rosemary: Rosemary is an outstanding landscape plant. It is a short, shrubby plant that can trail over containers. The leaves can be used as a marvelous herb for fish and poultry.
Hops: Hops are a hardy vine with great flowers. The flowers have a wonderful but indescribable smell. Hops are used in brewing beer and impart bitterness, and flowery, citrus, fruity, or herbal aromas. Hops also have an antibiotic effect in the brewing process that favors the growth of brewer’s yeasts over other contaminating microorganisms.
Thyme: There are quite a few different varieties of thyme. Thyme is an attractive, small- leaved plant with small pink flowers. Most varieties are very hardy. Creeping thyme is a nice groundcover. The leaves are used as a spice.
Lovage: The Garden Lovage is one of the old English herbs that was formerly very generally cultivated, and is still occasionally cultivated as a sweet herb. Lovage looks like and taste similar to a large celery plant. However, the leaves are more commonly used as a flavoring agent. The flowers are similar to dill and fennel. Due to its large size, it should be confined to the back of the garden.
Oregano: Oregano is a nice landscape plant. It is short and has nice pinkish-white flowers.
Marjoram: This is a spice that produces small white to lavender flowers. It is reasonably hardy but dies in hard winters. It is used as a spice and as an additive to tea.
Currant: Currants are hardy, small shrubs. There are a variety of currants that produce a prodigious crop of berries. The fruit is semi-sweet and makes great jelly.
Grapes: There are lots of varieties that produce well here, and they are pretty vines for arbors and lathe houses.
Lemon balm – Lemon balm is a member of the mint family and has long been considered a “calming” herb. It has been used since the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety and to promote sleep. It is an attractive plant but is sensitive to the cold.
Bee Balm: Also called Mondarda. This plant is in the mint family. Often it is used as a substitute for Bergamont mint that is used to flavor Earl Grey tea, but the flowers are also edible.
Fennel: Fennel is now a very popular plant. The leaves have an anise or a licorice-like flavor and the base or bulb is used as a vegetable. It is easily grown from seed, and has a similar growth habit to dill.
Gladiolas: Flowers, with the sexual parts removed, have a nondescript flavor but make unique containers for sweet or savory spreads or mousses. Toss individual petals in salads.
Impatiens: The flowers are edible but bland. These very tender plants need shade and don’t do well without a bucket load of fertilizer.
Carnation: Carnation flowers are wonderful to eat. They are sweet and have a slight clove flavor. This hardy flower is difficult to find as a transplant in the nurseries, however, you can use the flowers from one of the lesser varieties such as Sweet Williams or Dianthus.
Calendula: The flower petals are often called the poor man’s saffron. They have a peppery, spicy flavor that imparts an orange color to foods.
Chamomile: The chamomile plant is a tender, low-growing perennial that will take over from seed. It has happy, small, white daisy-like flowers. The dried flowers are used as a calming tea.
Sage : There are many varieties of herb sage, some of which have great foliage. They are hardy, handsome plants but get leggy and awkward without careful trimming. Herb sage is used for a variety of dishes but is most popular with poultry.
Summer Savory: Summer Savory was thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac in early Rome, but now this herb is often used as a landscape plant. Summer savory is a tender annual that seeds freely. It has a flavor reminiscent of thyme. Plants mature at little over one foot and have small pink flowers.
Primrose: The standard garden primrose (Primula vulgaris) flowers are edible and have a bland sweet flavor. DO NOT use any other variety of primrose. Many of them are toxic.
Dianne Stortz-Lintz is a horticulturist and greenhouse manager for the City of Reno. For more information, call 224-1680. |
