Free garden planner — save plants, plan beds, and get sowing reminders for your spot.
Sign up free
Seeds, cuttings, plants, tools. Local trades between gardeners.
Broad Bean
After being cultivated in North Africa and Southwest Asia, it has spread across the globe. It was grown in Sweden as early as the 13th century and remained a common vegetable until the 1940s. The beans are excellent when blanched for use in salads and pasta dishes, or boiled in soups and stews. Harvest as the pods swell. Use blanched in salads, pasta dishes, and stews. They can also be dried and soaked for later use. Sow directly outdoors once the soil is workable. It is best to sow in batches, spaced one or two months apart. Water the soil before sowing and keep it moist during germination. If black aphids appear, trim off the tops of the plants after flowering. Harvest as the pods begin to hang downwards. Location: Sunny Height: 50–90 cm Direct sowing: March–June; keep moist. Indoor sowing: March–April Direct sowing: April–June Harvest: July–September
Dahlia
The root is certainly edible, but I prefer the flowers; they are beautiful for garnishing various dishes, cakes, and desserts. They also liven up black tea—just add the dried petals to the tea. Sowing indoors: February – April Harvest: Blooms from July until the frost Location: Sunny Height: 60–150 cm Flowering: July – September Pinch back the plants to encourage a bushier shape. Before the frost sets in hard, dig up the tubers and store them. I don’t cut them back; instead, I plant them in pots and keep them in a frost-free place. I water them as long as they remain green. After that, I don't water them again until spring.
Shungiku
Annual/Vegetable Produces somewhat bushy plants with yellow flowers. Edible leaves and flowers; lightly sauté and use like spinach. The leaves are versatile—I love them in pasta dishes. The flowers are also edible. Location: Sun Height: 60 cm Flowering period: June–Oct Direct sowing: April–Aug (successive sowings) Harvest: Harvest leaves continuously.
Moldavian dragonhead
A lovely, delicious flower; with its lemony character, it is excellent in cooking and smells wonderful in a bouquet. The leaves and flowers are harvested continuously and used for tea, either fresh or dried. Location: Sunny Height: 45 cm Indoor sowing: April–May or October–November Harvest: Blooms June–August
Salsify
This beauty could easily be mistaken for an ornamental plant, thanks to its grass-like foliage forming large clumps and tall stalks topped with masses of large, cerise-purple flowers! A real showstopper! It is wonderful that it is edible, too—though ideally, you don't want it to flower before harvest... I sow these indoors in February, and directly outdoors in March and April, harvesting in November, December, and January. I also sow a batch in October to harvest in the spring—which is when I start sowing the next round (I keep a few plants to let them flower). Before harvesting the root, I also pick some of the leaves, which are delicious in salads. The root is tasty in stews and soups, or roasted in the oven or lightly boiled with butter and flaky sea salt. Location: Sunny Height: 100 cm Direct sowing: March–April or October–November Harvest: October–November / April–May
