If you are growing fruit and vegetables this is likely to be a bountiful time of year for you – and I wish I had the space, time and diligence needed myself to run a kitchen garden. Unfortunately, I don’t – but there are still things in the garden that are good enough to eat, and lots of us are likely to have these without even realising.
Obviously, you should never tuck into anything from the garden unless you’re sure it’s not harmful, and many very common garden plants are surprisingly toxic. But lots of widely grown flowers are edible, and you can use them in a number of ways, with herbal plants being the best known.
Chamomile flowers can be brewed into a herbal tea with health benefits, and the pretty little blue flowers of borage can be frozen into ice cubes for summer drinks. The purple flowers of chives not only taste good but look lovely sprinkled over soups and sauces. If you’re really creative, you can crystallise edible petals and use them to decorate home- made cakes – rose petals work for this, as do viola and pansy petals. It’s a bit fiddly but they look absolutely gorgeous and you simply can’t buy anything with such a wow factor. You need to carefully brush egg white over your petals (try a very fine pastry brush ), then dip them into caster sugar. Spread them out on baking parchment on baking tray somewhere warmish, and leave them to dry overnight – an airing cupboard is ideal for this if you have the space.
If that sounds like too much work but you’d like to brighten up your salads with a splash of edible floral colour, cornflowers, calendula and nasturtium are all suitable candidates. Before you sprinkle them over the salad bowl, just make sure that your flowers are free from chemical pesticides or weedkillers – then as well as being good for the planet, they’ll be good for you.
Anne’s Tip of the Week: It’s time to start feeding your container plants, if you haven’t already – the potting compost in your hanging baskets and window boxes contains nutrients to keep the plants going for up to six weeks, but after that they need some help to keep going all summer long. I use liquid seaweed, available from all good garden centres.
Anne Byrne Garden Design provides easy to follow Garden Plans that you can implement right away or in stages. Anne’s design flair and passion for plants brings a touch of magic to gardens of all sizes.
Anne Byrne Garden Design – Creative Ideas – Practical Solutions – Stunning Gardens
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