Try something different on the veg plot
By Jean Vernon
Hampton Court Palace Flower show offers visitors a fantastic opportunity to explore the wonderful world of plants. Whatever fires up your interest in gardening is bound to be on display somewhere in the showground.
This year, in keeping with the massive increase in interest in grow your own, there is a huge diversity of edible plants. Some are obvious, just a glance around the market garden will reveal some fantastic sculptural cabbages. You simply have to see them to appreciate their individual beauty and if you question whether a brassica can be attractive, this display could change your mind. But other edibles are hidden within displays or sometimes so alien that you might not recognise them as a source of food at all.
Ring the changes
Whether you’re an experienced or novice vegetable grower you might fancy growing something a bit different. You don’t have to rely on new varietal introductions, there are plenty of exotic vegetables at the show and also plants that are sometimes called heritage vegetables, grown by specialists and often brought back from the brink of extinction by dedicated growers.
Exotic vegetables
One of my favourite small exhibits at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is an exhibit in the Growing Tastes Marquee by Edulis. Its display of edible perennial plants is utterly inspiring. Not only do the plants look exotic and amazing but each one also has a story behind it. Take the American Peanut (Apios americana), one of the plants the native American Indians showed to the Pioneers when they reached the mainland and probably played a major part in their early survival. Wow! It has a string of underground edible tubers which you can roast and pretty pea flowers.
Then there’s the Duck Potato (Sagittaria latifolia) - sadly it doesn’t look like a duck, this marginal plant grows where ducks like to shelter. It has crunchy, fleshy tubers and is hardy.
Next door to the Edulis stand is another amazing collection of organic, edible plants from Herbs & Beans, not only are there plenty of plants (and seed) here that can be still sown in July and August for a crop this summer and autumn, but there are some really fascinating plants. Don’t miss the soya bean, it might not mature to produce masses beans in our summer climate, but the edible pods are delicious edame (eaten at the pod stage).
Herba stella, a buckhorn plantain is a great hardy plant for winter salads. Or how about Calaloo from the Caribbean, which you cook like spinach and is delicious with fish. Sow now and harvest it in just six weeks. A personal favourite is the red amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), it looks fantastic and the red leaves are tasty raw in salads or cooked in stir fries, delicious. What’s more, all the seed is organic so it hasn’t been treated with preservatives and chemicals.
So next time you look at your vegetable patch and wish for some more colour, taste or texture, think outside the box a little and sow something that will bring a breath of fresh air to your menus.