Saturday 11 April 2015

Exit Landcress

During the Winter my Landcress delivered a small but frequent and tasty harvest, which was especially welcome in the absence of most other crops. But all good things come to an end and that time has come for the Landcress. After it reaches a certain point the leaves become tough, stringy and overpoweringly peppery. Furthermore the plants run to seed, putting up tall flower spikes:


Most of the plants have produced a single flower-stalk, but the bigger ones have put up several.


If I left the flowers to open and eventually mature, I'm sure I could easily establish a self-generating patch of Landcress, but these plants are in one of the raised beds, which I now want to use for Runner Beans, so they have been dug up. In the late Summer I will probably sow another batch.


In other news, the Horseradish has popped up:


Some of you may recall that last Autumn while I was foraging the hedgerows for fruit I found some Horseradish growing in the verge at the side of a country lane, and brought some of it home. Most of it was made into Horseradish Sauce and eaten soon after, but one promising bit was planted, and this has evidently made it through the Winter. Friends have warned me that Horseradish is very invasive, so I have made sure to plant it in a place where it can be easily contained and I will take steps to ensure it never gets out of hand!

That place is right at the bottom of the garden, between two compost bins. I am also trying to establish there a patch of Comfrey:


In these photos you can see four heads of Comfrey peeping through, as well as a small clump of Good King Henry (top right).


You can probably tell that at the time when I took those photos I had just watered this area. That is because I want the Comfrey to quickly grow big and strong so that I can harvest it to make plant-food with its leaves. I would like to get at least two crops within the year.

8 comments:

  1. I keep thinking about horseradish. If it weren't invasive I'd put it in now, but I don't have another good spot for an invasive plant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Each time you write about landcress I think how similar it is to hairy bittercress. Curiosity has finally got the best of me so I've googled it and according to Wikipedia it's the same plant. Is this right? I get loads of it popping up in my border and I didn't even know I could be harvesting it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it may be in the same family, but Landcress is definitely NOT the same as Hairy Bittercress. It is not hairy, and it is not bitter! It is much more like Watercress. It is sometimes called "American Cress".

      Delete
    2. Confusingly hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) is also known as landcress, but the landcress that is generally cultivated is Barbarea verna. I eat hairy bittercress all the time. It tastes the same as other cresses. I think the 'bitter' in the name refers to the peppery taste - it's not bitter as a dandelion leaf is bitter. Also its not particularly hairy - its pretty bald compared to something like mint. If you find a larger (4 inches across), lush hairy bittercress, there is very little to choose between that and American cress.

      Delete
    3. Right, I can see the difference now in their latin names. It is confusing though that hairy bittercress is also known as landcress, they do look quite similar.

      Delete
  3. I sowed a few cells of landcress at the beginning of April and it has now been almost 2 weeks and still no germination - so I'm wondering what you think Mark. Does it usually take this long to germinate or should I start over?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it were me, I'd sow some more, but keep the first lot too - until maybe the end of the month. They may still germinate. Some seeds do take a long time to germinate, and much depends on the conditions, like temperature, moisture and light.

      Delete
  4. It is extremely invasive Mark, I've had one in a small bin for years (think a larger kitchen bin size) & it has been most successful in there.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to leave me a comment! Please note that Comment Moderation is enabled for older posts.