rocket - salad
salad rocket or Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa
Not for nothing is this called rocket: it shoots out of the ground in no time and you'll be picking your first...
Rocket can be weather sensitive, but that’s its great strength. Cool and damp? Plentiful pickings of peppery leaves. Hot and dry? Let it bolt and enjoy the flowers instead: they have a sweet-and-spicy taste that I actually prefer.
GOES WELL WITH
How to use companion plants
Companion planting is a method of growing different plants adjacent to one another for the benefit of one or both of the companions. Some plants are thought to confuse or act as a decoy to potential pests, while a few provide food for the pest's natural
Read full articleBuying vegetable plants
If you just want to grow a few vegetables or have suffered losses with early sowings, buying plants is a great way to play catch-up. Buying plants also allows you to grow vegetables if you do not have the facilities to raise them from seed yourself or whe
Read full articleFloral gastronomy
I used to be a bit sceptical about all this new-fangled fashion for eating flowers. All a bit Guardianista, I thought. Looks nice and all that, but what about the flavour? Well. Then I ate a rosemary flower. And found out about the flavour, and why people
Read full articleMultipurpose veg
I was thinking the other day of extremely useful things you can grow in the garden, like my amazing Egyptian walking onions in one corner of my garden.They arrived as a handful of unpromising bulbils given to me by a friend. I wasn’t even sure they we
Read full article