Good Organic Gardening Issue#8.3 - 2017

“Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.” — Luther Burbank, botanist Welcome to our flowery spring issue! For many of us, our earliest gardening experiences involved growing flowers. That was true for me. Almost from the time I left home, I would plant flowers in rental properties — even one tiny terrace “backyard” that was just a small patch of bare concrete became a little oasis with some tubs of petunias and a mini pond. Happily, we can enjoy flowers all year, but there’s no time like spring for a floral explosion, so we couldn’t help but focus on flowers this issue. Melissa King has some new releases for the ornamental garden, while Jo Immig profiles edible flowers. Melissa also looks at…

JO IMMIG Jo is an environmental scientist, photographer and writer. She has worked in the environment movement for decades and is co-ordinator of the National Toxics Network, an organisation dedicated to creating a toxicfree future. She has written many articles for magazines and is the author of two books: Toxic Playground and Safer Solutions. REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE — AN URGENT NEW PARADIGM With the threat of the world’s topsoil disappearing in 60 years and the urgent need to draw down greenhouse gases, many are now calling for a widespread conversion from depleting industrial agricultural practices to a regenerative agricultural model. The Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at California State University has put together a diverse group of farmers, food companies, scientists and non-profit advocacy groups to come up with a working definition of “regenerative agriculture” with…

MELISSA KING Melissa is a horticulturist, TV presenter and writer. She has been a regular on Gardening Australia, Melbourne Weekender, Garden Angels and The Circle. She currently appears on The Garden Gurus and has launched an online show, The Gardenettes. She has written for top magazines and newspapers and is author of the book, Garden Feast. ACHILLEA ‘CERISE QUEEN’ The plant: Achillea ‘Cerise Queen’ is one of those invaluable perennials that is both tough and beautiful with attractive clumps of fern-like foliage and vibrant cerise flowers from late spring through to the end of summer. As a bonus, the showy flowers are a magnet for bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. Growing: It’s a wonderfully hardy herbaceous perennial that grows well in virtually any sunny spot, even in the poorest of soils. It…

Daylilies — their name says it all. They are attractive ornamentals grown for their abundance of yellow or orange blooms from spring to autumn. Daylily flowers do last for just a day and, while they may be short-lived, they can last longer if treated as a food. Yes, these yellow flowers are edible but better known in Chinese or Japanese cuisine than in our own. Daylilies are native to parts of Asia where their use as a snack goes back centuries. Buds as well as flowers are eaten, used as a garnish, steamed or even battered and fried. The buds can also be pickled, while the flowers can be dried and added to a clear soup such as miso. The flowers are mostly eaten for their colour but they are also rich…

It smells like a carrot and tastes like a carrot but it’s green and leafy, not orange and crunchy. That’s a surprise! This strange taste sensation comes from the leaves of a pretty and rather clever herb that forms a mound of glossy, almost fern-like leaves that taste like fresh carrot. This herb is a type of cress — often called Lebanese cress — and, like watercress, enjoys growing in or near water but can be grown in drier situations in soil with plenty of regular watering. As these cress-like plants come from areas that are rich in limestone, they prefer a soil with a neutral to alkaline pH. It can also be grown in a pot, which is one way to keep on top of its water needs and contain its…

“...Since the thing perhaps is to eat flowers and not to be afraid.” — e.e. cummings, Complete Poems You’ve probably already been eating flowers and haven’t even realised it. Broccoli, cauliflower, globe artichokes and capers are all flower buds we commonly consume. Once you delve into the bewitching world of flowers, they reveal themselves as an enduring part of our lives and diet. Where would Middle Eastern cooking be without rose and orange water? Imagine a food world without the highly prized petals of saffron that bring such earthy flavour and colour to food? Or French cuisine without herbs de Provence? And that cool beer you enjoy at the end of a hot summer’s day wouldn’t exist without hops flowers. We also eat the seeds of flowers such as poppies and sunflowers.…