Interesting edibles
Let’s not overlook pretty edible plants when planting up pots. Some, such as chives, Allium schoenoprasum, and fennel, Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’, are ready to harvest from late spring and early summer and look pretty when nestled into a tapestry of lacy, textural foliage, providing a harmonious colour palette and a contrast of flower shapes. This planting is designed to be just as at home as an ornamental display as it would be sitting near a kitchen door for snipping.
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How to achieve the look
Watch Jo Thompson talk through the container
Container and composition
It’s wonderful when the garden starts to become truly productive, and how satisfying it is to be able to harness a little of this bounty in an old pot near the house, where you can appreciate the textural harmonies and the delicate colours of late spring.
Using an old zinc trough with handles, which make it easy to move around, I’ve chosen two edible plants that are as good in appearance as they are in taste. The fennel’s filigree foliage provides the perfect backdrop to the chives’ purple drumheads; these are accompanied by the equally attractive foliage of the white ragged robin and the orlaya. These white flowers partner well with pretty aquilegia flowers, their heads bending down towards the quivering quaking grass, which brings the tiniest sensation of movement to this planting. As they grow in and around each other in this simplest and most unassuming of arrangements, there’s a feeling of a self-seeded patch of wildflowers and grasses that have found themselves casually growing together in a garden corner.
When planting, ensure you have enough ‘naked stems’ of the briza and aquilegia to contrast with the fluff of the fennel.
Cultivation and care
Keep an eye on this one to make sure that it doesn’t dry out completely, but generally this is the easiest of pots to care for. Keep snipping the chive flowers to produce new leaves. You may even get some of these plants self-seeding nearby.
Plants
1 Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Nivea’ Upright stems bearing dainty bell-like flowers with tiny spurs behind. May – June. 80cm x 50cm. RHS H7.
2 Silene flos-cuculi ‘White Robin’ Ragged robin with star-shaped white flowers. June – August. 70cm x 80cm. RHS H7, USDA 5a-8b.
3 Allium schoenoprasum The leaves and the flowers of chives are edible. May/June – August.
30cm x 5cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b.
4 Briza media ‘Limouzi’ Semi-evergreen grass, known as quaking grass as its light brown flowers make the stems appear to tremble. May – September. 60cm x 50cm. RHS H7.
5 Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’ Fennel’s finely divided aromatic foliage is edible along with the flowers and seeds. May – October. 1.8m x 1m. RHS H5, USDA 4a-9b.
6 Orlaya grandiflora A branching hardy annual with lacy foliage and bright white umbels.
June – October. 60cm x 30cm. AGM. RHS H7.
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