The Herald - The Herald Magazine
GARDENING
YOU don’t need to be John Torode to savour the prospect of a healthy harvest of fennel through the year, the delicate aniseed flavour complementing all manner of dishes, from salads to fish. There are three types of fennel, though they are the same species. The herb, Foeniculum vulgare subspecies vulgare, is best suited to Scottish growing conditions and pulls through most winters. The vegetable Florence fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var azoricum) is much more tender and treated as an annual.
Wild fennel (F vulgare subspecies piperitum) is too tender by half for Scotland and though seed is available in the UK, it’s not the easiest plant to grow, so its highly prized pollen is beyond our reach. In the words of the American writer Peggy Knickerbocker: “If angels sprinkled a spice from their wings, this would be it.”
Fennel has been valued for millennia, its seeds reputed to aid digestion and weight loss (100g of seed only contains 10-15 calories). More importantly, over the last 15 years several research papers have linked fennel with antibacterial, antioxidant and anti-cancer qualities. The herb and vegetable are both rich in vitamin C, have a high fibre content and contain a wide range of other nutrients. And they’re invaluable for any cook.
So, it’s well worth growing both the herb and Florence fennel. Being Mediterranean plants, they need plenty warmth and sunshine as well as very free-draining soil.
Herb fennel grows to around 1.5m and will smother any close neighbour, so one plant should suffice for the herb garden. Simply buy it in the spring and let it grow away. Water it in the early stages, but it soon develops a deep tap root and shouldn’t need watering once established.
Pick the feathery leaves whenever you want to spice up a dish with a touch of aniseed, and allow the flower stalks to develop their attractive yellow umbels. These are popular with hoverflies and other short-tongued insects, so you’ll be sure of a good seed set in the autumn.
The more tender Florence or bulbing fennel must be treated as an annual and should be sown in the open ground or under protection over the next month. This plant is very sensitive to day length, so is prone to bolting if sown earlier in the year than this. When selecting a variety, it’s safest to choose one described as being resistant to bolting.
Florence fennel doesn’t tolerate root disturbance, so it should be sown directly into the ground. Prepare a row, water, sow thinly and cover the seed with a thin layer of fine soil. After the first four true leaves appear, thin to 15-20cm apart. Alternatively, sow small pinches of seed along the row at the same distance.
If, for some reason, you can’t direct sow, you may succeed by using modules if you plant the plugs outdoors when the plants are still tiny. Dig a slightly larger hole than the module, water and then gently insert the plug. Sprinkle soil round the module, but do not firm in.
If you can sow directly but are afflicted with slugs, start by finely preparing and watering the soil. Cut out the base of a large yogurt pot and wrap sticky copper tape or smear a film of oily or greasy material such as Vaseline round the circumference, then screw the pot into the ground, drop a few seeds in and sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top. Thin the seedlings in the pot when four true leaves appear.
For clean, stringless bulbs, Florence fennel must be kept moist throughout the growing season. This may involve watering every day during a dry spell.