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| Wild apiaceae on the banks of North Buffalo Creek |
For me, an interest in gardening is turning into an interest in botany. I've become fascinated by the way that different plants are related to each other and what that means in terms of their growing together. This interest has led me to a desire to write a series of posts about the major families that I plant in my garden.
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| Dill flower |
An important part of organic gardening is companion planting or poly-culture. Certain plants have been shown to help each other when grown in close proximity. Other plants can be grown successfully together because they do not compete for resources (for instance, if their roots extract nutrients at different levels). Still other plants have a more generalized beneficial effect, either by repelling different types of pests or by attracting beneficial insects.
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| Carrot flower |
It's for this last reason that every garden should have at least one member of the apiaceae (or umbelliferae) family. The shape of their flowers is perfect for attracting ladybugs, parasitic wasps and predatory flies into your garden. All of these insects will then feed on various insect pests in between snacking on your flowers. Many members of this family are very pungent herbs and, when used in a poly-culture setting, can confuse pests that are looking for your other plants. The reason that I've picked this family to start with is that several are flowering in my garden right now. I've also noticed what I would bet is a wild relative growing on the banks of a creek near my house.
My wife says that this is Queen Anne's Lace. A quick internet search confirmed that as a possibility. Some other options would be wild carrot, cow parsley, fool's parsley and poison hemlock. You can tell by the foliage that it is very similar to the carrot.
You can also see that it does its job of insect attraction.
Probably the member of this family that is most commonly cultivated in home vegetable gardens is the carrot. Carrots are an excellent source of beta-carotene, fiber and antioxidants. The tops are supposedly edible (and nutritious) but they can be quite bitter and might even be toxic in large enough quantities. In heavier soils, with a higher clay content, the best carrots to use are the shorter, wider varieties instead of the long thin types. Right now I have several of the "scarlet keeper" variety that I've left all winter in an attempt to save some seed. Like some other members of this family, carrots are biennial and will only go to flower in the second year. Mine are now flowering to almost four feet tall and are very pretty. I'm not sure how obvious the seeds will be when they develop and if they will be easy to collect or not. I do think that they will probably reseed to a certain extent. Carrots can be grown surprisingly close together, but do need to be thinned to a few inches between them in order to develop properly.
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| Carrot with rosemary and salvia |
Another member of this family that is grown as a vegetable is the parsnip. I have not tried to grow parsnips yet, but hope to try them in the future. According to Grow Biointensive, parsnips produce the most calories per square foot of garden space, so they are a must for anyone making a serious attempt to grow all of their own food. They achieve this by being both very dense in calories compared to other vegetables and by the fact that they can be grown very close together, like their cousins the carrots. Their tops, however, are toxic and should only be handled with gloves. The other vegetable member of the apiaceae family is the Hamburg root parsley, a type of parsley that is grown in Europe and used in stews. I probably will not be trying this one, since I would be worried that it would cross-pollinate with my parsley.
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| Parsley flower |
Most of the rest of the apiaceae that are cultivated are used as herbs or spices. Parsley may be the most common of these and is the most abundant in my garden right now. Like carrots, parsley is biennial and it reseeds readily in the second year. Our winters have not been heavy recently, but the parsley has survived well. Most of the top will die off, but it comes back strong and early in the spring. Even when I have thought it to be dead, when I pulled it up, the roots were extensive and healthy so I left some in the ground and they've done very well. This year, parsley may win the re-seeder of the year award (although the lambsquarters are coming on strong) and I have over 40 plants that have come up as volunteers this spring. Parsley is extremely nutritious. It is a good source of protein and an excellent source of fiber and a lot of different vitamins and minerals. Just one cup gives you all the vitamins A, C and K that you need and about a quarter of your iron and folate. It is the main ingredient in tabouleh, which is my favorite salad, an essential part of falafel, kofta and other meat balls and a big part of my meat loaf!
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| Parsley with garlic and mint |
The other herb members of the family apiaceae that I have experience growing are dill and coriander. Dill leaves are excellent with fish and vegetables and, after it flowers, the seeds can be used as a spice for cooking and for pickling. The leaves of the coriander plant are called cilantro and are used extensively in Mexican and Asian cooking. Chopped up with onions and tomatoes it is good eaten with either nacho chips or chapati. I've never gotten a lot of chance to harvest the greens as it bolts to seed very quickly. The seeds, called coriander, are an excellent spice that is used heavily in Indian food. Both dill and coriander reseed very well, but have not done as well for me as parsley. Compared to the 40 parsley volunteers, I think I got 6 or 7 dills and only one coriander.
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| Herb seedlings |
Many other members of the apiaceae family are used as herbs and spices, including fennel, cumin, chervil, angelica, asafoetida, cicely, anise and lovage. Celery is also a member of this family. My wife has been encouraging me to grow fennel, but I have read that it can impair the growth of other plants in the garden. Maybe I can find some out of the way place to try it. I'm trying cumin this year, with no luck so far. There are some sprouts which I believe to be dill or coriander that may yet turn out to be cumin. I use it probably even more than coriander, since I put it in chilli and other bean dishes as well as in curries. It's very good in hummus.
So, if you don't have any of the apiaceae family in your garden, you should try some this year! Pick a nutritious veggie, a delicious herb or just plant one for the insect attracting benefits.
