I have read about companion plants that do and don't do well in the vegetable family. I am planting a kitchen garden down one side of the house, primarily perennial herbals with a few vegetables mixed in. I already have a trailing and an upright rosemary growing there as well as lettuce and radishes. I have an assortment of herbs that I am planting here. Just a few are... pineapple sage, lemon balm, oregano, chives, a red garlic, licorice, sweet marjoram, dill.
Now I know some will cross when blooming and contaminate the seed crop but are there some that will inhibit the growth of other herbals? Any suggestions are welcomed.
Herbal companion plants?
Pod, fennel can really inhibit growth of other plants. And don't plant dill near carrots.
I was wondering about fennel, since I had seen the same advice recently. Last year I planted it in my garden with other vegetables and didn't notice any real issues with it, but I may have gotten lucky with its neighbors; I just had some zinnias in that row. I didn't get much in the way of bulbs on my fennel, though; I was growing it for the bulb rather than for the seed. Where would you locate it?
That is the kind of info I was looking for ~ thanks. My fennel is in a flower bed away from this. In this climate, it is a perennial. Greenhouse_Gal, does yours normally bulb in a season?
Podster, this was my first time growing it. Someone gave my son several bulbs last winter and I found a great Tuscan recipe with beans and sausage that used them, so I wanted to try growing our own. It is supposed to bulb out the first season, but all it produced were scrawny little swellings. I'm going to try a different variety this year, but now I'm not sure where I should plant it!
Yum! That sounds good, would you care to share that recipe? All my favorite foods!
Sure, Podster. I love dishes with beans, too. I have a bunch that involve beans and lamb as well. This one is not only very tasty but it's easy and relatively fast:
Tuscan White Bean and Sausage Stew
This is traditionally Italian, but uses some canned items to speed things up. The fresh fennel really makes the flavor in this fantastic! It saves well in the refrigerator or freezer too. I used mild sausage instead of hot. You might want to serve it with crusty bread to soak up the delicious juices.
32 min | 10 min prep
SERVES 6
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage
2 medium carrots
1 medium fresh fennel bulb
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups chicken broth
4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans
1 (18 g) package fresh basil
Remove sausage from casings and cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/2 inch nuggets.
Place sausage in a large pot and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
As sausage cooks, peel carrots. Chop carrots and fennel; add to pot and cook an additional 3-5 minutes or until sausage is cooked through and vegetables begin to brown.
Stir in tomatoes, broth and garlic into sausage mixture. Drain and rinse beans; add to pot.
Simmer stew, uncovered, 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are tender. As stew simmers, chop basil. Remove pot from heat and stir in basil.
That sounds absolutely wonderful and I am not even hungry at the moment. I will save it and give it a try. Thanks much ~ now, do you have a favored "crusty bread" recipe??? LOL I love breads also and have been making a different type weekly with my $4 bread machine. Mixing only, I prefer to bake in the oven. I do have a favored Cuban bread that bakes well on a stone and is crusty.
Podster, we use the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day method. My DH makes wonderful crusty baguettes that way; I talked him into adding some white whole wheat to the mix, too. We gave away our bread machine because we don't need it (knead it....) anymore. Sometimes we bake our bread in our Big Green Egg, but we haven't with the awful weather this winter. It seems to work just as well in the oven. We also use a baguette form to help them keep their shape.
Alright, my mouth is watering, already!
NO joke! The only problem I would have with that Artisan bread... I would eat far, far more of it than I need to. Sounds wonderful.
Actually, what I'm using now for a loaf recipe is from King Arthur Flour website; it's their no-knead whole wheat bread. It's even easier than the ABin5 because you mix the dough (I use my Magimix because my hand mixer doesn't have a powerful enough motor) and then just scoop it into the loaf pan, let it rise, and then bake it. It makes a really good bread for toast and sandwiches. I also use regular whole wheat flour rather than the white whole wheat, maple syrup or honey for the sweetening, and I add some vital wheat gluten to help it rise a bit more. I also add about a quarter of a cup of wheat germ.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe
Try it!
Mmm - looks great! All the reviewers were thrilled with it.
I hadn't even seen those reviews! I thought the suggestion for using scalded nonfat milk instead of dry milk was interesting; I had already tried using 2% milk instead since I was out of dry milk and I also don't have any dry milk that's organic. It didn't seem to affect the action of the yeast, but I'll scald it next time just to be sure. I also thought that the idea of proofing the bread and leaving the dough, in the mixing bowl, in the refrigerator overnight, then shaping it and letting it rise again in the loaf pan to develop more flavor was intriguing, but it kind of defeats the purpose of that recipe which is speed and ease! Let me know if you try it and like it!
It's bread, I'll like it.
*sigh*
I shouldn't say that, I do enjoy some more than others. But these easy breads aren't sitting easy, lol!
Yes, they are - in our hips and thighs!
Padding ~ for sitting... I could live by bread alone! And those recipes do sound good.
Well, try them!
Gotta get through my popcorn phase first!
Thanks for sharing the Tuscan bean and sausage recipe with fennel, greenhouse_gal.
We bought a whole lamb last year from a local grower, so would appreciate any lamb recipes with interesting herb combinations. We had the processor grind most of it except the legs were left whole. We will probably do the same this year.
Greenhouse_gal, thanks, love the recipe and would like to share it with my CSA members, if you don't mind.
Msrobin, you're welcome to share it; I forget where I got it originally but I can't take credit for it.
Sunfarm, I have a ton of lamb recipes. We used to raise them and I love the flavor. We bought a whole lamb from a local grower this fall, too, so I have lots of meat to cook. If you want to Dmail me and let me know what kind of cuisine your family likes I can send you a bunch more. We keep some of the lamb in chops and steaks because I like to use those Near East curry and other boxed side dishes for a quick meal with some lamb chunks. For the curry I add sliced carrots and zucchini and peas and some extra curry powder for a delicious one-dish meal which is very similar to something we used to get at a local Egyptian restaurant before it closed. I also have recipes for a variety of lamb stews that call for chunks. But for ground meat I like to make moussaka and merguez sausage. The merguez recipe is French, a cuisine we love.