Your garden could be full of food discoveries you don’t even know you have! Indeed, many plants renowned for their aesthetic appearance have an unknown culinary potential. Combine beauty and utility, while developing your autonomy and dietary diversity.
Discover the taste treasures that are in your flowerbeds. Your maintenance chores just might turn into harvesting opportunities!
Hosta
Yes, this great shade classic, renowned for its varieties of colorful and flamboyant foliage, is edible! You can harvest the young shoots of hostas, which are sold as vegetables in Japan. They are eaten after cooking. Its bright, sweet-smelling flowers are also edible.
• Height at maturity: from 25 to 90 cm | Width: from 40 cm to 1.2 m
• Hardiness zone: 2
• herbaceous, perennial
Tawny daylily
Spring sprouts of daylilies, another hardy ornamental, can be prepared in the same way as leeks. The heart is then melting. The tuber is tasty and nutritious. Its flower buds have a peppery taste and its open flowers can be stuffed, like zucchini flowers in Italy. Some people may feel nauseous if they consume large quantities. Just experiment with a small amount the first time, to avoid unpleasant surprises.
• Height at maturity: 1.2 m | Width: 0.9m
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• Herbaceous, perennial, expansive
Bugle creeper
Productive in both sun and shade, the creeping bugle (Ajuga reptans), oddly enough, has a subtle taste of aged cheddar. You can harvest its blue flowers and leaves with sometimes purple, sometimes bronze hues, depending on the variety.
• Height at maturity: 15 cm | Width: 30cm
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• Ground cover, perennial, expansive
Mexican tarragon
The leaves and flowers of Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida), with a discreet taste of anise, can be eaten. They are particularly appreciated paired with fish or as an infusion. Often grown alongside tomatoes, Mexican tarragon helps keep pests and nematodes at bay.
• Height at maturity: 60 cm | Width: 30cm
• Annual
Forest coriander
Like cultivated coriander, woodland coriander (Houttuynia cordata) is a plant with a strong taste and polarizing. The flavors of the so-called Chinese pepper tree have aromas of coriander, ginger, citrus peel and even fish, pairing well with Asian cuisine. The tricolor variant, named Caméléon, wonderfully expresses its changing colors in partial shade.
• Height at maturity: 30 cm | Width: 50cm
• Hardiness Zone: 4
• Ground cover, perennial, expansive
sweet woodruff
The white flowers and pale foliage of sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) brighten shadowed areas. The flowers show up early in the season, and then you can harvest them and dry them to reveal their precious vanilla aroma.
• Height at maturity: 25 cm | Width: 30cm
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• Ground cover, perennial, expansive
Meadowsweet
With a bewitching scent of vanilla and almond, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) flavors many European desserts. Also known for its medicinal properties, it is used in sweet herbal tea. Its pretty white or pink flowers grow in a humid environment.
• Height at maturity: 1.2 m | Width: 0.8m
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• herbaceous, perennial
Aralia
Key ingredients of the famous root beer, the roots of the macaw (Aralia racemosa) are fleshy. Its juicy clusters offer an array of boreal flavors, from fruity bogs to resinous spruce. This native plant likes both shade and sun.
• Height at maturity: 18 m | Width: from 0.8 to 1.2 m
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• herbaceous, perennial
Potato string
This attractive, aggressively climbing purple-flowered plant, also called American pea (apios americana), adapts well to soggy soils. Its tubers, three times more protein than the potato, grow close to the surface of the soil for a quick harvest. They are eaten cooked. When fried, their marvelous texture and delicate nutty taste are always charming! I advise you to try the potato rosary to create an exceptional poutine.
• Height at maturity: 3 m | Width: 80cm
• Hardiness Zone: 3
• Climbing, perennial, potentially invasive
sea mertensia
Nicknamed vegetable oyster, the maritime mertensia (Mertensia maritima) is strongly reminiscent of the taste of the famous mollusk. Its pure blue flowers and its silver foliage covered with a bloom that protects it from drought are surprisingly curious.
• Height at maturity: 20 cm | Width: 50cm
• Hardiness Zone: 1
• Ground cover, perennial
dragon head
The Dragon’s Head (Dracocephalum moldavica) presents delicious flowers bursting with nectar and leaves with the aroma of candied lemon. In addition to being edible, this plant, also known as “Turkish lemon balm”, is an ally against harmful insects. Delicious and practical!
• Height at maturity: from 30 to 50 cm | Width: 30cm
• Annual
asparagus peas
With rare red flowers in the legume family, the asparagus pea (Tetragonolobus purpureus), adapted to infertile soils, produces intriguing winged pods. All you have to do is steam them then shell them before eating the peas reminiscent of the artichoke. Delicious !
• Height at maturity: from 10 to 40 cm | Width: from 10 to 40 cm
• Annual
This content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.