Beauty, bees, and butterflies. Perma Fennel does it all. This perennial fennel is a delight to grow in the garden. It's soft, beautiful, and gives you delicious medicine while feeding the bees and butterflies. (Foeniculum vulgare var Carosella)
Why We Love It
Here are some of the reasons why we love Perma Fennel...
1) SUPPORTS DIGESTION - This is an awesome go-to herb to support your digestion. It's warming and pungent, helping to soothe stomach aches and cramps. It's very effective, yet gentle enough to soothe colic in babies.
2) DELICIOUS - This fennel is grown for its young seed stalks and seeds. They have a light, sweet licorice flavor.
3) BUTTERFLY HABITAT - This beautiful, feathery plant is one of the most important host plants for the Swallowtail butterfly. Invite bees and butterflies into your garden with this gorgeous plant.
How to Grow It
Here's how to grow Perma Fennel:
| SUN | FULL SUN |
| MOISTURE | DROUGHT TOLERANT ONCE ESTABLISHED, NEEDS DRAINAGE |
| GROWING ZONES | USDA 4-9 (Not sure? Find your growing zone here) |
| SIZE | 4-6 FEET TALL & 3 FEET WIDE |
| GROWING FROM SEED |
Plant Perma Fennel directly in the garden in Spring or indoors 4 weeks before your last frost date. Plant seeds 1/4" deep, tamp, and keep moist until germination. Fennel plants don't like their roots disturbed, so transfer into a 4" pot where there's space for them to be ready to transplant out into the garden without being disturbed too much.
PRO TIP: If you don't want Fennel to spread around your garden, you can cut off the flowers so they don't set seed. Or even better, let them set their delicious seed, but harvest before they dry and turn brown. |
How to Harvest & Use It
Fennel is delicious in so many ways. We like to eat the young leaves and sprouts in salads and stir fries. The seeds are also a wonderful, licoricey addition to many recipes. To make medicine from the seeds, it's best to harvest them before they are dried, when they are green and plump.
Here's a nice video from Joe Hollis of Mountain Gardens on the many uses of Fennel.