Artichokes and florence fennel are well suited for crop rotation, since artichokes are ready for harvest as early as July, which is when florence fennel can be sown outdoors. Lettuce is ideal for underplanting and filling gaps in your vegetable patch. In contrast to the artichoke, it has shallow roots and is therefore not a competitor. Sage gets along well with fennel and provides the right aroma for many recipes of the Mediterranean cuisine.
The following 3 plant varieties are included in this intercropping seed set:
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Purple Artichoke 'Violetto di Chioggia' (Cynara cardunculus)
Artichoke variety with violet flower buds.
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Fennel/ Florence fennel/ finoccio 'Finocchi Romanesco' (Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum)
’Romanesco’ is a delicious Italian fennel plant variety originating from the Florence region.
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Cocarde lettuce 'Salad Bowl' (Lactuca sativa)
'Salad Bowl' is a beautiful, re-growing oak leaf lettuce variety with a long lasting harvesting period.
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Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Sage is a traditional medicinal-, and kitchen herb descending from the mediteranean and tastes lovely with meat and fish. It also is the key ingredient for the famous ‘saltimbocca’ recipe.
The seeds of each variety are packaged in a separate sachet.
Intercropping or companion planting is the implementation of a sensible crop balance in your vegetable patch, just as nature demonstrates it. Although the competition between plants is usually intense, as every plant strives to get the most light, water and nutrient conditions, there are always so-called companion plants. This term refers to plant species that can live well side by side because they do not interfere with each other but very often actually support and strengthen each other. Those companions are sure to create a good and balanced neighbourhood in your vegetable patch.
We have developed a series of companion planting seed sets. Each set contains 3 to 6 plant varieties, which are very well suited for cultivation in mixed intercropping. In most cases, these are vegetables and herbs. It is possible to alternate the companion plants in rows, within a row or also mixed in a variety as it happens with squarefood gardening.
The immediate neighbouring plants should complement each other and not harass each other. Ideally you will find neighbours such as carrot and salad (deep roots and shallow roots) or cabbage and peas (heavy and light feeders) or maize and pumpkin (sun worshippers and shadow lovers).
