This month's wreath is made out of fresh fennel. I have several large plants growing right at our fence-line; they tend to grow out over the sidewalk, so I need to prune them every so often. Today I cut them very far back (they'll have no trouble growing again) and used some of that to make this wreath.
Fennel is a versatile plant to have in the garden. We love to cook with it (for some of our recipes, click here). But even if it's just grown for beauty, it's worth it. The flowers are those great umbel shapes that pollinators love; and Anise Swallowtails use this for their larval food source. I also learned recently that aphids adore fennel, which makes it a perfect trap crop. The idea is that the aphids will go to the fennel rather than your more delicate crops. And fennel can stand quite a bit of predation and still have plenty left over for your dinner plate!
June feels like the true beginning of summer: School lets out, cherry tomatoes come in, sunflowers rule the garden, and berries make their way into every breakfast. Time to start reaping the bounty of the garden, hooray!
