Grow, harvest & cook | fennel

How to grow and enjoy the most versatile, low-fuss plant in my veggie patch

Fennel is quite possibly the best and most versatile plant I grow in my garden.

This single plant produces bulbs that can be fried in butter until they caramelise, frothy leaves that can be thrown into salads to impart a subtle, aniseed-y flavour, bright yellow flowers that taste sweet and like liquorice (and attract plenty of bees and wasps), and beautiful, structural seed heads that taste delicious in a heap of dishes, feed the local birds and can be saved to re-sow next year (although you don’t even really have to save seeds - fennel self-seeds like nobody’s business).

Basically, it’s fantastic. And today I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about growing, harvesting, and cooking it.

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FENNEL

(Foeniculum vulgare)

Cheat sheet

When to sow: spring and autumn

Position: full sun

Sow: direct

Depth: 0.5-1cm

Spacing: 50cm

Plants per person: 3-6

Time to harvest: 11-13 weeks

Grow in pots: 50cm deep (or bigger - fennel has a long tap root)

Companion plants: tomato, basil, mustard greens (fennel can crowd out other plants, so it’s not a great companion to many veggies - I like to dot it randomly around the garden instead)

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How to grow

Fennel can be sown direct (nothing seems to eat it!) 0.5-1cm deep in a sunny position, with seeds spaced 50cm apart. A cousin of dill, carrot and parsley (all members of the Apiaceae family), fennel has a long tap root and is best suited to a garden bed or a very deep pot. Because it’s related to dill, carrots and parsley, fennel can sometimes cross pollinate with these other plants (not ideal) so try not to plant it too close to other plants in the Apiaceae family (that said, fennel pops up all over the place in my garden, and I’ve never noticed any ill effects).