"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"ajr" writes:
|
| Can anyone tell me where I can buy seeds for the following herbs -
asked at
| the garden centre and received a blank look!
|
| Good King Henry
|
| Hamburg Parsley - from what I can gather this 'also' a root vegatable
with
| the leaves used as a herb.

Primarily a root vegetable, actually.

| Sorrel
|
| Also, does anyone have any experience of growing these plants? They
were
| all mentioned in passing in a book that I was reading at the weekend -
| however the author doesn't go into any great detail, other than to
mention
| that they were a staple of most herb gardens until supermarkets became
| common - is this true?

Yes and no. Hamburg Parsley wasn't, and the others were not
universal in the UK - sorrel was in France. I grow the first and
last; both are herbaceous perennials.

Good King Henry makes a mediocre spinach (fat hen is MUCH better),
but can be blanched in spring and the pink shoots are called
Lincolnshire asparagus. Watch out - they get stringy, fast. And
DON'T let it seed, or it will be a real pest. The seeds are
probably edible, but I have not eaten them.

Sorrel is an extremely useful herb, in salad, soup, stuffing fish,
as a sauce with fat meat and so on. It doesn't self-seed much
with me, but does with some people. It prefers a damp location.

Look at the edible herbs FAQ on rec.gardens for more ideas; you
may recognise the odd contributor :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren / Nick Gray

Many thanks for the tips and links.

I'll sit down this evening and order a few things from Chiltern.

One last thing - how tall does sorrel grow to and roughly how much ground
will it cover? The reason that I ask is that I've a small area of the
garden that at the moment nothing is growing on, because it is too wet for
most of the year and only gets 'full' sun from May to September. I have
been told that mint will grow well there, but as I already have some growing
in another part of the garden I would rather not plant it here as well.

Cheers,


Andrew