Good King Henry

[Jeannine]

 Would you. would you not grow it.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

[valmarg]

Should have to say it is a tad on the invasive side.

It is a very useful herb.  Can be used in place of spinach, and has a much more pleasant taste.  The young shoots can be earthed up and substituted for asparagus spears.  (Never tried it, but it is supposed to work).

All in all, a good herb to have.

valmarg

[Vinlander]

Should have to say it is a tad on the invasive side.

It is a very useful herb.  Can be used in place of spinach, and has a much more pleasant taste.  The young shoots can be earthed up and substituted for asparagus spears.  (Never tried it, but it is supposed to work).

All in all, a good herb to have.

valmarg

Interesting - are you comparing it to real (summer) spinach or the substitutes?

Chickweed is the only one I've found that compares to real spinach but it is stringy and needs chopping finely.

As to an asparagus substitute - how many have I tried? - at least 10. The only one that is even halfway convincing is hop shoots (likewise the only half-decent chestnut substitute is Lathyrus tuberosus).

Cheers.

[Jeannine]

Is it really a herb though if used as a veggie as a sub for spinach, I tend to think of herbs as something one just uses a small amount of.

How invasive can it get, and how quickly?

XX Jeannine

[Morris]

I've grown it. Or should I say grow it as ten years down the line it is still in the garden ....

I didn't rate the flavour/texture at all, even when young. Too tough and stringy, imo.

My plant refuses to be got rid of, it is worse than comfrey. The merest trace of the taproot regrows. It also shrugs off glyphosate (though to be fair I only tried this once.) Luckily the chickens like it ;D

On the plus side, I have found it doesn't spread beyond a small clump (that may be because I try to eradicate it every time it regrows!!)

[Morris]

Alys Fowler (whom I also don't rate - she is too fluffy and impractical for me, but then perhaps I am a mean old bag!  ;) ) likes gkh:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/12/alys-fowler-good-king-henry-poppies

[valmarg]

Alys Fowler (whom I also don't rate - she is too fluffy and impractical for me, but then perhaps I am a mean old bag!  ;) ) likes gkh:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/12/alys-fowler-good-king-henry-poppies

No you're not Morris.  We find her irritating beyond belief.  The only good tip she has come up with for us is growing pea shoots from a packet of dried peas. ;D

Jeannine, we like the herb, but would appear to be in the minority.  It is invasive if you let it self seed.  Once it has flowered you need to dead head, otherwise it very readily spread.

valmarg

[Digeroo]

We have it as a weed it comes with Fat Hen.  Actually I have never tried eating either.  I am also not a great spinach lover. 

For me a herb is a strongly flavoured plant that adds flavour to a dish.  Spinach and also Good King Henry would be discribed as greens.   The distinction becomes a bit blurred when it come to celery which I sometimes use as a herb.

Actually both GKH and FH are easy to remove as long as you hoe them up when they are really small, its just they have a 120% germination rate and produce thousands of seeds.  If it gets a bit bigger you can still pull up FH but when you pull GKH the branch you pulled simply breaks off leaving several more and if you leave any of it up it comes again. 

So at the slightest sign of it I pounce on it and get rid as quick as possible.

I might try cooking some FH and try it out on my OH.

[saddad]

We sowed a line on our perennial beed and decided we didn't really like it enough for that much.. so dug it out. This was after the first season. All but two plants did not come back and we keep the "corner"... it does self set but is not as tricky to dig out as horseradish...  :-\

[Jeannine]

Ok, thank you all.. with my hand on my heart and still very unsure I am going to plant it. I am comfortable about the invasive part now but it has to taste OK or it's days will be numbered.

I want my perennial bed to be useful not just interesting.

XX Jeannine

[Ian Pearson]

A big plus is that it provides greens very early in the year — late January here in London. Later in spring there are better tasting leaves available, and mine tends to then get ignored. The whole seed heads can be chopped up and used in curry or stew, and are probably quite a good protein source with all that seed.
And it grows in fairly heavy shade. Good weed-suppressing ground cover too.