I am not sure that I have even heard of this before today; but after watching this tutorial, I am going to head for eBay and look for seeds. According to the video, this plant can be used in a number of ways, and has a strong celery taste. (I am wondering if it would work in place of cilantro in salsa ? ) She said that early in the spring, the leaves are tender and can be used in salads or cooked. Later, the leaves can be dried to use in winter soups or as a seasoning for a roast. The seeds are similar to dill, and can also be used for cooking. Even the stem can be used. It is hollow, and she suggests using a fresh cut piece as a straw for tomato juice or V-8 drinks. This is a large sized plant, actually more of a scrum or bush, and can get around 10 feet tall, and comes up early in the spring; so it needs to be planted somewhere that there is plenty of room for it to grow. Has anyone ever grown this perennial herb before ?
WebMD has a section on it, too. Apparently, it has medicinal properties, particularly in urinary problems. I just ordered a couple of thousand seeds, since I see that it will tolerate cold climates. Although it will die off with the frost, it will grow back from the root. I may have room for some in the back part of my yard, but mostly I plan to plant it on my land up north.
I just ordered some seeds, too; but only 200, not 2,000 ! Even that is enough for me to share with my son, Michael if he wants to try growing some. I was reading about the health benefits, and there are some really important things listed for this plant. It is sunny today, so I have been outside playing in the garden, planting some lettuce, spinach and arugula (which I have never tried before). As I was doing that, I was thinking that I would really like to grow more perennial greens, then I don’t have to worry about the birds and squirrels gobbling up my seeds before they can sprout. When I came back inside, I did a search for perennial greens, and lovage was one of the first things that popped up, after dandelions, of course. Now that I have ordered the lovage, I am going back to the investigation of what other greens are perennial. This page also lists health benefits for lovage. https://www.organicfacts.net/lovage.html
I've got a hundred acres to plant it in. I am thinking that, mostly, it is going to be something that the wildlife are going to eat, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as the plant itself survives. If it grows like the descriptions say it will, there should be plenty for everyone.
@Yvonne Smith I'm totally envious of your being able to spend time, work and enjoy your time out there being so early. Planting, waiting for the first lovelys to peak out the ground....So exciting. Depending on our weather what comes up early or sometimes quite late. If the weather stay nice, some spring beauties wii pop through, tulips and daffodils would be the first, unless you fence them off, our deer residents dine on them, is their favorites, along with some contents of gardens. Most grass, leaves, and the usual cleanup outside starts happening early April if it's nice enough......If flights were happening under normal circumstances, i would be there tomorrow, heping with your garden. I live for gardening, yardwork.....SEE YOU TOMORROW.....
My lovage seeds arrived yesterday, so I have the first trial batch on one of the sprouted trays. One source said that it can take from 2 weeks to a month before they sprout, which seems like a long time. I am going to read some more and see if there are any people who say how long it takes to sprout. After I had planted some, I watched a YouTube video that said we were supposed to put them in the refrigerator and chill them before planting, so I guess that is what I will do before I start any more of them. Now that the neighboring properties have been cutting down trees, we should have more sunlight, at least in the back yard; so I want to try and plant some out front and out back both to see where they will grow the best.
Mine came yesterday too. I'll start the ones that I am going to plant here indoors but it's too early for the ones that are going up north because everything is probably still covered with snow right now.