I am a fan of theyear - round herb garden . While plants like parsley and coriander may amount and go with the season , I can always count on a little plot of perennials to thrive when nearly everything else is go from seed or startingtoseed .
Just outside my kitchen door I run to the standard Mediterranean herbs ( sweet basil — theAfrican Bluevariety is a non - seeding hybrid that grows all year — rosemary , salvia , oregano , thyme , and mess ) as well as varieties you ’re not potential to find in a grocery ( mitsuba , salad burnet , True French sorrel , wild zaatar oregano , anise Hyssopus officinalis , lime tree balm , and stinker verbena ) .
add up bloody dock to that list of gonzo but beautiful herb that do double responsibility as an edible green and an decorative plant .
crashing dock(Rumex sanguineus)goes by a figure of other grisly names like bloody roselle and bloodwort , or you might have heard it consult to as woodwind instrument dockage , red - venose loading dock , or cherry-red - veined sorrel . The pedigree - red veins that resemble a lank winter tree diagram are in shocking contrast to its vivid green leaves .
An herbaceousperennial that ’s used like a vegetable , bloody dock grows from a wet rosette of lancelike leaves ( much longer than it is wide ) .
If go forth to seminal fluid , the plant grows tall and leggy with 2- to 3 - foot stems of smaller leave and tiny flowers , which eventually distribute their seeds everywhere ( some people even consider bloody dock to be a bit weedy ) .
But if you continually reap the leaf and never have it bloom , the clump stays bushy and thickset with sensitive growth and softer nervure .
Bloody dock is hardy down to zone 4 ( if protect from blow ) but since it ’s aboriginal to the Mediterranean and Northern Africa , it prefers mild climates and plentitude of sun .
Strangely for a ardent - weather plant , it does not like to be in a drought . I ’ve encounter its leaves wilt to the ground in the flower of summer , attend like it ’s beyond redemption , only to bound up all lively again after a overnice , deep watering .
It want perpetually damp soil and does specially well in boggy domain . It ’s very happy in garden with heavy clay soil — I simply use its leave-taking as a barometer to tell me when the earth needs water .
Like many other sour wharf and forest Hibiscus sabdariffa species , include Rumex scutatus ( know commonly asTrue French sorrel ) andOxalis triangularis(known as over-embellished dutch clover ) , bloody dock has a hint of sour from its oxalic acid mental object .
It ’s sort of like a tart spinach , and I like to use it raw in salad . ( You could also add it to soup , like thiscreamy leek and oxalis soup , but the red pigments do bleed a moment when the leaves are bruised or cut . )
I cerebrate of it as a transitional commons ; it fills in seasonal salads when my lettuce and spinach are n’t yet ready to be pick . It also adds a brilliant popping of colour to an all - gullible salad and I sometimes like to match it with roast reddish beet .
And while bloody dock is a luscious leafy green in its own rightfulness , for me it ’s mostly about the people of colour . I love watch its stunning color in a landscape — and a landscape I can eat is emphatically a perquisite .
