Specialty Gardening: How are you using food plants in your cottage garden?, 1 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
Now you guys have made me run to my reference books for information on the"swan neck garlic". OK, my source is "Heirloom Vegetable Gardening" by William Woys Weaver- Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon, "hardneck" or rocombole garlic....'The hardneck varieties form topsets on stems that rise up like snakes. Before they open, the flowers unroll like the long beaks of cranes; once open, they look like cobras...extremely hardy....may be treated as perennials...thrive better in rich soil north of 37 degree latitude...propagated from tiny topsets..planted like onion sets and allowed to grow 2 yrs.' -Mr Weaver is very poetic, but accurate, the unfurling and curling of the necks is wonderful to watch over time.
Another interesting plant is Tree or Egyptian Walking onion(Allium cepa var. proliferum), it also topsets bulbils then grows an "arm", (hollow tube stalk) on top of that and "grabs ",or loops, onto the plant next to it and "walks" the second set of bulbils to the ground. Quite a novelty plant, are you thinking Little Shop of Horrors ?
Critter,
bbrookrd is right about the garlic chives, glad you have them contained. But I do grow the bronze and green fennel. I'm on the fence on this one, it definitely is a wonderful host plant for caterpillars . It is a prolific reseeder so you have to keep on top of it, but now I'm hearing talk of it being environmently invasive . If this is true I need to pull it.
This is getting a wee bit long so I'll write a seperate post on Kale, greenjay and hey jude.