Plant Florence fennel

I love Florence fennel as a side dish in winter, quartered lengthways and braised in some olive oil, white wine, garlic and oregano. The plant also looks beautiful growing in the garden, with its thickened bulb-like stems topped with fine feathery foliage.

Early autumn is a good time to sow Florence fennel in many areas. In the tropics, wait until next month, and if you’re in a cold area, it’s best to sow in spring.

Choose a sunny spot in the patch, add some compost or well-rotted manure, and a good handful of blood and bone per square metre, then rake the soil level. You can direct-sow the seed. Simply drag a stick through the soil to make a drill about 1cm deep, dribble in the seed, backfill, water well, and keep it moist. Thin the seedlings to spacings of 10–15cm, then thin again later for a harvest of baby fennel. This will create final spacings of 20–30cm for the plants to grow to full size.

If you are short on space in the patch, you can start your seed in punnets or small pots to grow on and plant out later. Florence fennel grows well in large containers, too, with 2–3 plants per 30cm pot.

As they grow, and the bulbous bases start to take shape, gradually hill soil at the base to support the plant and blanch (whiten) the bulb. The plants are fairly drought tolerant, but to grow large bulbs, keep them evenly moist, and treat them to an application of liquid fertiliser once a fortnight. The bulbs take 15–20 weeks to mature. Cut them off at the base when they are 10–15cm wide.

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Florence fennel