Ravenswing

This is the week the Cow Parsley is at its best in this little garden. I grow the darkest Anthriscus sylvestris "Ravenswing" and I love the inky colour of the fern-like leaves paired with the pinprick scatters of white umbellifers. Supposedly happiest in full sun, I have found it grows well in the dappled deciduous shade of the backyard, and seeds itself gently around. I cut the flowers back hard at the end of blooming to put some kind of limitation on the reseeding, leaving just enough to ensure a vase or two of the goth stems in the house for next year.