Do like to grow artichokes? Consider letting your artichokes go to flower in your food forest garden to help bees and other pollinators. We allow the majority of our artichokes to flower. An artichoke produces huge beautiful purple flowers. Consequently, if you let them bloom you get a show-stopper flower. When in bloom an artichoke flower will be swarmed by honeybees, bumblebees, native bees, and other pollinator species.
Artichokes are an excellent addition to a food forest. Many people designing a food forest are interested in creating plant guilds around their fruit trees. The artichoke is a good addition to a guild, they serve several purposes. An artichoke in a fruit tree guild produces an edible vegetable, they make huge leaves that are excellent for chop and drop or shading the ground to keep it warm. However, the best reason to add artichokes to your food forest guilds is their ability to attract and support large numbers of bees and pollinators when their flowers are allowed to bloom.
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