Lovage/maggi seeds (Hatfield AL10)

Very satisfying to grow because it's so vigorous, with pretty pretty yellow flowerheads, very good for wildlife and doesn't need much looking after, lovage is a fully hardy herbacious perennial growing from nothing to 8ft+ every year.

The leaves have a very strong celery flavour that survives cooking, and adding a few chopped leaves to soups, stews sauces etc gives a good extra background flavour. So much easier to grow that celery itself. I think you can also use the seed either ground up as a flavour power or to make a tea (though personally I can't imaging wanting to drink that flavour!)

Mine flowered very well this year, and the seeds are ripening, but it's also flopping over a bit now so I'll have to cut it down. I picked a few seed heads (pictured), but if there is interest I could pick more before I tidy it up. (Another good aspect is after I cut it down to the ground it will produce another fresh flush of leaves lasting the rest of the year, though it probably won't flower again.)

Wildlife benefits include the flat topped accessible compound flower heads which are visited by lots of insects including hoverflies and the hollow stems which give good hiding places which invertebrates like ladybirds use to overwinter.