The Garden Worm blog Digging up the best dirt on gardening!

The last of our ordered seeds came yesterday so progress is being made. Included were the ‘Imperial Star’ artichoke seeds. Last year was our first year with these annual artichokes and were we impressed! Artichokes are normally thought of as a perennial vegetable that don’t tolerate temperatures below 20 degrees, grow best in foggy areas with cool days and nights, and demand a long growing season. Certainly none of those apply to our area and we had no idea what to expect from this variety. Ten to 15 large edible buds appeared on every plant – we were in our glory! Nom! nom! nom! So start them from seed, transplant out with the tomatoes and peppers and give them lots of room, start harvesting about 90 days later.