PHILADELPHIA — After plunging a spade into a patch of soil at Awbury Arboretum, Lynn Landes jumps on it several times, landing her full weight on it each time to drive it deep into the soil.

Burdock’s burs have tiny hooks that cling to passing animals, dispersing the seeds far and wide. Vicky McMillan Brush up against a burdock plant that has finished flowering, and you’ll probably ...

One person’s weeds are another person’s dinner, and burdock (Arctium) is a perfect example of this. Although it is routinely weeded out as an invasive species, in Japan it is cultivated as the ...

Bull thistle stalks have been compared to celery. Sweet and mild, they can be eaten raw but are better cooked. Add to soups, casseroles and pot roasts. Harvest the stalks in the early part of the ...

An avid hiker once told me that if you want relief from summer heat, grab a burdock leaf and wrap it around the back of your neck. Common burdock (Actium minus) is a large-leafed plant that resembles ...

It’s week two of my journey as a CSA shareholder, which I’ll be chronicling in this Urbivore’s Dilemma series. (Read the first installment.) It’s been quite a learning curve so far. Not just from the ...

PHILADELPHIA — After plunging a spade into a patch of soil at Awbury Arboretum, Lynn Landes jumps on it several times, landing her full weight on it each time to drive it deep into the soil.