I've often thought that weeds in my garden go to great lengths to hide from me. This Woodsorrell is a prime example! Here in the Sweet Ciceley it is bright green and matches the height of the tall plant that surrounds it. That requires at least eighteen inches of growth.
In the very same bed when Woodsorrell is surrounded by Coral Bells it matches the height and color again. Here a six inch height is sufficient. It's really kind of neat when you think about it. With their heart shaped leaves and matching color they do look pretty. Soon however, bright yellow flowers will give away the location of this weed. It multiplies only by seed so if I can get them first before the seed matures, I will.
I almost missed this Spiderwort flower and the bee because it was in the shade between the Summer Sweet and the stone wall. Definitely not a weed, it should not be missed. I won't say how many fuzzy bee pictures I had to delete, but I got my picture. and my flower. I'm an old pro at garden hide and seek!
1 comment:
I love this post! We need to think differently, see things differently, and embrace those secret treasures. We may not want the world to know there is food in your yards. Sure, include a few of your most loved plants; potatoes, peas, carrots, radishes, but we can intersperse them with the unknown but nutritious ones of old. Those country gardens weren't just pretty, they were edible! I’d include unusual plants, not normally known or fully realized to be edible at all, both annual and especially perennials like the tradescantia you have, or millet, pigweed, Good King Henry, arugula, sorrels, patient dock, purslane, wild lettuce, lovage, Golden Alexander, seakale, roses, lilies, chrysanthemums, hollyhocks, chicory, and my favorite: sunflowers...and start eating them NOW!. Why? We are 60 & 70 and have been at it for decades and now learning to love ‘stealth’ gardening on 1/24 acre, hiding food in plain sight, but it has become a struggle with health and mobility. We use perennials like lemon balm, onion, and garlic chives to deter bugs, plus sea kale, cardoons, hollyhocks, and sunflowers that all have edible leaves, roots, buds, flowers and seeds, the non-gardener would not know that they are 90% edible! They may steal a few heads from the sunflowers and cardoons but leave all the rest of the plants for us to eat! Good protein and caloric numbers. Potatoes, winter squash, tomatoes, and beans are great calorie annual items to plant amid roses, wisteria, and Oregon holly berries but with sunflowers, you get 745 calories in 1 cup of seeds. Sunflowers do make great micro-greens! You can eat the baby sunflower leaves as salads, older ones in stir-fry, or dried into powder for long term storage, the stems can be eaten like celery, the roots like sun-chokes (cooked like potatoes) or dried, roasted and powdered for a coffee-tea, the heads prior to blooming boiled slightly and then stir-fried or eaten like Brussels sprouts (not same flavor but yummy) or even pickled... then, of course, there are the seeds to eat raw, roasted or powdered for flour.... super versatile... and nutritious... Use last year’s ‘annual’ stocks for bean poles, trellises, fence posts, or toss into your core bed for regenerating the soil. Use the Core method in your raised beds in very early spring to dispose of food scraps, egg shells, clean up the yard by tossing in leaves, branches, and stems. Bury it all and when the last frost of winter has come and gone, plant your bed. I would give this plant a second thought ... they need next to no attention with next to no watering... using heirloom, perennial, drought tolerant plants for SHTF before (and if) it ever hits the fan! Use urine 1-10 ratio for fertilizer. Plant everything super close for deterring weeds. Plant your edibles in containers, the ground, in your house, or even in the shade. You can use an outdoor dehydrator set up to preserve them and sun ovens to prepare the meals. We invite you to visit our site for recipes and more info on annual and perennial sunflowers: http://eat-sunflowers.weebly.com.
Post a Comment