What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

I know. But, everywhere!

Purslane. What was beginning to bloom in the paths should now be history. Fat lotta good it's gonna do for seed production. How many seeds will one missed plant make, 100? 1000? How years will the seeds be viable if they are tilled into the ground, 1 year? 2? 20?

The potatoes were hilled - what was that ... about 15 days ago - yesterday there was nice, fresh purslane 6 & 8 inches tall in the spuds? I mean, after all that loose soil was moved around the plants, there was not weed ONE to be seen!

111° ... Good attention to watering and soil moisture ... interesting how you could see how sunlight restricted weed growth but give that purslane shade and varoom ... off it went!

Steve
more sore today from 2 hours of sitting on a stool, reaching, stretching, to pull weeds than 2 hours of running the tiller.

purselane plant you say, how many seeds can one plant make you say, how long will those seeds be viable you say... my experience one plant can make millions of seeds and the seeds are viable long past when you or me will be dead... i wish Mom would help me eat some of it.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I know. But, everywhere!

Purslane. What was beginning to bloom in the paths should now be history. Fat lotta good it's gonna do for seed production. How many seeds will one missed plant make, 100? 1000? How years will the seeds be viable if they are tilled into the ground, 1 year? 2? 20?

The potatoes were hilled - what was that ... about 15 days ago - yesterday there was nice, fresh purslane 6 & 8 inches tall in the spuds? I mean, after all that loose soil was moved around the plants, there was not weed ONE to be seen!

111° ... Good attention to watering and soil moisture ... interesting how you could see how sunlight restricted weed growth but give that purslane shade and varoom ... off it went!

Steve
more sore today from 2 hours of sitting on a stool, reaching, stretching, to pull weeds than 2 hours of running the tiller.

I really have not had that much purslane in years, but this year that's what I am finding. I am not sure it came with the cow manure. I really noticed it today after seeing something on Facebook about purslane and omega 3, and how healthy and had recipe. I keep wondering, should I eat that? The other weed is creeping buttercup. Each year worse and worse.

 

[digitS']

I remember talking with @Gardening with Rabbits about what I think of as annual baby's breath weed (but not a gypsophilia ). It's a Caryophyllaceae - as is gyp is also and shows up wherever it thinks a 4' weed can get away with growing.

GWR, do you still have elderberry bushes and do you have suggestions for @heirloomgal on uses?

Purslane, I've eaten but only a nibble and while in the garden. It isn't a taste that I like.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Purslane is one of the weeds that I often let stay in my gardens. Doesn't really hurt anything, like white clover.

 

[flowerbug]

Purslane is one of the weeds that I often let stay in my gardens. Doesn't really hurt anything, like white clover.

i would if i could. Mom thinks that only naked dirt looks good between garden plants. i tried for years to get moss roses to grow instead (they're a relative of purselane after all) but they just wouldn't perpetuate themselves enough to persist.

 

[flowerbug]

i scraped and did a bit reshaping in the rows of beans along the pathway. the beans are planted on rows built up a bit so in between each row is a gap to collect some rain and the ends of the row gaps were mostly non-existant or washed out so i wanted to put more of those back in before the next rains came along.

by the time i was done with that i was overheated. moved the fabric that had dirt on it from the screening i did the other day. sand, so i moved it to where the dirt in the garden was really heavy and it will get mixed in eventually. probably has a ton of weed seeds in it so it will be happy where i moved it which has a lot of grass seed still in it too (lawnmower spray along an edge is always great for a garden).

that was it. i'm going to be very lazy the rest of the day.

depending upon the weather i need to get the entire north garden scraped and weeded so that will take me a few days before i can get back to screening more gravel from the dirt. thank goodness the forecast is for some cooler days.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I remember talking with @Gardening with Rabbits about what I think of as annual baby's breath weed (but not a gypsophilia ). It's a Caryophyllaceae - as is gyp is also and shows up wherever it thinks a 4' weed can get away with growing.

GWR, do you still have elderberry bushes and do you have suggestions for @heirloomgal on uses?

Purslane, I've eaten but only a nibble and while in the garden. It isn't a taste that I like.

Steve

Mine are yellow flowers, very pretty. I kind of remember the conversation and not sure if I did have white or pink flowers then. I used to think it was geranium. Yes, I do have elderberry. I did not see the question but I will go look.

 

[Zeedman]

I know. But, everywhere!

Purslane. What was beginning to bloom in the paths should now be history. Fat lotta good it's gonna do for seed production. How many seeds will one missed plant make, 100? 1000? How years will the seeds be viable if they are tilled into the ground, 1 year? 2? 20?

The potatoes were hilled - what was that ... about 15 days ago - yesterday there was nice, fresh purslane 6 & 8 inches tall in the spuds? I mean, after all that loose soil was moved around the plants, there was not weed ONE to be seen!

111° ... Good attention to watering and soil moisture ... interesting how you could see how sunlight restricted weed growth but give that purslane shade and varoom ... off it went!

Steve
more sore today from 2 hours of sitting on a stool, reaching, stretching, to pull weeds than 2 hours of running the tiller.

There was originally no purslane in my rural garden; but it was in my home gardens, and the tiller undoubtedly carried seeds from one to the other. Oh, how it has spread since! It really got out of control during the two wet years, when I was unable to cultivate. Last year, one corner of the rural garden was virtually a purslane lawn; so bad it clogged up the mower when I tried to cut between rows. Fortunately, we have a better handle on the weeds this year, but purslane will continue to sprout all summer & grows incredibly fast in the heat. Periodically, in between other tasks, I go through all the gardens with a bucket, on "purslane patrol". Because it re-roots so easily & makes seed quickly, I throw those outside the garden, along with crab grass.

Purslane is edible, very nutritious, and productive enough to make it worthy of being cultivated. I wish I could say that I like it (because I enjoy lamb's quarter & pigweed amaranth) but the flavor & texture are not to my liking. I'm not into smoothies, but due to its succulent nature, purslane might be well suited for that. Maybe I'll give it a try, along with something sweeter like banana. I wonder how it would be juiced?

 

[digitS']

It's interesting that you have about the same variety of garden weeds as here, @Zeedman : crab grass, lamb's quarter & pigweed, purslane - and yes, it followed us to what was a grass hay field a half dozen years ago just as purslane has followed us to every other garden . And yet, your location in Wisconsin must have significant differences from the soil and weather conditions here ...

Yesterday, I spent NO time behind the tiller and more time than earlier in the week on a stool pulling weeds. It was probably close to double. After experiencing sore legs for a couple of days after the last sit-down weeding, the knees don't really bother me at all, today. Maybe it's the dang tiller.

Today, I filled a bucket with compost and weeded the 4 potted tomato plants at the foot of the backsteps. There were also weeds to be pulled around and behind the big pots. Then, the compost mix was replenished from when everything went into the pots this spring. 100% compost (which means some potting and garden soil in there) - the plants look to be thriving. They have outgrown their skimpy hardware store cages so more stakes were added to make 3 in each pot. Twine tied and now they can grow above my head and cascade (somewhat) down towards the ground. They are far beyond the growth of the plants in the garden but those will catch up by the end of the season with their more substantial root growing space.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

well, finally the weather was more cooperative and i could get out and get some gardening done. the north garden is turning into purselane heaven between the beans so that was my initial goal, but i got side-tracked as usual by another task. the row of onions along the edge was full of seedheads about to drop millions of seeds on the garden so i had to trim those off. 1/2hr later i decide that the whole row of onions is going to come out so i start chopping the stalks off and then go get my ground pillow and start uprooting them and pile all those roots on top of the chopped off onion stalks so they can dry out and eventually they will get reburied when they're dried out enough to not start regrowing. this is all prime worm food and i was contemplating taking the whole 5 gallon bucket of onion seed heads and drying them out and then putting them into storage for worm food for this coming winter. there's often a lack of feed i have on hand at times and something like all those sprouting onion seeds is exactly what the worms will love. it's rather amazing to me how much worms love onion anything and also garlic anything.

so now i'm an hour and half into the "weeding and have barely weeded so i start on that... scraping just isn't going to work for these uphill ones (i want them completely removed so they won't have a chance to regrow) so i'm going to do this all one at a time. i got a bit overheated and that was my sign that enough was enough for the day.

a good day in the garden. got things done. got to see some bees and other bugs. got to listen to the birdies and see some wormy friends.

dumped the weed buckets on the weed pile out back and came in and just then Mom drives up with groceries to bring in and so those get carried in and then it is nap time for her and me.