Saturday, May 07, 2011

Plants That Are In My Garden Now!

Rhubarb Plant

I started  this Rhubarb plant two years ago. It is not a plant that I am that familiar with, except that my grandmother had a huge amount of it growing behind her house. It was not an area that I would venture into because it was swarming with bees. And I MEAN SWARMING!



A flower, one of many that I found today!

Then I read my friend, Annie's blog, Country Living In a Cariboo Valley. She had written a post about Growing Rhubarb. It was a good thing I read it! She told to cut the flowers off as soon as they appear, to get a good crop. I didn't know that, and it was just in a nick of time. My plant had many flowers. Today I took them all off. And will wait and see what happens.



Chives

I started chives in my garden about two years. A lady on Freecycle traded for canning jars. I got some plants that I wanted. I had plenty of canning jars. So I went to her house and she dug them up for me. I really love the taste of fresh chives! Sometimes, I pick it when I am working outside just to chew on it.

Lemon Balm coming in!
This is the lemon balm that I have talked about before on this blog, in this post, Lemon Balm: Food Or Medicine. It is just starting to come in. Before long though, it will be trying to take over the whole bed. I always have way more than I need. The same lady traded me for the lemon balm too.

Lilies can be eaten too!


Do you have plants coming up this spring in your yard that can be eaten? Or do you have to wait to plant them to get some coming up? Try planting some that you won't have to wait for. Or harvest the wild ones, like dandelion, burdock, violets, among others. Combining the wild plants with the ones you grow in your garden, is a good way to have a bigger and better food supply. Especially since the wild plants usually supply you with way more vitamins and minerals than anything you can buy in a store. Check some out and let me know which ones you like. I will warn you that many wild plants are bitter, but I like that contrast in a salad myself. We mostly eat them raw in our salads around here.

Take care and hope you are able to get outside and do some gardening this week-end! 





Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

2 comments:

Scott or Pam said...

Looking good!

~Deb~ said...

I love adding wild edibles to the table! Here the dandelions are plentiful and my son and I love to make lots of things with them, two of our favorites are dandelion fritters and dandelion pancakes.
I was also lucky enough to find about 20 morel mushrooms in the back yard this year! Bubba doesn't care for the mushrooms but I love them.
Of course the yard is full of sorrel and we have some burdock growing also.
I am having a great time learning more about what we can and can't eat and am also interested in finding out more about medicinal plants and uses.
It looks like you are going to have a lot of things to enjoy in your little spot in the world too!
Have a wonderful week
Deb~