When out walking, I sometimes spot something I didn’t see before and wonder why I didn’t notice it previously.
The above picture show two trees, one a birch, the other either a maple or an oak, growing around each other. Since they are right beside the road, I marvel that they hadn’t caught my attention earlier. It probably falls in the same category when something that’s always been there gets removed, and you notice the absence but not what had actually been there. It’s not that I didn’t really notice the trees, it was that I hadn’t noticed what they were up to. Well! Guess I better mind my own business.
April has been on the dry side, with a few brush fires here and there, though thankfully not near where I live. With the weather finally growing warmer, I’ve begun prepping the spent flower pots and raised beds for the next round of growing. I’ve bought only one bag of organic soil for use. With plenty of soil amendments left over from last year, it’s more a matter of supplementing what is already there, rather than starting from scratch. Some of last year’s smaller pots have been dumped into the raise beds with some green sand and a bit of fertilizer. The last of the bagged manure from last year will be added to it and I will buy a new bag this year, hopefully from the nearby greenhouse.
The goal is to plant some garden peas and wax beans, which I will have to cover with chicken wire as a woodchuck made its appearance in the backyard a few days ago. Carrots and potatoes will also go in. I have a left over seed packet of Bloomsdale spinach that I never got around to opening for some reason. The packet is not dated,so I have no idea how old it is and if the seeds are still viable. So I will test them out by putting them in one of the pots I have, to see what happens. If nothing grows, I’ll just put in something else.
As I like to experiment a bit with new plants, I bought a seed packet of Miner’s Lettuce.
It looks intriguing enough so I want to try it out. Internet info says that it is hardy from zone 6 through 9 which makes it an annual in my zone 4 so some I will have to grow in a pot. It is shade tolerant, a plus since shade is something I have a lot of.
Another vegetable I am looking at is New Zealand spinach.
Also known as Warrigal greens or Botany Bay greens, it’s actually related to figs and marigolds. It does well in hot weather and tend to sprawl as it grows. As with miners lettuce, this is not hardy in zone 4, so I’ll have to grow as an annual. Because it contains oxalates which can interfere with mineral absorbtion, cooking is recommended, boiling or steaming much as you do regular spinach.
There’s no guarantee I’ll like either one of them, but that’s why you experiment. If they are good, I have a new addition to the menu, if not, I move onto the next experiment.
Happy plantings!
