1st year Beetberry.
I love free food. It's everywhere in my garden. The other day I walked around my garden and took pictures of it. Free food is any food that comes back, keeps on a-comin' or otherwise surprises us with it's abundance and ability to survive.
Biennials are wild and free - some people like this - some people don't, but no matter whether the free food is a perennial, an annual or a biennial, it's still food.
The free part means these plants either eaily and readily reseed, multiply by runners, crowns or rhizomes, basically they just keep on multiplying - something a plant does well.
Beetberry - aka Strawberry Spinach or Chenopodium capitata, a favorite biennial of mine and pictured above. The leaves are delicious in the spring as a first year rosette and continue to be all year. Next year they will bolt - sending up a tall stalk with bright red berries clinging to the stem - yummy! They are sweet and juicy and seedy. If you leave some behind when you are sweetening your oatmeal they will reseed for sure. The whole berry dries on the stalk and drops when ready. Flash flooding delivers the seed all the way down the driveway.
Another favorite freebie is Mizuna - a snappy mustard ready to grow anywhere!
Biennials are wild and free - some people like this - some people don't, but no matter whether the free food is a perennial, an annual or a biennial, it's still food.
The free part means these plants either eaily and readily reseed, multiply by runners, crowns or rhizomes, basically they just keep on multiplying - something a plant does well.
Beetberry - aka Strawberry Spinach or Chenopodium capitata, a favorite biennial of mine and pictured above. The leaves are delicious in the spring as a first year rosette and continue to be all year. Next year they will bolt - sending up a tall stalk with bright red berries clinging to the stem - yummy! They are sweet and juicy and seedy. If you leave some behind when you are sweetening your oatmeal they will reseed for sure. The whole berry dries on the stalk and drops when ready. Flash flooding delivers the seed all the way down the driveway.
Another favorite freebie is Mizuna - a snappy mustard ready to grow anywhere!
Mizuna often comes to us in mesclun mixes, offering the bite in spicy mixes. Mizuna will instantly spread and even take over an entire bed if you let it. It will also sprout here there and everywhere in the cracks of the pavement it is so vigorous. It often acts like a perennial - even though it's a salad green. It blooms like crazy inviting pollinators in and they are quite fragrant too. Sometimes one blooming Mizuna completely scents my greenhouse in winter. Seed comes quickly with Mizuna - spreading along in the rain without you even realizing it. The seed is tiny but comes easily in pods like any Brassica. A little seed goes a very long way. Prolific, delicious, and ready to feed the world even in the driest conditions.My mountain is semi-arid desert and the pathways are mostly decomposed granite. The driveway is hard but still the Mizuna finds a way to take hold. I am amazed when we drive over it.
Mountain Spinach - Orach - ruby and golden.
Orach - Mountain Spinach - love it! If you've never grown Orach this is your year - try it any time - it is very forgiving and succulent no matter how you neglect it. Plump and delicious, mountain spinach grows upright - into a tall, gorgeous thing you pluck meaty leaves off of. You won't believe the amount of seed it delivers. The reds and purples are simply gorgeous but I am also a fan of the golden - it shines bright in the shade. This plant is a candidate for the outside garden and in the greenhouse, in salad mixes as well as the flower garden. The leaves are so good anytime - I'm always surprised. You can get it in a mix of colors or buy it by the color. A carefree plant - I let them traipse around the garden.
Wild Mizuna seed pods - taking over my seat!
Beetberry's drying on the stem - see the black seeds?
The place is dripping with free food and free seed - which is more free food - for years to come. Let something wild happen - when food is growing out of the driveway - it's not such a bad thing. Don't forget Arugula, Purslane, Lamb's Quarters and Johnnies will do this too - all salad greens. Enjoy the bounty!
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