(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to Flowers, Freya, Little Osa, Waldeath, crafts, daylily, girlgonegardening, gourds, grass, herbs, holidays, houseplants, pets, photos, vines, weeds, weekend, work on 2008-02-10, 08:11:00

1*, feels like -21*, 44% humidity, WNW 24 mph wind, fair, WIND CHILL ADVISORY, FLOOD WARNING First, a warning: Blogger's spellcheck doesn't seem to be working right now for me. So proceed with caution if mispellings send you running for a red pen. Running with pens can lead to loss of eyes. Ok, I admit to being a bit preoccupied latey between work, job interviewing, studying..... But this all

(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to Flowers, Little Osa, chores, daylily, food, herbs, houseplants, purple, resolutions, seeds, snow, spring, veggies, weather, weeds on 2008-01-06, 13:48:00

58*, 87% humidity, S 16 mph wind, cloudy, FLOOD WATCH The snow is all gone, the ice is gone, and the air is a reasonable and mild temperature, only to get warmer tomorrow. It drives me nuts. It makes me want to grab the spade and start shoveling and to start weeding and planting and puttering. It's just cruel I tell you. Give me spring fever and then take it away later with more snow and ice.

(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to California, Frost,, animals, expiriments, farm, food, fruit, garden, girlgonegardening, holidays, hostas, roses, seeds, stealth gardening, trees, weeds on 2007-12-25, 07:23:00

26*, feels like 18*, 81% humidity, S 8 mph wind, fair Santa brought me seeds. He must of visited my home early in the evening. I got home to check the mail and I had a package from Angel Grove Tree seeds. WOHOO!! I ripped it apart and found 4 packs of seeds. These are more expiriments for me: Acer palmatum atrolineareRosa rugosa albaRosa rugosa rubraRosa virginianaWith the seeds, came some very

(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to Dirt, Frost,, Winter, composting, expiriments, food, garden, leaves, mulch, neighborhood, photos, snow, spring, veggies, weather, weeds on 2007-11-14, 12:49:00

54*, 34% humidity, W 15 mph wind, cloudy With the rest of the week predicting freezing weather and possible snow, I KNEW my time has run out for puttering around in the garden. It was all business this morning for me. I got up first thing and drove around the neighborhood to leaf piles and loading up on them. I didn't have to go far before I hit the mother load of maple leaves. I brought them

(Via Girl Gone Gardening)

Posted by admin to To-Do, birds, chores, composting, food, leaves, mulch, seeds, trees, veggies, weeds on 2007-11-13, 20:22:00

To-Do Go ninja some leaves from nice piles in the neighborhood. (Maple for the veggie garden and flower beds, oak for the blueberries) (done) Ninja some mulch for the tree--there is an abandanded stash along one of the roads here. All I need is a little bit.... (Made my own mulch instead) Cut back remaining perennials--add leaves to the leaf piling on veggie beds (done) Clean bird feeder--and

(Via Country Gardener)

Posted by admin to grass, grasshopper, gravel, green, weeds on 2007-08-14, 15:57:00

We have a gravel driveway, which, as anyone who has one knows, is a great incubator for weeds. So whenever my husband or I spot green stuff in the gravel around the yard, we reflexively bend down to pull it out. Tonight, as I reached down for a bit of errant grass, it jumped away. Ah, ha, not grass, but a grasshopper - a very green one.

(Via Country Gardener)

Posted by admin to Portulaca oleracea, healthy eating, omega-3 fats, purslane, weeds on 2007-08-03, 10:46:00

I generally pull weeds, but yesterday for a change I ate weeds, specifically purslane (Portulaca oleracea), which I put into my lunch salad. I wanted to give purslane a try after reading this article at the Nutrition Data blog, where nutrition maven Monica Reinagel writes:

"Purslane is one of the richest vegetable sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

A big part of the reason that the meat from pasture-raised cattle (and wild game) is higher in omega-3 fats is because grazing animals favor these succulent wild greens and will eat them preferentially over other grasses. It makes good grazing for people, too. According to research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 100 grams of purslane contains 300-400 mg of omega-3 fats (alpha-linolenic acid), along with over half a day's supply of vitamin E, a third of the day's vitamin C, and a quarter of the day's vitamin A. But does it taste good?"

To answer the question: Yes, it tastes fine. Like many salad ingredients, to my mind, it doesn't have a strong taste. Being really into healthy eating, I think I'll collect it when I can. Who knew that it's such a good source of omega 3s?

I'm kind of sorry I ate the purslane before taking a picture of it, and believe it or not, I can't find any more of it at the moment, but there are pictures and more info at wikipedia.org.

There are some purslane recipes at the Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture site.