Purslane, keep it in your garden

This "weed" is thriving in my garden.

Can you spot the purslane?

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is a common weed found in Minnesota gardens. I am finding little purslane plants popping up all over my beds right now. I try to keep a few thriving plants for salads. Some say it has a slightly sour, salty taste. I don't think it tastes like much of anything. I eat it for the nutritional benefits. Purslane contains high amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids, the same fatty acid found in fish and flax seeds.

June garden highlights

Volunteer fennel and dill among the lettuce plants.

Peas please.

There are baby cucumbers planted under those poles.

Mustard greens

Crispy romaine lettuce is ready.

As of June 18th, I have a growing supply of peas and lettuce. If anyone would like any lettuce please let me know nila@thebluearth.com . Just keep in mind that you will have to share with the slugs. I think they are particularly bad this year because of the cool start to summer. If it gets worse, I may have to break out the Sluggo.

Leafminers eating away my spinach

Spring gardening always presents challenges, this year for me it is the insect pest- leafminer.

These elusive insects are destroying my baby spinach plants. In addition, something is attacking my bulls blood beet seedlings, I am thinking it is a fungus but it could also be leafminers.

The UC IPM Program has a really good description on their website about possible methods for controlling leafminers on spinach. One of their tips is to encourage the presence of parasitic wasps, who parasitize the larvae? I think (meaning somehow they get their eggs in between the upper and lower leaf surfaces). I need to look in to this claim further. The other recommendation is to use the natural/ organically approved insecticide, neem. Unless the infestation takes over my entire garden, I am not interested in this option.

I plant fennel and dill throughout my garden every year to encourage the presence of parasitic wasps. You only need to plant once because the seeds will spread throughout your garden and produce volunteer plants every year after. It's the best "weed" possible. I selectively let these volunteer plants grow as my natural pest control mechanism. Unfortunately, the parasitic wasps won't show up until my dill and fennel plants flower, meaning that the leafminer infestation will live on. For now they sticking to the spinach, meaning this will be my trap crop. If I removed the spinach, there would be a risk that these little pests would move on to attack my lettuce. So the strategy is to let go of the spinach in order to save the rest of the plants.

Isn't pest management fun!

Grow Up!

Create vertical space in your garden by using a trellis. I found this unique design at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I like this because it is simple, just some bamboo poles and twine. I am thinking of creating something similar this year for my cucumbers.

Homegrown Minneapolis, get involved!

Homegrown Minneapolis is an initiative to develop recommendations for the City of Minneapolis to improve sales, distribution and consumption of fresh, locally grown foods to positively impact the health, food security, economy and environment of our City and the surrounding region.

Currently seeking comment on their strategic plan for the city of Minneapolis.

In my opinion it is a good start but attempts to replicate some current programs that were originally designed to help foster agricultural development, urban and rural. I am thinking of the massive land grant institution right in our backyard, the University of Minnesota. We need to bring new life to University Extension Programs and Master Gardeners and stop re-inventing the wheel with more government programs. University Extension and it's supporting programs have been bleeding for years as policy makers and university executives deem them irrelevant. This flood of interest in urban agriculture is proof in my mind that we need to bring new life to Extension.

Purple Hyacinth Bean

I planted purple hyacinth bean seeds about 3 weeks ago in a seedling flat and nothing has come up. I am wondering if anyone else has had problems with germination or growing this plant. I am so excited to have one on display on my deck this summer.

Spring is here. Peas are in the ground and the seedling flats are thriving!

Last Wednesday night, April 15th, I planted a variety of peas in one of the raised beds; including, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, giant snow peas, and flowering sweet peas. I am hoping all will be in full bloom and ready to harvest by mid-June.

It is still very dry and I need to rig up some sort of irrigation system ASAP!

I am also hoping to take advantage of this upcoming warm spell and plant some lettuce tomorrow, more details later.