Violas/Johnny Jump Ups

I planted these Johnny Jump-Ups from seed last year and they were cute little well behaved flowers that were growing nicely between my alpine strawberries. This year they have taken off and are dominating my garden bed. They are actually crowding out all the weeds as well as the strawberries.

They went to seed already a couple weeks ago and this is the second flush of flowers. I'm going to have seeds in this area forever!!

It's a very effective ground cover, at least the second year. I think I will need to plant them elsewhere though because they are killing my strawberries.

I know they are used medicinally as well as for culinary uses. I need to research the specifics and then try those out. The kids have been snacking on the flowers while they eat strawberries.

We have Johnny Jump-Ups growing all over the place in our garden and beds. Colourful, cheerful little dudes! The plants overwinter and seed off as well. If they get in our way we whack them, but otherwise they're just happy ground cover.

I've taken to planting Viola/Johnny Jump Up seeds into the rock edging around my home.

They do VERY well growing in challenging spots and are one of the first flowers that appear in the spring for my growing zone. Also being the first flowers of spring, the greenery tends to outcompete other plants as noticed by Jenny in her post.

So does anyone have recipes they like for eating the leaves? I've been told they're edible.

The flowers are the best bit honestly, nice in salads or just scattered on top of things. Leaves are edible but a bit bland and slightly mucilaginous, not unpleasant but not something I'd go out of my way for. The flowers are worth it though.

I have not eaten any johnny jump ups, however we have lots of wild common violets in our yard. We have eaten salads with violets as the only greenery. Everyone enjoyed it, and has eaten it repeatedly.

It also does well as a side dish, wilted, like you'd do with spinach.

We also toss it in forever soups, but taste wise, it hides there.