Dimitrius Brown

Nathan Stephanson wrote:I'm pretty excited about Good King Henry.

What has you so excited?

We just put Swiss chard down for the first time this year here in Oakland. Super excited to be eating it fresh this summer.

Also put down some Sea spinach/sea beet I am looking forward to eating fresh and hopefully enjoying longer than I might be able to enjoy the chard, as my palate can’t really tell the difference between the two yet, they are so similar (and so new to my garden ;). I have reason to believe that the chard may not due back, since we don’t always experience frost.

I put some Sea Kale, Okinawa spinach, New Zealand Spinach, and Fish Mint in the ground last season. The New Zealand spinach is an annual that drops so much seed; it pretty much just is there forever once planted. In Oakland it never got cold enough to die back;so I pretty much planted a 4” pot last spring that turned into a bush by winter that never died. Really cool. You CAN eat the leaves fresh; but can be problematic in large quantities, so I avoid it altogether. But I love, love, love it in my scrambles, sautéed, and in these greens I make that my family loves.

The Okinawa spinach and fish mint are both edible fresh without boiling. But you won’t want to eat either fresh. I use them fresh for my guinea pigs; and prepare them as I mentioned above for my scrambles, greens, etc.

Man!!! Them greens!!! I make a mean pot of greens. It’s my grandmother’s recipe. Except… instead of using Collard greens; I use my garden green medley of Okinawa Spinach, Sea Kale, New Zealand Spinach, and Fish Mint. When I say my family loves this dish… they really do! I always make a big pot. We eat on it for a day or few and freeze what’s left.

By the time the frozen leftovers are gone; the Bush of New Zealand Spinach and Fish Mint have gotten to needing to be thinned back out again; the Okinawa Spinach has nice fat barbed leaves again; and the Sea Kale is ready to offer Nice Fat pads to trim. Loving these perennial greens!!

The sea kale os pretty awesome, too.

I actually put it in the ground in spring 2020. Wait. I put it in a 10gal bag In 2020 along with a root crop. Indian ground nut tub or I believe.

I picked on the kale and harvested one tubor out. My Malinois pup made me grateful to have one tubor to pull out. Really tested the courage and durability of my garden this year 🤓🥴😭

The kale grew really tall in 20 & 21. So this year I cut the stalk into 3 pieces; basically leaving the bag with a 8” stalk; and I took the other two 12” pieces and put them each in a bag. First I rubbed fresh aloe gel from a fresh pad I cut from the garden; then stuck the stalk down with 6” in soil and 6” sticking up.

Fresh leaves started on the base piece, and the middle piece within a couple weeks; the top piece started to flower little broccoli i pieces. I thought that was cool because I hadn’t remembered seeing the kale flower at all the previous two seasons; annnnnd that only one of the three pieces flowered; annnnnd I didn’t know kale could make broccolini hehehe 🤓🥴😅😂🤣😂🤣

🗣I love broccolini!!!

We could literally start a whole new broccolini thread 😂🤣😅🥴🤓

Can’t wait to check out the magazine.

Thanks for sharing what you have learned!!

💕Sharing is caring 💕

-DOMB

This was a great post! Thanks for writing and for all the great comments!!

Definitely adding some more logs and sticks to my raised beds this season. I am getting them ready this weekend. I have 2 yards of compost waiting to be added; in addition to a big pile of tree cuttings that have been seasoning in the back yard for over a year; and the neighbor is cutting down some redwood trees; so between the three, the beds will be super charged!

Hopefully I can get some of that redwood/pine mulch when they shred it before hauling off to add another 6” or so to the back and front yards again. I did that at the beginning of the pandemic when my neighbor cut his pine tree down. Seems to have been breaking down nicely; especially in my south facing front yard where all the fruit trees, perennials, and doggie activity is happening.

Lauren Ritz wrote:I did sweet potatoes last year for the first time, and when I harvested I discovered an astonishing root mass--not a lot of tubers (I wasn't watering too much) but a great deal of root, some of it half an inch to an inch in diameter. Whether it went deep, I don't know, but this year I planted a bunch of sweet potatoes just to improve my soil and get organics down there into the straight sand. If it works, I'll do a new area every year.

How did that work out??

I was thinking of doing that around my garden, as I have clay soil and a huge north facing down slopes hillside in my back yard. I have been moving yacon and Jerusalem artichoke around the garden successfully; but am now considering Sweet potatoes and ginger.

Hi!! Really enjoying all the great info here!! Thanks for sharing!!