Connor Clark

Moved into a house last year that has a number of fruit trees on it. The fruit of this guava were old and shriveled last year, so this is my first time seeing it make fruit. From what I’ve researched, it looks like a strawberry guava, although it appears the fruit stay green? I’m in zone 9b California, so I would imagine the fruit are pretty close to mature at this point.

Would appreciate if anyone has any idea what type of guava it is. From what I’ve read, pretty much all guava are edible, but not all are palatable.

Ac Baker wrote:Depending on the climate, I think a significant range of plants will be needed so something is ready whenever I am there.

Salsify (vegetable oyster, Tragopogon porrifolius) is a prolific self-seeder for me (temperate), and is a source of greens in Spring & early Summer, the flower buds are also edible, and then roots in the Autumn. (It's a bit like a big, mild dandelion with purple flowers!).

It's apparently pretty cold tolerant (below -10 C) and prefers temperate summers (10 - 20 C) and sunnier locations with reasonably drain soil to grow well.

I think Salsify would be a great choice, I grow salsify as a boarder plant around my beds, and I always have some popping up as volunteers.

Let’s say you have a little cabin property that you only visit periodically, and isn’t tended to much. If you want food available while you’re there, what would you plant?

Besides the obvious fruit/nut trees and berries, I would probably plant sunchokes, self seeding greens like mountain spinach, and of course “weeds” like dandelion, broad leaf plantain and lambs quarters

Do you have any other good “plant and forget” plants? I’m curious if anyone has any experience with more common annuals self seeding.

Hey all!

These mallows (unsure of exact species, I’m thinking it’s Malva multiflora, does anyone know?) are growing like literal weeds in an ally way near my house. From what I’ve researched, majority of Mallow sp. leaves are edible, along with the young “cheese wheel” seed pods.

My question is, are the mature dried seeds edible? Can they be eaten like a grain? There’s hundreds of seed pods on these plants, and it would be an awesome alternative grain or flour source.

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I was given a free bale of “straw” that turns out to have had lots of oat seed in it. Now I’ve got little grasses popping up in all my beds. I’m inclined to not worry about it, since these are very diverse, polyculture veggie beds. Any reason I’m being too chill about this?

I’m not sure they would wrap around a pipe, but I do know figs have very tenacious fibrous roots. I’ve had little fig saplings pop up 50 plus feet form my tree.

These grow like a weed in my garden, came up out of nowhere. I did a deep dive into them once they showed up. Samuel Thayer has some fantastic writings out it, specifically addressing reports of it being toxic, and confused with deadly nightshade.

Eino Kenttä wrote:I merged your stuff with the following thread. I hope that is okay by you.

Thanks Eino! Still figuring out the forum.

Hey all! New to the forum and so excited to absorb all the information!

I have a “growing conditions” question I wanted to run past all you knowledgeable folks.

A little (or a lot of) background: I’m in zone 9b, Bay Area California. My property faces pretty much exactly NW. On the SW side of the lot I’m fortunate enough to have a nicely spaced row of three very established fruit trees (Persimmon, orange, and fig) that I have been turning into a micro food forest.
*see attached*

I’m wanting to place a raised bed behind the fig tree (SW orientation) and was hoping to grow some dwarf ‘Dorado’ sorghum in it.

Has anyone grown sorghum in dappled sunlight? The fig lets some light into that area, but it certainly wouldn’t be full sun.

Is it worth it to grow sorghum in this spot? Or will the lack of sun not yield any grain? It’s currently the only available growing spot, and I have an itch to try growing some grain.

Thanks in advance for any input!