Wild and Wooly Vegetables by Robert Kourik November/December 1984 RAIN Page 11 Rob~rt Kourik was a vegetable gardener through~ut his youth in St. Louis, Missouri, and has been an avid gardener in California since then . His experience led to a career in landscape maintenance, ·design, and installation. Robert's work 1101.v focuses primarily on the design and construction of passive solar greenhouses, greywater systems, and edible landscapes. He founded the Edible Landscape Program at the Farallones Institute Rural Center in Occidental; California. The following excerpt is from Robert Kourik's forthcoming book, entitled Designing and Planting Your Edible Landscape (available in November from Robert Kourik, PO Box 1841, Santa Rosa, CA 95402). -TK What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Wild edibles are free. Many thrive without-our care or tillage. Wild edible weeqs are food for the laziest and ~he most adventurous of gardeners. They take some getting used to-their flavor is often more powerful than that of common vegetables. But the strong, powerful flavor betrays the superior nutritional value of "weedy" vegetables. I'm a lover of strong, spicy vegetables-but not everyone else is. If their texture or flavor is too unusual for your taste, try sneaking the wild edibles into your diet. When I have friends over who are unfamiliar with or · squeamish about wild edibles, I dice-the raw, leafy wild greens into small pieces and mix them with a larger portion of ordinary salad greens. This way, I can gently introduce these nutritionally power-packed vegetables to my friends without startling their taste buds. I also add the most strongly flavored leaves and roots in small pieces to soups. Sometimes my guests are so bold as to pick out little pieces to sample individually. If they like the ffavor, I encourage them to gradually increase the proportion of the "wild and wooly" vegetables with , each meal. Some wild edibles are as tasty and succulent as any lettuce. Onc_e you have become addicted to the superior flavor and nutrition ofiwild foods, you can add your favorites to patches in your edible landscape. Wild, edible-weed patches don't fit many people's idea of beauty. Indeed, the beauty in wild edibles is their taste, nutritional superiority, and ease in growing If you like, hide these "weedy" patches; put them behind the dog pen or the garage. The Well-Layered Garden The secret of naturalizing wild edibles is to establish your chosen plants in such a way that other plants cannot compete. The technique I favor for starting a wild patch combines sheet composting, which is like a short version of a typical compost pile, with a biodegradable weedkiller-newspaper and cardboard. Toxic . herbici.des are unnecessary. The key to'this system is to never disturb the soil. If you till or cultivate, especially in the upper layers, you encourage buried seeds to sprout. Well-mulched, no-till gardens eliminate most weeding. Only the seed in bird droppings and that blown in by the wind will sprout in your garden.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz