PAPA-PEPPER GARDEN UPDATE - SPRING 2017

Spring is here and my plants are growing!

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Hopefully later today we can get around to planting some seeds, but so far we have been monitoring a lot of the plants that we started last year. A few of these were started from seed, while the rest were propagated. We also have a few new projects this year.

The vegetable garden for food to eat this year will be our next focus, but we are also trying to get a lot of perennial food plants started so that once we have them established, they will be there for years to come. Here is a sampling of some of our plants so far.

ELDERBERRY

The Elderberry plants that I propagated last year are doing very well. I’ve also got a new batch that I just propagated. Elderberries can grow quickly and propagate rather easily, so I’m excited to have a good amount on hand because of the wonderful health and immune system benefits. The flowers, called “elderblow,” can also be used as a food or to make tea!

PRICKLY PEAR

There are a few types of Prickly Pear which can grow in my area. Not only is the look of various cacti an interesting and attractive look, the plants can be used in other ways as well. Farther south, people actually use them as fences. For me, they will provide a few types of food. The young pads can be cooked and eaten, and once their flower passes, they leave behind a tasty fruit, which we all enjoy. I propagated several last year, and even began growing some from seed!

AMERICAN GOOSEBERRY

Like the Elderberry that I have already mentioned, the American Gooseberry is another wild food plant that is common in the wild in my area. It also propagates rather easily, so I’ve started up a small army of them. Multiple ones that I propagated last year show some great growth, and some even have many flowers already!

BLACK CURRANT

When @bluerthangreen was transplanting some Black Currants last year, a few pieces of the plants broke off in the process. For the opportunistic gardener, that just means that we can now have more plants, if we can get the pieces to grow. Thankfully, this one rooted and is now becoming a plant of its own!

FIG TREES

The majority of the Fig Trees that we have in our direct area are the Brown Turkey Fig. A lot of them die back to the grown during the winter, so, if the stems are going to die anyway, why not propagate them? That’s just what @papa-pepper did, so now we have many small Fig Trees waking up for the new year. I cannot wait to get them established on our land.

GRAPE VINES

I obtained several cuttings from older varieties of Grapes last year. At the moment, I think that I have four kinds growing. To have our own small vineyard will be a great blessing, and I’ll be happy to continue pruning and propagating as time goes one. That means that there will be enough for others too!

KIWI

Just for fun, and a learning experience, we tried to grow some Kiwi Fruit Vines from seed last year. Technically, we are right on the border of where the larger, fuzzy brown Kiwi vines will grow, and it looks like the winter did not kill them. To watch dormant plants wake up in the spring and realize that they did not die is a great feeling!

GOJI BERRY

The Goji Berry is another great, tasty, healthy food that we can grow right in our own yard. Like the Kiwi, we grew this from seed too, and are looking forward to getting more growing. Goji Berries are among the claimed “superfoods” and can often carry a price tag that reflects that. Therefore, to have our own supply growing will be a huge blessing!

RASPBERRIES

The Raspberry plants that we recently propagated are waking up and looking good so far. We are looking forward to putting in a patch and having the opportunity to harvest our own every year. These too can be propagated without too much effort, and hopefully, we will always have a supply!

MOVING FORWARD

Since it takes so little effort sometimes to get some more food plants growing, we enjoy investing our time in these efforts. Along with clean water, food is one of the greatest necessities to mankind. If we can grow more of our own, not only will we we reducing the amount of money that we need to spend on food, but we will also be having a connection to our food and being able to trust the source.

Our hopes with these posts is to inspire and encourage others to try things for themselves, along with documenting our journey down this path that we find ourselves on. We will gladly answer any questions that we can, and have already made some great how-to posts about propagating plants, which we can link you to if you want.

As always, I’m @papa-pepper and here’s the proof:

proof-of-garden-growing

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