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Worst case scenario you have a north facing patio and nothing else: heres what do do: https://twitter.com/Av1000000000/status/1359937489314615296
Find a large pot with drain holes on the bottom and ideally a saucer if you can't make a mess. You can diy both or just the saucer, just get creative. Also check Facebook marketplace and the free section on craigslist, this is a common item to be there for free.
Several smaller pots work too. Orange clay will dry out faster, plastic will retain moisture possible too well, glazed white porcelain or clay is my personal favorite. These can also be found used or new if you want to buy something pretty
Next, potting soil. Can sometimes be found free on craigslist free section or fb marketplace. Alternatively, steal it. Find a park, office complex, gentrified alley, etc with big planters with potting soil. Go there at night or a quiet time. Scoop it into something!
U can also steal bags of this from in front of a grocery/hardware store when theyre closed. Some hardware stores have it stacked out back year round. Get organic if u can. Make sure it says potting soil and not topsoil. Also don't bother with compost, manure etc you don't need it
You can also try contacting a nursery for plants, or a cannabis grower. An inside contact increases your odds. These places often disposed of potting soil every year to lower the risk of spreading diseases, but that isn't really a problem for amateur home gardening.
Cannabis grows often have potting soil with premium ingredients. Make sure to ask about possible applications of pesticides to manage mites, aphids etc, as you might not want to expose yourself to those insecticides
Okay once youve assembled the pot(s), its time for propagation. This part doesn't have to be as hard as it seems to a beginner. The point is to try things and learn, not to be wildly successful your first few seasons
A great start: look for dandelion poofs. Grab it with your hand and put it in something. When you have it over your pot, rub the floof between your palms over your pot. This will separate the tiny skinny 1mm long seeds from the floof. Then rub your palms over the soil to mix
Try not to mix it too deep, dandelion seeds need light to germinate. So you can see an obnoxious amount of seed and just weed the starts if there's too many. Little sprouts taste the best anyway
Maybe practice identifying this one, but its okau if you dont get it right. This will probably grow as a weed. Most look alikes intentionally grown in gardens are a different species of portulaca.
Purslane is sometimes grown or sold as a vegetable, particularly in Eurasia, or Spanish speaking parts of the Americas as verdolagas. It is one of my favorite vegetables. It is very common to see it growing as a weed, particularly in areas that are watered like a lawn or garden.
The seeds work. But you can also just grab the stems. With the roots can be good, but literally just snip a bunch of the stems, and stick them upright in your pot. Water, and they will most likely take root and start growing
Afaik this needs to nee sewn with seeds, but you could try cuttings just to prove me wrong. Transplanting young sprouts with an intact ball of soil around the roots would probably work too.
Once this goes to seed in your garden it will sprout on its own every year
Once this goes to seed in your garden it will sprout on its own every year
Most ecoregions have a native species of this. That is a good plant id quest. You can also grow the common one that grows as a weed everywhere. That maybe actually be a native species or at least hybrid
The new growth on an established plant or young sprouts are the best.
One thing that would be good to learn about in regard to eating this and purslane is oxalic acid
One thing that would be good to learn about in regard to eating this and purslane is oxalic acid
This is also present in spinach. It is hypothesized but not proven that high levels of it in the diet can contribute to kidney stones.
A really neat hypothesis for how to mitigate that is to cook the greens with something with calcium, like dairy. Paneer!!!
A really neat hypothesis for how to mitigate that is to cook the greens with something with calcium, like dairy. Paneer!!!
I will try and find an article about this. Cooking with dairy/calcium may be ideal, but you could also just have yogurt or a calcium supplement when you eat purslane, goosefoot or spinach
