Doomsday planning is everywhere, it seems. On cable TV there are at least two different series about people who are stocking their bunkers for one type of apocalypse or another. At the movies and in kid-lit, the latest hit it The Hunger Games–a big part of which is about teenagers hunting and foraging and living off the land. When they’re not trying to kill each other. And then there’s this whole global warming thing.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise, really, that the cover story in the latest issue of Mother Earth News is about growing just the type of plants in your yard that survivalists and Hunger Games fans are talking about.
They are perennial vegetables of the type your would forage for in the woods should the end times come. And you can grow them in your back yard, front yard, around the foundation. Just about anywhere in fact.
Perennial vegetables are the next big trend in gardening. Unlike the broccoli and tomatoes we plant every year, perennial vegetables are supposed to come up year after year without replanting. They’re the food your grandmother or great grandmother might have searched out during the Great Depression.
We’ve been fascinated by the idea of eating “weeds” since we talked about it with Chris Conatser for our book. There’s a whole world of food out there that’s been unknown to us mainly because of the attitudes of past generations. Europeans, for instance, turned their noses up at foods commonly eaten by native Americans.
So the Mother Earth News article has us all excited about planting some edibles in various under-used spots around the yard. Who knows, maybe if we can eat them, we’ll take better care of them than we do the flowers.
But what to plant? Mother Earth lists ten suggestions. But which ones will grow best in the quirky Kansas City area climate dead center in the USA?
I did some extra researching, and here’s the lowdown:
First, let’s dispense with some of the perennials in the list that are common to this area. Asparagus, rhubarb, lovage and sorrel. We already know these will grow here. In fact we already grow them or have in the past. So let’s look at something more adventurous.
1.Ramps–Otherwise known as wild onions. If you’re a regular reader of cooking blogs or the New York Times food section, you’ve heard of ramps. People in east coast restaurants are apparently wild for them–so much so that they are in danger of being over-gathered.They are a protected species in Quebec.
But can you grow them here? Well, it sounds like it’s a possibility. But it won’t be as easy as it would in the East and Southeast, where you hear more about them. For one thing, ramps love being in the woods and shade, especially if there is decomposed leaf matter in the soil. They also need a constantly moist soil, and this can be an issue here, where as I’m writing we’ve had a decidedly dry winter and spring. But even so, we might try them at the low end of our yard, under the trees that surround our tiny pond.
(Fun fact: The city of Chicago got its name from this plant, according to Wikipedia. A thick growth of ramps in the area was mistakenly identified as the Chicagou, the native name for another type of wild onion, the story goes.)
2. Groundnut. No, Mother Earth is not talking about the peanut. This is apios americana, aka Indian potato. This plant is said to grow well in climates of the north, such as Wisconsin. It’s a long vining plant that grows tubers underground of various sizes. There’s not much to be found on cultivation, however.
It’s a plant that loves to grow along river sides, using nearby trees to support the long vines and that gives me pause, when thinking about it as a backyard plant. We do have trees, but again, the moisture can be a problem when the hot winds blow. As they are doing today, April 1.
3. Good King Henry. This is a relative of spinach which used to be common in English gardens. You can eat not only the leaf but also the stalk and flower buds, which resemble broccoli. You want to cook the leaves, though. This plant likes medium moisture and full sun, but in hot dry climates like ours grows best in light shade. Hmmm. This might be one to consider.
4.Sea Kale. As the name would suggest, this vegetable likes a somewhat sandy soil and grows best in coastal areas. Sounds like a “no.”
5.Jerusalem artichoke. Or sunchoke. These are offered in garden catalogs and for some reason I’ve never tried growing them. But they have pretty flowers that look a lot like our native prairie plants. They’re native to the central part of the country, grow where corn grows, need 125 frost free days and don’t need a lot of pampering. Sign me up! The only drawback I could find was that they don’t like heavy clay, but our soil has been pretty well amended by compost.
6. Chinese artichokes. I can’t resist these because of the quirky way they look. They’re related to mint and like full sun or part shade and a moist area. Okay, so maybe I’ll water.
I hope it isn’t too late to plant some of these this year, but it may be. Then again, there’s always next year.
Posted by: Roxie
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