Good morning Arizona. I've been wiped out, flat on my back, with a respiratory illness. I haven't been this ill in years. I think I'm turning around this morning though.
Just as a heads up, the average last frost date in Phoenix is Feb. 5 and in Tucson it is Feb. 28. That means its time to plant seeds inside for the summer garden if you haven't already done so!
I started started some seeds a couple days ago for transition type things, but I think I'll get to the main vegetables today: Tomatoes, egg plants, peppers. I think I'll wait a bit for the cucurbits and maybe even put most of them directly in the soil.
Does anyone out there know about or eat Purslane (
Portulaca oleracea), also known as Verdolaga? I'm wondering if it's the same species of Purslane that grows here in the Southwest and even if not, is it edible?. I eradicated it from my yard and now I'm reading a lot about it and wondering if it might be great for the chickens--and us too. I planted some from Seeds of Change to try, but it'd be great if it grew wild in the quantities that I found when I first moved into this place.
I also wanted to rave about a local seed store called Native Seed Search (
http://www.nativeseeds.org/). They collect seeds from the southwest that have been grown here for generations, sometimes thousands of years in order to preserve their unique traits and histories. The great thing is most of the plants are drought tolerant and adapted to our environment. For example, the tomatoes I've grown from there far outperform anything I could get at the local big box store. The yields from the wild tomatoes aren't that great but you will never forget the flavor. The wild birds ate a lot of them and now I have them growing in various parts of the yard and back alley.
Mahonri--good luck with the garden! I'm hoping you guys are done with frost for the year.
Bob's Henhouse and
Chillmiller--Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your man toys. Chill, my property isn't even big enough to park all those vehicles!
To all of you organizing supplies to help the less fortunate:
O.K. here are my gratuitous garden pics for the day: