The Kent (Ohio) Free Library is starting a seed library and the Snarky Gardener is helping out!
As the founder of Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns, I’ve been giving gardening talks at our local library – the Kent Free Library. My last presentation covered seed saving including the why’s and how to’s of saving seeds from one’s garden. I used several of my previous blog posts to develop my content, including tomatoes, peppers, mustard/kale/turnips, and beans, as I’m nothing if not lazy. For me, seed saving is a very important cause as it’s one of our most basic rights as human beings. Seeds have been saved and exchanged by individuals for thousands of years (no, they haven’t always been sold at big box stores or online). Seeds saved from your garden have been selected just by the very fact they survived and thrived at your location with your soil and environment. Add choosing the best specimens year after year (for taste or drought tolerance or color), and it turns the backyard gardener into a local plant breeder. Pretty cool and powerful stuff if you think about it.
A blurry picture of the Snarky Gardener giving his seed saving talk. Trust me – it’s really him. Or maybe Bigfoot.
Over this summer, the Snarky Girlfriend and I have been working with the KFL to start up a seed library. In a nutshell, a seed library is a central location for seed storage that allows community members to “check out” seeds. These usually come from donations, either from professional seed companies (like Johnny’s Selected Seeds), seed non-profits (like Seed Savers Exchange or the Cleveland Seed Bank), or preferably local amateur seed savers. Borrowers are encouraged (but not required) to return twice as much seed as they borrow, thus increasing the seed library’s inventory. Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns (KOFNL) has made a commitment to assist the library in maintaining the Seed Library and offering advice to gardeners who plan to save donated seeds. We held several seed repackaging parties this year to help KOFNL break down donated seed into business card size packets for distribution during our presentation events. I got the idea of seed packaging parties from my time spent with the Akron Seed Library earlier this year. The Seed Library of the Kent Free Library currently has a call out for seed donations and we should start organizing some repackaging parties this fall and winter. If you have donations (especially ones saved from your own garden) or want to participate in our “parties”, please send me an email at don@kofnl.org.
Don’t think of them as weeds. Think of them as dinner.
Looking at my garden, one would think I don’t do enough weeding. That’s on purpose as most of my weeds are edible (not to mention beneficial to my garden’s productivity and soil quality). Many of the plants others call “weeds” were brought to Northeastern Ohio via Europe or Asia as culinary herbs or vegetables. I also admire these plants for their ability to survive the most harsh conditions (including human poisons). I wish my regular garden plants had the same resilience. Below is a list (in order of deliciousness) of some plants that will turn your weeding chores into simply picking dinner!
One of my favorite weeds in my backyard, garlic mustard comes up early in spring and is ready to eat by Earth Day (April 22nd). The scourge of environmentalists and naturalists as an invasive species, this plant is actually a culinary herb. Garlic Mustard is not related to garlic but instead is a mustard variety that tastes like garlic. It originates from Europe and has no natural predators in North America (except for the Snarky Gardener).
Purslane is one of those weeds that doesn’t really look like anything else in your garden. It grows best on warm, dry, barren soil (like corn or squash mounds) once the heat of summer really hits. A few years ago when we were going through a drought, this was my only produce from the garden until July and August. Purslane is a succulent (reminds me of tiny little non-spiny cactuses cacti) so it tolerates lack of water when other plants in your garden are wilting. As for eating, it’s not bad with a slightly sour and salty taste, though can be somewhat slimy. Little known fact: purslane contains more Omega-3s than any other leafy vegetable source.
Lamb’s quarters are closely related to spinach and beets and is in the same family as quinoa. I found this in my yard last year and actually saved some seeds and tossed them into my garden. The plants I found almost didn’t make it as the friendly neighborhood groundhog seemed to prefer it over other things in the backyard.
Violets (a perennial) not only show up in my garden, they are also spread throughout my yard. I didn’t know until last year that they are edible but have been eating them ever since. The leaves are pleasant and remind me of spinach. Like many leafy greens, the earlier in the season the better.
Best way to eat violets: leaves and flowers in salads
Also known as white man’s foot, plantain is a yard and garden staple. It loves compacted soil, so you’ll notice it growing near where there is a lot of foot traffic. The leaves are full of nutrients with a spinach like taste. Plantain can be used medicinally for bug bites and scrapes.
We all know the good old dandelion. I laugh when people talk about eradicating them from their yards. Not only can it be eaten, but it helps in other ways. The yellow flowers give bees pollen early in the season when they need it the most. Its long tap root brings up minerals and nutrients that are then utilized by your garden plants. Just hoe the plant down and use the leaves as mulch around your veggies. Don’t worry – the tap root stores plenty of energy and will help the plant grow back in no time.
Best way to eat dandelions: young leaves in salads, flowers in fritters, and roots in beer or wine
This weed took me three years to identify as it’s not common enough to show up online easily. One season back a few years, after my last full tilling, this plant bolted like a banshee (is that a phrase people use?) and took over my garden (thus the quickweed name). Wished I would have known it was usefulness in salads back then. Would have had a delicious summer instead an endless weed battle that I eventually lost.
Hairy bittercress is a bitter herb in the mustard family. It’s winter hardy and will survive under snow and ice. It’s pretty small but can be used in salads or as an herb.
Best way to eat hairy bittercress: in salads before the plant goes to seed or eat the flowers
Dame’s Rocket
Dame’s Rocket (in the Brassica family like garlic mustard and hairy bittercress) is a domesticated plant that escaped into the wild. You see this plant by roadsides in the summer with either white or purple flowers. It just showed up in my garden a few years back and I’ve let it stay. The young leaves taste like a wild arugula. The flowers, which smell wonderful in the evening, are also edible. I will note here that my research says to eat Dame’s Rocket sparingly as it can cause vomiting (yum!).
Best way to eat Dame’s Rocket: young leaves or flowers in salads
Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum)
In the mint family. purple dead nettle is a bee favorite. It comes up early and often on bare ground in gardens. As a salad addition, the taste isn’t the greatest but a few flowers at a time doesn’t hurt too bad.
Best way to eat purple dead nettle: just a few flowers in salads
Ground Ivy or Creeping Charlie is a ground cover in the mint family. It’s not my favorite food but the bees seem to love it. Ground Ivy’s little purple flowers give plenty of nectar to small native insects. It’s strong mint-like flavor makes ground ivy a good companion plant and natural mulch.
Best way to eat creeping charlie: it’s too strong for my taste
The Snarky Gardener (of Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns) will be presenting “Easy Lazy Food Gardening” at the Kent Free Library on April 22nd at 7 PM.
The Kent Free Library begins a series of monthly programs focusing on backyard gardening with a presentation by Don Abbott of Kent Food Not Lawns on Wednesday, April 22 at 7:00 pm.
Abbott, a gardener, educator, and blogger, says that the biggest complaint most people have about gardening is that it’s too much work. He will suggest useful strategies you can start using this summer to have a productive food garden without all the hassle year after year.
All participants will receive free seed packets. Please contact the Information Desk at 330.673.4414 to register. Visit Upcoming Events for information about future gardening programs.
Registration is requested and is underway. Please visit or contact the Information Desk (330.673.4414) to register.
The Snarky Gardener tells you how to avoid weeds in your garden so you can do less work and produce more food.
Several of the Snarky Gardener’s weed avoiding techniques are shown in this picture (plus his dog River).
People and weeds have been enemies since the beginning of time. You plant the things you want and other plants have the audacity to grow instead. Ever wonder why this is the case? Are there techniques you can use to lower or even eliminate the problem? Of course there are – why else would I be writing this article? (OK, maybe just to hear myself type, as my ego does take over at times).
Let’s start by understanding what weeds are. In nature (and yes, your garden is in nature, despite what you try to do
to make it not so), weeds are used to cover and repair disturbances – fires, landslides, tree uprootings, volcanoes, sharknadoes, etc. Bare soil is bad as the sun will damage it and water will wash it away. Weed seeds are designed to sit in the soil for years and decades, just waiting for such an event. Then they spring to action, coming up fast and producing lots and lots and lots of seeds. After a year or two of this, other bigger species come in to take over (brambles, bushes, small trees, and eventually a whole forest).
When we till the soil, we are causing a giant disturbance. It helps to cause this explosion of activity which our annual garden vegetables like, especially the cabbages (aka brassicas – kale, mustard, turnips, collards, broccoli). Yes, I just called the vegetables we love to eat “weeds”. Several years ago was my worst season for weeds. It was also the last time I tilled my entire garden space. Coincidence? I think not. So what can we smarter gardeners do about the weeds?
Weed avoidance strategies
1. Don’t Till Very Much
Tilling should be kept to a minimum in your garden. If you are converting lawn or have some really compacted soil, then till away. I gave up my tiller a few years back and now use a broadfork instead. It’s still technically tilling but it’s gentler (especially to the worms) and you can only do so much damage by hand (pant, pant, pant). And to keep the soil from getting compacted in the first place, don’t step on the places where you want to grow stuff. Plan out your garden so it flows naturally, and then create permanent beds and paths.
Using my broadfork Big Blue
2. Use Mulch
Mulch is one of nature’s greatest inventions against weeds. Weed seeds need light to grow and mulch keeps the sun away from them (be it leaves, straw, hay, food scraps, wood chips, newspaper, cardboard, or even man-made materials like plastic). Plus organic mulch will break down and become more soil, helping your plants in the future. Also, mulch not only your planting beds but your paths too. Stomping on weeds keeps them at bay, but some actually prefer compacted soil.
Great way to collect free mulch.
3. Grow Cover Crops
Cover crops, like clover or mustard, will cover the ground and compete with weeds while making your soil better.
Covering the soil, fixing nitrogen, and beautiful too! Also, the seedy looking plants behind the clover are corn salad going to seed, which is making an on purpose weed.
4. Identify and Utilize Your Current Weeds
Have you ever looked up your garden weeds to see if they are edible or have other uses? There are plant identification groups on the Internet (Facebook, etc) that will help you to figure out what your weeds are. For example, I had one particularly obnoxious weed that would grow before anything else and would compete with my veggies. Took me 2 years to ID it, but I finally confirmed that it was Quick Weed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galinsoga_parviflora), an edible plant. Now I just eat it.
Plantain – an edible weed
5. Make Your Own Weeds
If you let your plants go to seed, especially the leafy green ones, you can establish your own edible ‘weeds”. I currently have oregano, lemon balm, corn salad, turnips, mustard, and several others that just come up all over the garden. Some are the first to be eaten in the spring before other less evolved gardeners are even planning their spring tilling. Some people see these plants as “invasive”, but I just think of them as perennial annuals.
The Snarky Gardener spent an evening with the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s Seed Sharing Library
On a random visit to the the Akron-Summit County Public Library, I discovered their seed library in the Science and Technology Division at their Main Branch in downtown Akron. A seed library is a collection of packaged seeds that can be “checked out” by community members. Up to six packets of seeds a month may be checked out. Borrowers are encouraged to return seed saved out of their gardens at the end of the season but it’s not required. Some plants that are straight forward to save seeds from, like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, and peas, are marked as “easy to save”.
With my Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns involvement, I have done research on seed libraries with thoughts of possibly starting one here in Kent. Currently there are efforts by state departments of agriculture to close down such libraries as they violate laws that were written for large scale seed producers. The issue seems to be not the lending but the receiving of seeds back. The concern is that the seeds of noxious or poisonous plants will be slipped into the system by unscrupulous people and that all seeds need to be professionally tested. At this writing, there have been cases in at least 3 states – Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Maryland. In the Pennsylvania case, the library compromised with the Department of Agriculture by agreeing to host several seed swaps a year instead.
A few weeks after my initial visit, I returned to the Seed Sharing Library, this time as a volunteer helping to split out donated seed into smaller packets. Most commercial packets have many seasons of seeds and can be divided into 4 or 5 packets without issue. Six of us spent 3 hours splitting out just a third of the donated and purchased seed. It became very tedious by the time we finished up. Nonetheless, if they have another packing event, I’ll be there with some of my Kent Food Not Lawns members. I’ll also be donating some of my own saved seed, including turnips, beans, tomatoes, and peppers.
The Snarky Gardener is expanding his food production area in 2015.
The Snarky Gardener will be a broadforking fool in 2015
The Snarky Gardener is expanding his growing space by 100% in 2015. He has plenty of room east of his current fenced in primary 50 ft X 30 ft garden. The new area will be approximately 60 ft X 20 ft (1,200 square feet). It won’t be fenced in but instead will be planted with vegetables that groundhogs and rabbits find less desirable (see Groundhog Love for the complete list). Garlic was already planted outside this fence during the fall. The Snarky Gardener doesn’t usually believe in rototilling as it damages the soil so he will be strategically broadforking just what he needs and when he needs it. He might also schedule a “broadforking class” a la Tom Sawyer through Kent Food Not Lawns or the Kent Community Time Bank to get additional assistance.
Unfenced Backyard Garden plan for 2015. The trees are actually pine trees.
Potatoes will be planted next to the garlic in April or so. Since potatoes are in the nightshade family, animals normally leave them alone (unless they are really hungry deer). Tomatoes will be planted along 2 fences (50 foot long and 5 foot tall) running east to west. These steel fences will be reused to fence in and protect other crops in future seasons. Added in between these tomato rows will be onions, leeks, peppers, and bush zucchini. Members of the Allium family (onions, garlic, chives, leeks) are generally avoided by animals, especially deer and rabbits. Some gardeners will specifically plant garlic around areas they want protected from unauthorized munching. The bush zucchini will be protected with fencing and/or cover until big enough to have protective spines. Years of groundhog intrusions (and watching the neighbor’s unprotected garden) have taught the Snarky Gardener that they won’t seem to mess with the spinier vegetables. Turnips, mustard, and clover will cover any other bare soil as living mulch. Turnips and mustard have been outside the fence for the years now at Snarky Acres without so much as a bite. Clover could be eaten by herbivores, but there’s plenty already out in the yard, so the SG is not concerned.
Steel fencing used as tomato cages
The Snarky Gardener will also be adding more hugelkultur mounds to his property. Last fall, there were 4 raised beds built with much sweat and cursing. At least two more will added to the south of these in the spring. The six plus will be filled with plenty of annuals, including tomatoes, peppers, beans, and greens. There are additional plans to build hugelkultur beds north of the garden where big, giant pine logs (2 feet in diameter) have been attracting groundhogs, poison ivy, and brambles. These logs will be cut up and used to create perennial herb, onion, turnip, and rhubarb beds. All these can handle a little shade as this area is in the 4 to 6 hour daily sunlight realm and should be left alone by the aforementioned plant-eating wild animals.
Those logs are where the new hugelkultur beds are going inFenced Backyard Garden plan for 2015. The brown rectangles indicate the raised hugelkultur beds.
One more thing: the Snarky Gardener may be adding second-hand vegetables (aka livestock) to Snarky Acres in 2015 and will be writing about it in the spring.
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