That's right. That's me watering my weeds... the edible purslane I planted in my yard, that is.
I had this brilliant idea that I could spread the yummy common purslane throughout my rainwater harvesting basin in place of the less palatable horse purslane that had completely covered it last summer (see pic below). Don't get me wrong. I loved my living horse purslane mulch. Even wrote a blog about it. I hoped that it would help retain the microbes in the soil at least.
I had taken great pains to pull the purslane out by the roots, plant it by a few Mexican sunflowers and protect it from critters with a plant cage. I always like to plant purslane where I am already watering something to save water. But if I'm honest, I was really using the sunflowers as an excuse to water the purslane during this record heat wave. OK, I was propagating the purslane. And if the non-soon wouldn't water it - I would - with rainwater from our cistern.
Meanwhile, in the (fake) decorative river in my neighbor's yard volunteer purslane was flourishing. I asked my neighbor not to spray Roundup on it so I could harvest it. Just in time too! He was just heading out there with the hula hoe to mow it down. Off I went to harvest some for breakfast. Yay!
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| Yummy! |
So I got a little carried away...
Actually, in the produce bag was some overgrown purslane I gleaned by Udall Park that I planned to plant. Since there were little flowers on it, I figured it was close to going to seed and would spit out those seeds in the yard.
After the purslane in the plant cage flowered, I removed the cage with the hope that the seeds would spread and be watered by the next rain (if there is one.)
Click on the pic below to see the yellow flowers on the purslane ready to burst out seeds!
I can only hope that it will do better than the horse purslane that is wilting in the scorching sun.
The horse purslane that got more water from the downspout is looking more perky. It worked great to slow down and sink in the rushing water when we had that big storm. Now the plants are benefiting.
NOTE: These are only being watered by the rain.
I don't know if we will ever get enough rain to spread the purslane through the basin, but the neighborhood bunny is sure enjoying the evaporative cooling from the water I put on the purslane.
#lovemyrainbasin
Here's a few purslane recipes:
That purslane really dig spit out seeds! A flock of birds was really going to town on them! Doh!
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