Prompting Purslane Season

This summer has been the driest on record so far, with less than 3 inches of rain, and hot, with several days over 110 degrees and often remaining unseasonably hot late into the night. Not so good for plants!  I have been watering my recently planted pollinators every other day to keep them alive until the start of monsoon. I've even had to water my little veggie garden before going to bed at night to keep it going until morning.

Our first purslane usually pops up after two monsoon rains. But this year we never got the promised big monsoon. I was watering the area under the bird cage daily - in hopes that some sun chokes I planted last year would return. No go. But purslane came up instead. Last year I had planted some as a cover crop and they had spit out seeds.

Here it is on July 28th with the little yellow flowers which means it is going to seed. 

We harvested the purslane for breakfast five times so far, washing it over a bowl to catch the seeds. Then I poured the seeds where I was already watering. 

You can see where I left the roots and a bit of the branches to grow back. And the seeds have spread beyond the cage. Yes, I water my weeds. 

They grew big enough to harvest...

After washing them, I added the leaves and stems to some sautéed onions. 

Note: they shrink like spinach.  

I made a yummy breakfast scramble to celebrate the purslane season I had prompted. 

While it took some effort to keep my purslane alive, a large patch of it popped up along the side of a nearby restaurant. AC condensate off the tile roof? I grabbed a bag full before the landscapers could poison it with Roundup and planted it in my dry rainwater basin.  I hoped it would go to seed and spread like the round-leafed horse purslane had on rainy years.

I have been watering it daily to keep it going during this scorching weather. 

I found a big clump on Speedway that I carried home and planted.  I was looking forward to it spreading a lot of seeds. After watering it, it was already getting yellow flowers. 
 

But then I looked out the window and saw a flock of birds going to town on the seeds. 

I thought about rushing out to scare them away. But we had really built this basin for the birds. Besides, I was having a great time watching them. (These pics through the window don't capture the frenzy. lol)

I guess the birds took the Plants for Bird sign literally...

And the bunnies... Don't forget the bunnies. 

More about purslane: 

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2016/06/obsessed-with-purslane.html

Yep. I water my weeds

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! 

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:

http://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2016/07/still-crazy-about-purslane.html

Celebrating new traditions that represent our values

 

A few years ago, I joined the Zero Waste Tucson community on Facebook. I've learned so much from the group about how to enhance our lifestyle by reducing the use of single-use plastic by practicing the 5 R's of Sustainability: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot (compost). The holiday today got me thinking about a particular post... A member was fretting over how to tell her mother not to buy more plastic toys for her children. She knew it was a sensitive subject since that was one way her mother expressed her love for her grandchildren.  But her whole house was already full of plastic toys that the children only played with once. I imagine she didn't want her children to equate love with material possessions. Perhaps more important was her need for her mother to respect her shift in values - away from a consumer lifestyle. 

Since we transitioned to a reduced-waste lifestyle, we have become more conscious of our own wasteful consumer traditions during the holidays. We have found ways to celebrate the holidays that don't involve food waste, disposable plates, and wrapping paper. But gift giving was another matter. It was actually difficult for me when my grown kids no longer wanted to participate in a Christmas centered around gift giving - that was our family tradition. 

I still feel nostalgic when I hear Christmas music piped over the store intercoms in November (sometimes October!) It brings me back to happy times of exchanging gifts around the Christmas tree. But if I'm honest, there were more moments of disappointment, jealously, and stress. It was actually a relief when I didn't have worry about Christmas shopping anymore. I finally came to realize, at the ripe age of  53, what I really wanted was family time and tradition.

As I hear neighbors setting off fireworks every 4th of July, I feel conflicted. I don't want to scare the neighborhood dogs or risk a fire by following that tradition. While I still pine for those family get togethers, I realize that my values have changed. I no longer want to participate in another consumer holiday. During these challenging times, it's become important to me to build family traditions that fit with our new values. 

We're blessed to enjoy a rich sustainable lifestyle. That's worth celebrating! We've created some little traditions to do just that. I'd like to share some with you. 

Celebrate nopales season by picking pads and preparing a prickly pair brunch with a nopales scramble and prickly pear fruit lemonade or margarita. 

Celebrate purslane season by picking some purslane, rinsing it off over a bowl and pouring the little black seeds under a plant that's already being watered.  Then make your family's favorite purslane recipe. 

Celebrate mesquite season by gleaning pods before the first rain and eating mesquite pancakes or cookies.

Celebrate the start of Monsoon Season!  Rush out and watch how the rain is sinking into the catchment basins.  #lovemyrainbasin Take lots of pics!  Dance in the rain! Warm up with a hot bowl of soup made with food scrap broth. Sit on the porch and watch the storm roll in, toasting it with loved ones. 

Celebrate the moringa tree growing back after the monsoon by hanging branches out to dry into tea or making moringa soup with the green leaves and pods. 

Celebrate the summer harvest by picking tomatoes and basil grown in homemade compost with rainwater from the cistern by serving tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella on homemade bread. 

Funny how many of these traditions revolve around food. Some things never change!  

We've found these traditions all the more rewarding because they celebrate the fruits of our labor.  Here's to hoping you come up with some meaningful traditions of your own! Cheers! 

MORE IDEAS:

Greening the Holidays: How to Celebrate Sustainably

Sonoran Desert Foraging: What to Forage in Summer

Planting my spring garden in my desert food forest

There are numerous humorous memes about gardeners' addiction to buying too many plants. I get it. I did some of my own shopping at the recent Organic Gardeners Spring Plant Sale. I got some Jerusalem artichoke, cherry tomato, oregano, peppermint and mint starts and a free succulent clipping. 

My first task was figuring out a place to plant them that would give them the best chance to thrive. The woman who sold me the Jerusalem artichokes suggested that they could go in the same spot where I had previously planted sunflowers - on the south side of the house. There was still some compost left in the ground so I just added rainwater and a little potting soil that Dan had left over from an experiment. I sprinkled some used tea leaves on top as mulch. I went ahead and planted one of the tomato plants next to them to take advantage of the sun on the south facing wall.  

I was a little worried about critters getting to them. This little guy was watching me the whole time.

I remembered how the squirrels had dug up the sweet potatoes I planted in the garden. And Jerusalem artichoke roots are yummy, too. So I put protective cages over them. Good thing too. The next day I caught a squirrel pouncing on it. I think the squirrel and lizard were in cahoots because the squirrel loosened the dirt built up around the bottom of the cage allowing the lizard to get in. So I fortified the bottom of the cage with gravel.

Jerusalem artichoke plants after 8 days 

I found some purslane (my favorite edible weed) along the street and planted it just outside the cage to take advantage of any water run off.  In just two days it grew tiny yellow flowers.  I'm hoping it will spread its seeds. 

I hand-watered with rainwater from our cisterns every few hours to keep the soil moist. I suppose it would have been easier to have a string of ollas or a soaker hose. But this method gives me a chance to stretch my legs, get some fresh air and enjoy watching my plants grow. I like to use a watering can because the light stream prevents erosion of the soil I lovingly built. And hand-watering really teaches you that every drop counts.   

Next, I searched for a place for the other tomato plants. I found a spot with a dead milkweed by a boulder in the front yard.  I pulled it out by the roots. The soil was rich where the roots had been, so I just had to add water. An organic gardener suggested that I pull off the bottom leaves and plant them up to their top leaves to stimulate more root growth for a stronger plant. 

I had a little experiment in mind for the third tomato plant. I wanted to see how it would do as part of a mesquite guild - hoping it would benefit from the nitrogen in the ground. 

I planted the last tomato start in the backyard garden to see how it does in the shade of a palo verde in a thin blanket of compost.

I decided to plant some basil seeds next to it as complimentary plants. They share the water too. This time, I put the cage down first as a guide to see where the seeds should go. 

I secured the sides of the cage by patting down mud around the edges of the cage and placing rocks in the corners. Good thing too!  A squirrel ran right into it twice trying to escape from me.

I also planted some chard and kale seeds in other rows that I had already enriched with compost. Luckily one of our cisterns is near the garden. But it was running out of water! I'm afraid I hadn't thought through how much more water all this would take. 

And I still had to plant the oregano and mint! At least I had an olla to save water on two of the peppermint plants. The water seeps through the terra cotta pots and plants wrap their roots around the pot only taking the water they need. 

But there were still my other plants to water as well.  Our curry, which had grown so full after the monsoon rain, was now struggling.  First, it lost some leaves during the cold snap. Some of the remaining leaves are now browning. I think it was because I was only watering the surface.  

 

So I decided to deep water it (less often) with a slow drip from two little holes in the 5 gallon bucket.

It's important to learn how much water your plants need in the different seasons - so you don't overwater them. If the plant dies prematurely all the water that went into it is wasted. I recently found out that herbs don't need to be watered very often. I may have lost some herbs from over-watering. 

Luckily it recently rained filling up our big cistern, medium cistern and two smaller water barrels. I just wish we had another cistern (or two) to get us through the dry spells this spring. Because we have already emptied the two smaller blue water barrels and most of the medium cistern. We try not to use too much city water since Arizona is suffering from a 27+ year drought and Lake Mead (where we store our CAP water) is drying up. Conserving water in our landscaping can really make a difference since the largest use of potable water in Arizona is landscaping and as much as 70 percent of residential water use is outdoors. 

Dan and I are fortunate to a have greywater system so we can reuse our washing machine water to help irrigate our drought tolerant fig and pomegranate trees. We carry out sink rinse water to our Mexican Honeysuckle. We pour the water from steaming our veggies and cooking spaghetti around our trees to nourish the soil. (I leave the salt out of the water.) 

I think the lesson for me is to factor in how much water we can get in our cisterns, water barrels and greywater systems (with some supplemental city water) and grow the amount of plants that fit that budget. No matter how fun my little experiments are...

Here is Watershed Management Group's water budget calculator - if you want to check out how much rainwater and greywater you can get in your home. Have fun!

https://watershedmg.org/water-budget-calculator