About a month ago I harvested the water chestnut. I should have done that as soon as the leaves started to die and avoided losing some of the corms. The pots had stayed in the water too long and some of the corms rotted away. I managed to salvage what was left and had some to eat and other to replant. I should have taken the pots out of the water when the leaves started to go yellow and to harvest when the leaves die. I have planted the corms but they will remain out of the water until I see some shoots appearing. I hope to get bigger corms in the next harvest, that is if this lot will sprout.
The water cress is doing well and I must look at dividing the big clump. The leaves are delicious in salad or in a sandwich and if you are tired of parsley, the curled leaves of the water cress make a pretty garnish.
The garden is looking a bit bare and I have to think about spraying the peach trees to stop leaf curl but when I am ready the wind is too strong or it is raining. I am not complaining about the rain. I don't have to get up at six in the morning to water the garden but I am checking the pot planys as the wind do dry the soil pretty quickly. I am watering the pot plants, (especially the ranunculus), with sea weed solution to help them along. The vegetables too are being fed. I have been harvesting snow peas and brocolli and of course, the rainbow chards and silver beets are doing so well. The Chinese mustard green is sprouting all over the place so those not picked for the kitchen are thrown into the compost bin. I always make sure I have a couple of the Chinese mustard go to seeds so I do not run out of this slightly bitter vegetable. I bought the seeds over twenty years ago and from that packet of seeds I have passed on seedlings to other gardeners, over the years. If you think you do not have a green thumb try growing the mustard green.
This is a very mature mustard green, much too bitter for consumption.
The dandelion flower and leaves are fine to eat but I am not sure about the oxalis. A patch of my outside garden has been taken over by the oxalis. I pull them out and squash the nuts or corms and hopefully I can reduce the weed in this way. Digging up the ground only encourage more growth. I can put up with them in the lawn but they are a nuisance in pots and amongst the vegetables. For non-gardeners the sight of the yellow flowers in the lawn must be better than no flowers at all. Children do love the flowers so we cannot condemn the poor weed.
