If you forage and eat wild greens like wintercress in early spring, you鈥檙e already a fan of their flavor and texture.
Now, seed companies offer certain cultivated wild greens that can be planted in your backyard gardens and raised beds. You鈥檒l have a ready-to-pick selection of delicious wild microgreens that also look beautiful and have a milder flavor than their wilder cousins.
The shining star of wild greens might be the leaves of the common and cheery yellow-flowered dandelion. They are ubiquitous in spring and summer on lawns and in fields just about everywhere. But the type to plant in your garden is not that weedy one 鈥� it's a cultivated version in the chicory family with leaves that look similar to wild dandelions鈥� long, narrow and serrated ones. The garden kind grows with larger leaves and produces a small blue flower. They also taste less bitter.
Cultivated dandelion leaves 鈥� try or " 鈥� can be eaten right through the summer and into the fall.
Two other wild greens germinate well and grow nicely in a garden spot: lambsquarters, or Chenopodium, and amaranth.
Lambsquarters grow with small green leaves that can be picked in spring and added to salads and soups. Try "." It'll self-sow and grow for many seasons in your garden.
More from 开云体育: When foraging for wild edibles, always identify before you try
The same is true with amaranth, also known as callaloo 鈥� a common cooking ingredient in Jamaican and African dishes. If you鈥檙e adding amaranth to dishes like soups and stews, harvest the greens when they're small.
One other wild green needs very warm soil to germinate and will be ready to harvest in midsummer: purslane. You鈥檒l see purslane creeping along the top of the soil with those succulent-looking stems and leaves. Try a new variety, called "," which grows golden-colored leaves and stems.
Tips for tackling a new leek pest
Q: I have a couple of questions about leeks. I've grown them for many years, starting them from seed. There's a pest that's tunneling in them. I'm not putting any leek waste into the compost so it won't survive and multiply. How do I combat that pest problem? And, many of the leeks bolted last summer, making flower stems and then, kind of like a hard neck, as in garlic. It's never happened before. Do you have any idea why those things are happening? - Dale, via email
A: A relatively new insect has come to our region that goes after all allium plants, including garlic, onions and leeks. The lays its egg on the allium leaf, which hatches and grows into a caterpillar that tunnels down into leeks and allium bulbs. The hungry caterpillar can then destroy the growth point.
Try a couple of different methods to combat the leek moth, starting with rotating planting locations. Avoid planting any other alliums in the same bed for four years.
Another technique is to cover the entire bed where you鈥檝e planted alliums with micromesh. It鈥檚 like a light, flexible screen that you can see through and water through. This layer of protection keeps the moths from ever laying their eggs on your plants.
More from 开云体育: Your garlic, shallot and onion plants might need protecting from the leek moth
As for bolting leek plants, this is common under certain conditions. If we have ideal warm spring conditions followed by a sudden cold snap, that will often stimulate the flower stalk to form. Another possibility is that there is too much fertilizer or compost that causes an imbalance in the soil and moves the leek plants to bolt.
Try protecting plants this spring, especially if you see a day of colder temperatures forecasted, and don鈥檛 fertilize them at all.
Is early raking bad for bees?
Q: I've heard that it's smart to not rake your lawn early because the bees are still in a state of hibernation or not yet ready to leave all the leaves that might be on your lawn. Is this true? - Kathy, via email
A: It is indeed true that raking too early can disrupt the native bees. They're not really out of hibernation yet and raking the leaves up may disturb or even damage them.
With a mix of patience and a series of days with temperatures over 50 or 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the bees will be out of their winter homes and you can tackle your yard clean-up.
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