Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Glad for the responses on walking onions, didn't know if they're well known
or rarely grown and used.  Spicier plants have many, many uses, and even
without significant bulbs the stems should flavor soups, salsa, etc. Those
tiny bulblets are fascinating to replant. I'm always interested in food
plants that come back year after year whether they self seed, fall over and
replant themselves like walking onions, or just resprout from the previous
year. These sort of plants take less attention and seem to be ideal for
no-till areas too. That alone makes them invaluable for home growers. We
picked up some Jerusalem artichokes - perennials - at the Santa Fe farmers
market, but they shouldn't be planted this close to frost, should they -
wait for spring. And since the jackrabbits seem to crave the young plants
stem and all, they'll have to be fenced. We still have the red variety from
mail order last winter but haven't got around to that yet, with all the
relocating and rebuilding.  I always wonder at how much sheer optimism it
takes to build soil and plant knowing you won't see your reward for months
or years, if ever. I broadcast some buckwheat and vetch a month ago, but
the rabbits found the buckwheat to their liking, so adios for this year.
We'll see if the vetch has time to establish before hard freeze - 6,250
elev.  Rambling ...


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau