Allen Boatman has confirmed that the species of Goose Foot that he gave me babies of last year in a one gallon pot originated on Jon and Debbie Butts' EcoFarm in Plant City, Florida. Thankfully the tiny stunted looking plants reseeded into the damp, fertile baby pool garden I had set the pot into and all this winter the seedlings have grown vibrantly. They are now almost three feet tall and just starting to bloom so I should be able to harvest a LOT of seeds to share. The leaves are wonderfully mild and tender, zero bitterness whereas some chenopods, like quinoa, are high in bitter saponins. After many of my failed attempts, this is the first Chenopod to do well for me here in Tampa after growing several varieties effortlessly in my Denver gardens for fifteen years....there they reseeded to the point of being a welcomed "weed"! Allen is a brilliant plantsman, generous, and an all-around nice guy. Lots of gardeners in the area still miss his passionate, innovative stewardship of the land at the sadly now-long-closed Falkenburg Jail Gardens.

I've been using kimchi and cultured veggies in some dishes in place of plain salt, like today's omelet....adds saltiness AND extra flavor. Also, today I ate raw for the first time a few of those perennial, replicating "Indian Shallots" from that member of the TRFC after cooking with them for months now. I was very surprised as to just how mild and sweet they are...I am almost disappointed as I like very "in your face" onions. They sure do grow and replicate well in container gardens!

This is NOT an April Fool's joke! Take it from me...never EVER plant Perennial Morning Glory (Ipomoea acuminata) as I naively did ten years ago, having paid a premium price for a tiny mail order plant! Been battling it ever since! No seeds as far as I can tell but it creeps like crazy and ROOTS where ever it touches! A "water hyacinth" of the land!

http://www.logees.com/Blue-Dawn-Flower/productinfo/R1952-2/

Easy to use a colander to harvest duckweed from this road side scavenged dinghy for chicken food. Gambusia minnows prevent mosquito breeding, and hot water cabomba below the surface is great chicken food too. As I recall duckweed is edible for people too and is 40% protein dry weight. John

I'm discovering that Jon and Debbie Butt's mystery sweet potato is EVEN more productive than I thought as I clean up the front yard for spring! Turns out that even though I repeatedly pulled up vines that had snaked across the pathways into roses and perennials gardens, many managed to make sweet potatoes in those beds where the vines touched the ground! It was a BIG mistake to plant them in my west bed of rambling roses out front as the vines were virtually unstoppable despite me and my yard helper Paul pulling them up repeatedly all summer, so I will remove them ALL and plant starts in my east and west beds out back to hopefully choke out weeds for me this year as it is no longer practical to let the chickens into either due to all the productive container gardens in there. Thanks for this truly amazing cultivar, whatEVER it is!

Very inspiring!

http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/03/26/garden-pool-brings-sustainable-farming-to-the-desert-dark-rye?cmpid=foodinc-fb

Last year Andy Firk gave me one as a present, and even though I failed to keep it damp enough and it wilted a few times (even though it is in a buried 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in the center of my round dedicated sweet potato garden fence off from the chickens) it still bloomed and fruited. THE biggest best tasting loquats I've ever eaten! Andy says that young loquats are notoriously thirsty, so I've given the entire garden plus the bucket a few deep waterings, and am now mulching the entire garden with old logs, oak leaves...branches...the finale' will be a THICK mulching with fresh green Tithonia diversifolia branches. I'll be curious if the sweet potato vines will be able to make it up through all that, plus if by next winter that layer will have decayed enough to allow me to harvest the sweet potatoes. The 4 foot tall fence all around the garden supports several African Jack Beans (Canavalia ensiformis). I'll keep folks posted on how this unfolds, though I wish I'd thought to take pics of the huge fruits in my hand before I ate them all!

http://ediblelandscaping.com/dev/products/trees/Loquats/ChristmasLoquat.php