Spiny Amaranth

I believe I have made a new discovery with my plant identifications. I am going to contact a local expert for verification, but in the meantime I am tentatively identifying a previously posted plant as spiny amaranth.
Here's a photo of my plant. One key characteristic that I am not really sure of is the plant's spiny texture... but I will confirm that tomorrow. It sure looks like a scary plant to me, and I used to regard it as evil. Alas, it may be quite valuable to us, as amaranth is a very nutritious food source.

I'm not going to go on a research tangent, as this was an accidental discovery during another research project. However, survivallady.com has a nice little blurb about amaranth in her post "Using Wild Plants As Food."

Wild and plentiful.

As far as fruit goes, just a bit of seasonal planning around here would have us covered for most of the year. The blackberries are so plentiful that we have to cut them back and mow them over to keep them under control. Good fruit May-June. Some of the bushes have gotten attacked by "rust."
I've also discovered a few patches of muscadines for late summer fruit, though I'm not sure what type of muscadines or whether we'll even get any if we are competing with the wildlife. It will be interesting to see what happens this year, anyway. Perhaps in August I can also try to root a few vines and plant them closer to the house. Most of those that are growing are pretty high up in the trees.

Aside from those, I have the figs and I would like to have mayhaw berries and plums but I'm still working on finding some plants. I've considered growing some citrus. Ronnie's kumquats are delicious and he's able to grow lemons and oranges over there, but they have been overtaken by bamboo and aren't doing so well. My mom thinks I should grow bananas! We will see about that...

There was a solitary pink wild morning glory plant growing by the road and I was waiting for it to make some seeds so that I could spread them around, but the city came and mowed down all of the plants and I finally found its mangled remains. No seeds, but perhaps something ate them.

There is good news for the morning glory, though not that one specifically. Over at Ronnie's he had a big pecan tree fall down during a storm and knocked down his power lines. As a result, all of the wild weeds in his front yard had to be bulldozed and the dirt was scraped bare. It was mostly privet and air potato vines over there anyway so he wasn't too heartbroken about it.
I wandered over there today and in the bare dirt has germinated hundreds and hundreds of little morning glories. There are some wild type as well as some cultivated (that Ronnie claims he planted years ago in another part of the yard). I find it quite amazing just how many seedlings are popping up, so I'm planning on transplanting a little patch of them to my part of the property to see how they do.

Funny all those little seeds must have been waiting there for years-- waiting to get a chance to touch the bare Earth.

More documentation...

I walked around the property again, just to get a good idea of what's going on in the places that I'm not visiting every day (though even in the few acres immediately around us, I find myself surprised to see whats growing!). Here's an example of things right around my house that I forgot to include in the last post...


Some of the flowers have died, but it's a really pretty little plant that Ive spotted in a few locations.

Here's a tour of the places we don't visit as often but are right around us.

This is one of the most beautiful places on the property. We have a grove of live oaks, water oaks and a few pines. Its nice and shady during the day and so far hasn't been heavily disturbed by the tallows.

A pine tree killed by pine beetles.

A surviving pine tree.

A live oak hidden in a tallow forest.

This area is often wet and boggy and was also heavily fertilized for decades when the cows were here. As a result things grow very well and there are tons of butterflies, moths and dragonflies.

I stopped along the way to eat some fresh blackberries :)

That's it for now. Another update coming soon!

Native plants and other things.

I'm growing less and less interested in conventional vegetable growing. I mean organic conventional vegetables too.
The local native plant society has done a lot to its website, and apparently has a new president. This is exciting. I've spent much of the day looking at different options for native plants and perennial vegetables. I'd like to eventually plant A LOT of fruiting trees and things like that. I like the idea of a forest garden, and I'm becoming more interested in open meadow plants as well.
All I'm saying is.. I have too many ideas to sleep.

Thats about it. Everything that is going on seems too huge, too important to explain.
I can hardly form a bullet list.
But here I'll try...

-I think my entire soul has been going through intense cleaning and purging.
-I feel like my life is coming together in one solid piece.
-We are officially moving on Wednesday.
-Big huge obnoxious plans.