Soupe du jour: Goutweed

Okay, Mr. Nassichuck: this one's for you...since you seem to share my incredulity that this stuff is edible.


I sort of followed the recipe at http://tofufortwo.net/2008/05/21/goutweed-soup, which involved frying two onions & garlic, adding a generous slosh of white wine, two cups of veggie broth (used the Harvest Sun organic veg bouillon cubes), and two packed cups of GOUTWEED straight from the weedy patches out in my garden, then briefly bringing it to a boil, adding a half cup of bread crumbs, and blending it up in the blender.

Voila--tasty, with no weediness whatsoever. I gather that you can just use goutweed as a replacement for spinach/kale, as I also saw an omelette recipe, and I don't notice any strong flavour that requires careful balancing. But then, it's hard to compete with garlic and onions... I guess hardcore wild-crafters out there would do a salad, straight-up.

...I just did more online research, because I had the fleeting thought that, despite its edible-ness, goutweed might have no nutritional value whatsoever...and I just found a very cool website called Sacred Earth: Ethnobotany and Ecotravel with a goutweed discussion at http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/Goutweed.php Woo-hoo! There are more recipes on this page. So apparently, "it is a good source of vitamin C and A as well as minerals such as iron and manganese" etc. etc.

Eat your soup kids!

"Stop the Pave" community action

I'm starting to hear reports today on CBC radio about the community protest on the South Fraser freeway construction site.

On Friday (Earth Day) I cycled out to Delta with a friendly convoy of activists/cyclists/permaculturists/media reps meeting up with the protest march organized by the Stop the Pave folks.

The South Fraser freeway is just part of an extensive plan around the lower mainland to construct major freeways through sensitive communities/agricultural land/ecological sites in order to "ease traffic congestion" to the ports/city centres. As usual, billions of dollars are freely distributed for backwards-thinking projects, ignoring transit/rail/tugboat options that would provide more sustainable solutions.

Protestors are camping onsite over the Easter weekend, and plan to disrupt work on Tuesday. I guess we'll hear more then. Highway projects such as this have been stopped before, even at this stage. It's not just a local issue--although residents in the area have obvious health/environmental concerns.

For me, it's an "if not now, when?" issue. Do we keep powering through economic priorities until we all go up in smoke? Or do we start factoring in survival issues, and recognize that we are quite mistaken in the belief that "economy-first" thinking protects our comforts/lifestyle/standard of living.

What are we willing to sacrifice to keep stocking Walmart and shipping raw resources out to feed the Chinese industrial machine, a well-known environmental and human rights offender?

Here's a view back from the Alex Fraser Bridge, to the freeway cut-bank site next to River Road in Delta. For coverage, see http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/ for Dawn Paley's articles and Sandra Cuffe's photo essays, or see http://stopthepave.org/ for organization information.

To end on a warm fuzzy note, here's a bit more yarn-bombing on Commercial Drive--I'm seeing a theme here...knitting for things we care about...

Street Tree Preservation

I ventured over town this past week, for a gardening day at Bev's ("over town" being north shore terminology for crossing bridges to big city Vancouver). I don't do this often, but Bev used to live over here and moved to one of my favourite neighbourhoods (Commercial Drive) so I broke my rule about crossing bridges... Here she is, backlit with the East 6th Elms (and Baggins the Scoot).

One of the nice things about being "over town" is the profusion of avenues lined with magnificent old hardwoood trees. I love riding through the cool tunnels of over-arching branches in the summer, and the lace-work of bare branches in the winter is a relief from linear concrete.

In fact, just last week, I was taking pics of trees for painting-references...

...and I think I took this one of the Hornbeams somewhere near West Broadway because the pruning of the trees around the hydro lines on the right side seemed so drastic, however necessary.

So this week, the topic came around to the East 6th Ave neighbourhood fight to save their elms, 31 of which were pronounced unstable by the Vancouver Parks Board and slated for removal.

The local community stepped up and challenged the assessment, demanding a more discriminating process with a much higher priority to preserve the treescape. As a result, the number of trees slated for immediate removal was reduced to six!

Thanks to this community action, the Vancouver Parks Board is revising their street tree management plan in consultation with local residents, formally recognizing the environmental, heritage and community value of trees.

I thought I'd include a truncated list (pardon the pun) from the East 6th Elm Fact Sheet, to remind us all of the wide-ranging benefits of street-trees. Their reference is "Planting Our Future - A Tree Toolkit for Communities' published by the Union of BC Municipalities, 2008.

Trees:

Create livable communites

Are good for business

Encourage people to visit

Reduce stormwater costs

Prolong the life of pavement

Make communities safer

Provide recreational and educational opportunities

Increase property values

Provide stress relief

Reduce noise

Support biodiversity

Support ecosystem function

Help protect streams and aquatic habitats

Conserve and enhance soil productivity

Support sustainable transportation

Improve air quality

Provide air to breathe

Improve water quality

Reduce the heat island effect

Reduce energy bills

Garden Make-over using existing plants...

We decided to revive this section of Jim & Wren's garden (two "before" pictures below), where rampant English bluebells have taken over, the big round Hebe buxifolia suffered a final bout of winter damage, and Wren wants an overall "simplification" and "coherence" of the planting.

The dead grass bits cover the as-yet bare patch where the giant banana grove will emerge shortly. So you have to imagine that a giant banana grove is part of the picture... That's a grape on the arbour, and a fig tree's bare gray branches to the right.


This is another view (fig branches on the left/damaged Hebes in the foreground), extending to the other garden bed beyond the banana grove and the dividing pathway. I'll be rearranging that bed this coming week.

So here's the garden make-over, still at a stage where you have to play "Imagine With Me"...

• Stepping stones rearranged in an arch around banana grove and aligned with steps.


• English bluebells removed (save that errant patch right next to the patio...??) and transplanted to a no-man's-land around the side of the house.


• Lavender transplanted in an arch around the stones.


• Dutch iris from elsewhere in garden transplanted to pocket bed between stones/lavender.
  

See photo below for different angle...

• Three Hebe ochracea 'James Stirling' (the bronzy-gold-green whipchord hebe, which remains the hardiest and most un-hebe-like cultivar) are now grouped just to the left of the lavender-arch.


• Brilliant orange Asian lilies transplanted in front of the hebe, divided from two pots on the deck.


• Deep blue Siberian iris/Iris sibirica divided from one large patch into a swath in front of the upright grass/Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', also divided and extended into a swath sweeping around the Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' and Choisya ternata 'Aztec Pearl' just outside the picture frame on the left.

So this was fun, and I've saved bits of the perennials to work into the layout on the other side of the pathway. The oranges/bronzes/blues should "pop" together, and the overall shapes of the foundation plantings frame the focal points (banana/fig/magnolia) in a new, pleeeaaasing way (I feel very British when I say that. I'm not British.)

I'll post pics when everything flushes later in the season.

Edible "Weeds": Aegopodium podagraria/Goutweed

Also known as "Aaaaaagh-opodium."

Ironically, I often say to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if a plant that we constantly curse in our gardens turned out to be...edible/medicinal/pleasantly hallucinogenic/etc. ?"

I actually found out last spring that Goutweed is edible, because a friend noticed some Korean ladies harvesting a patch outside his fence, inquired about their mission, and later received a sample of the savoury and stir-fried dish they had prepared with it. (That said, please don't go out grazing without clear identification.)

I was reminded of this, when I optimistically tackled this crop at Daphne's this past week.

Goutweed, besides curing gout in medieval days and making nice Korean stir-fry, is a terrible, terrible weed to try to eradicate from garden beds. My only hope is to force its retreat back from the area where we want to plant perennials. I've dug a trench between "weeded soil" and the rockwall/shrubberies that are already hopelessly invaded with Goutweed's running roots. In the trench, I'll install a line of metal flashing, sunk to bedrock in this shallow soil.

In two weeks, I'll go back and re-weed any fragments that have resurrected themselves (as they do) and remain vigilant for the next ten years.

Alternatively, I will make Aaagh-opodium soup, or perhaps invent an Aaagh-opodium Green Drink. There's enough supply. A quick google reveals many recipe suggestions for Goutweed, but not much info about nutritional value. Can we not assume that all leafy green edible things are terribly terribly good for you?

[**See April 24th post because I found more info/made soup etc.**]

Plants of the week...Kerria japonica, Fritillaria imperialis (etc.)...and a yacht.

First, a couple beauties from "my" gardens...

Here's a promo for Kerria japonica, the lovely shrub with bright green arching stems that bloom like so at this time of year.

Hard to capture its loveliness on camera--a very delicate fountain of round yellow buds held on the topside of the branches, blooming first from the tips. Every spring, Anne & I congratulate ourselves for planting it next to the front steps, where everyone gets a top-down view (and where it remains an attractive specimen with its fresh green colour and vase-like shape throughout the season.)

And below, the Fritillaria imperialis at Roswitha's are suddenly set to burst. If I miss them, I will be rightfully ticked, as this is the first time I've grown them.

And...a cycle-by garden on a harbour-front road in Vancouver over the weekend. Isn't this an amazing combination...

Purple heather, red-stemmed 'Senkaki' Japanese maple, and the chartreuse flowers of Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii'. Love it.

And below, this was a moment that I wish I could have shared with every sentient being in the universe.

There was a biting wind off the harbour, the sky was clear sunshine and cherry clouds, and the air was a wild pink petal-storm. Gotta love the west coast.

And oh ya, there was this yacht. The biggest yacht I've ever seen. That is a tanker in close proximity, for scale. I'm not particularly interested in yachts, but this was like a UFO landing.

Silver Tree Pendant

Here are my authentically-dirty gardener-fingers, presenting a pendant necklace designed by Tashi (Wren and Jim, for whom I work). As you can see, the lovely little Japanese Maple in the background modelled for it. I think this may be a gardener's definition of delight.

There certainly has been a run of tree-inspired artwork lately--and I just heard today that 2011 is the "Year of the Tree." So there you go.

You can find Tashi jewelry online, and also in local gift-shops. (I think my career as a hand-model may have just been launched.)

In between the rains...

...take time to admire the Narcissus (naturally)...

...and the Anemone blanda casting a starburst shadow...

...and new delphinium leaves stretching like sunbrellas...

Okay, that should keep us going for the next week of forecast rain.

Tree-Cozy Yarn-Bomb

These have been showing up around town, and they make me happy. I'm knot a knitter, but I'm all for hugging trees.

Skunk Cabbage/Swamp Lantern/Lysichiton americanum

Must be spring...ah, the scent of swamp lanterns in the gullies; here, creekside at Patricia and Bob's.

Apparently, indigenous people used to rely on these as "famine food" in the early spring. That means they don't taste very good.

This gully has been over-run by the notorious silver-nettle vine/Lamium maculatum, which is commonly sold in nurseries and often comes in annual hanging baskets. People tend to toss spent annual baskets "over the bank", where the silver-nettle vine takes hold and spreads like wildfire. Between this and rampant Himalayan blackberry and a peculiar herbaceous invasive bamboo, this gully becomes impenetrable without some shared vigilance between me & the neighbour.

Guerrilla Composting and Associated Fashion Tips

[Addendum to previous post: Compost, Worms, Mulching: All Good Things]

If you live on the edge of society, as a renter for example, you may not have ultimate authority over what kind of Soil-Improvement System is installed in your vicinity. Landlords n' ladies have their own ideas about what category "composting" falls into, and vermin-attracting is one.

I know, I know, the irony is astounding: that I (who find it genetically and vocationally impossible to throw organic matter into the garbage) can't install the municipal-standard-issue black plastic composter in "my" garden...but there is a way.

Initially, I had a Worm-Composter--basically, a worm farm in a large rubbermaid bin--that turned out to be a little small for my composting needs. I could still do it--if I had two rubbermaid bins, but I discovered Guerrilla Composting in the meantime.

First thing is to allay suspicion by donning whimsical apparel, like this fleece-lined bandana-babushka, available at Mark's Work Wearhouse.

The bandana-babushka is very versatile, and while it also mainly functions as a scooter-neckerchief, it also provides an effective disguise (opening photo) while guerrilla-composting.

Guerrilla-composting is simple. Dig a hole. At least one foot down. Dump in your bucket of kitchen compost and mash it up with your shovel. Cover up and pat down. I have a large heavy stepping stone that I plunk on the spot, to discourage small digging critters that may be so inclined.

I also have two or three "digging spots" and by the time I rotate through them, the compost has broken down and more can be added without overloading and attracting vermin. I've never had a problem with rats/raccoons digging for the goodies buuut I once had a bear toss aside my stepping stone like a flip-top beer cap and mess around. So I tend to limit my guerrilla tactics to the bear-offseason.

In my landlord n' lady's defense, we do back onto a greenbelt/wildlife corridor, and it is common in the summer to have black bears wander through the neighbourhood. That said, these bears are usually attracted by far-superior garbage odours--which would be virtually eliminated if you have a functioning compost system and don't put food waste in the garbage cans. Except for meats/grains of course.

One day, the municipality will include compost-pickup on garbage days. Or we will all keep chickens and feed it all to them. And then I can retire my bandito-bandana-babushka.

Compost, Worms, Mulching: All Good Things

Here's the newest **On-Site Soil-Improvement System** at Roswitha's: built last year by Allen, who officially comes to clean the pool and ends up building composters/fostering cats etc. (Sometimes Roswitha's is like a sitcom.) The boards in the front panel can slide up and out for easy shovel/fork access when the piles need turning or emptying. The plywood lid is invisibly propped back against the fence.

This (above, still) is exactly one-season's worth of yard-waste compost. I turned it over this winter, to see how much it had broken down, and was pleased with all the humus-y material.

I should clarify that I was selective about what I put in there--mainly perennial and annual soft green debris, pond scum, and soft deciduous tree leaves (as opposed to cedar or crunchy rhodo leaves). I wanted the pile to compost quickly and cleanly, so I dumped weedy/woody debris on discard piles elsewhere on the property. (In fact, I leave a lot of natural leaf debris in place in the woodland garden, and use cedar debris to mulch pathways.)

There was still a lot of leafy debris in the mix, so I rescued an ancient soil-sifter from the ancient greenhouse, and attempted to sift. The compost was too clumpy, the wire mesh too small, so this was too time-consuming. (I use a bucket instead of a wheelbarrow, because this property is too steep, so Sherpa-techniques work better.)

So I found this wire in the garage, and started sifting. The biggest bits went into my Lee Valley canvas bag...

...and I distributed this bounty of leaf-mulch around big rhododendrons and magnolias.

I ended up with several Sherpa-loads of fine compost--and you can't buy stuff this good.

Humus like this is full of active bacteria and nutrients...and worm poo...

These are Red Wigglers, the worm genus that tends to hang out in compost bins. If you've heard of Worm Composters/Bins, these are the guys you want. After bacteria break down organic matter, Red Wigglers move in and "process" it into a nutrient-rich humus directly accessible to plants. In human terms, it's like taking grain and processing it into bread--a form that we can digest.

If you see these little golden space-pods in your compost, you know you have a healthy system going on. (They're worm eggs.) The little pillbug ambling through the shot is also part of the compost community.

So we ended up with enough sifted compost to mulch all the pots/planters on the pool deck...

You can buy soil amenders, but nothing compares to fresh compost.

Yellow Tree, Blue Tree...Red Tree

I'm seeing these Cornelian-cherry dogwoods everywhere, ever since I commented on them in an earlier post. So ya, edible fruit. July-ish. Pretty tree--and I've been seeing them as street trees and around condos. They bloom at the same time as forsythia--the scrambly shrub everyone loves for its early showy yellow bouquets. Tends to out-shine the Cornelian-cherry, which accounts for my not taking much notice in the past, but you can't eat forsythia so..!

Can't miss these...

Love it. On the corner of 14th and Marine in West Van, Australian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos has just installed this "environmental performance art" called The Blue Trees. They're going to bloom, hopefully before the rain washes all the water-base paint off. I want to paint myself blue and stand next to them with a pink umbrella. I want to have a picnic under them on a blue blanket. I want a flock of bluebirds to land in them.

**next day**

I couldn't resist adding a "Red Tree" to my Dr. Seuss list...

This is the Coralbark maple/Acer japonicum 'Sango Kaku/Senkaki' with the bright red new growth of Photinia x fraseri behind.

Also in John and Margot's garden, the Katsura tree/Cercidiphyllum japonicum below flushes out reddish, and the leaves shift blue-green later in the season.

Liquid sunshine after a cold deluge all morning!

Spring Clean-up of Ornamental Grasses

Here's a few shots of mangy-lookin' grasses that need a little spring clean-up. (Also Spiderpants Coupey, svelte-ly and subtly keeping company with the gardener.)

Some ornamental grasses, like the semi-evergreen blue oatgrass/Helictotrichon below, just require a good hand-combing at this time of year. This grass will release dead brown bits as easily as...a cat sheds fur...leaving a nice crop of live blue blades.

Other grasses, like the tall and wavy maidenhair/Miscanthus or the short n' plumey fountain/Pennisetum grasses (no pics available) look even more brown and broken this time of year because they die back to the ground in winter. You can't tug away the dead stems--you have to cut everything back to within about 4 inches from the ground, and let the new shoots emerge from the base.

Some grasses that are usually evergreen here in mild-wintered Vancouver actually suffered freezer-burn in the sudden frost last November. I usually don't have to cut back this big swath of Carex 'Ice Dance'--but I did this year.

Unfortunately, I don't have an "after" shot (it was probably pouring rain at the end of the day). I did shear it back into little green and white variegated hedgehogs. Looks funny for a while until it resprouts (unless you like hedgehogs) but better than a bank of dead salad. (Those are bunches of 'King Alfred' daffodils coming up through the 'Ice Dance.'

Those are the only recent & random grass pics I have--hope that was helpful.