Self-seeding annuals

[thejenx]

@thejenx , 'Panda did mention strawberry spinach so she must be interested in self-sowing green vegetables.

I have to say that NZ spinach is really not to my liking ... Dad planted some and they nearly took over his garden. None of us cared about the flavor.

Your experience with spreen sounds as though it went unappreciated. I had a variety of orache growing as volunteers in one garden for what must have been well over 10 years. I was very, very happy with it. Now, I no longer have that garden and didn't think to save the seed my final year.

Growing seed from Baker Creek didn't produce plants quite what I had all those years. Last year, I tried a mix to see if the valued one was in there. It was a near disaster! The mix had plants that were huge -- nowhere near the polite variety that I had. Of course, I have forgotten what was on that long-ago seed packet and where it came from ...

I did some more reading about that spinach relative. Orache or Mountain Spinach is native to North America but there are several species. I'm not sure that I can even sort them out! For sure, I don't want a spreen or orache that takes over a bed as it quickly grows beyond any tender youthfulness! I've been trying to find some lambsquarters at an appropriate stage. I'd be happy to have even one or two servings of them in the near future.

Steve

We liked the taste of spreen just fine, but as it grows to 2 meters tall and then sheds a ton of tiny seeds... all you get next year is spreen, not too great. I've grown it afterwards but took care in the season it bloomed to cut it back.
We do like out NZ spinach and I don't mind that it grows big. I love that it doesn't need much water with the dry summers we've been having.

 

[Prairie Rose]

We let the poppies self seed every year, and I have dill and cilantro that volunteer too, although the batches are almost gone now because I haven't been letting enough of it go to seed.

 

[ducks4you]

so true for us. for some years i mistakenly let pennyroyal spread unchecked because the bees really love it - i didn't even taste it to see what it was. i thought it was oregano. lol oops. i'm still not sure we have oregano any place or not. we had a lot of patches of mints around and sometimes things would get confused/mingled...

Crush leaves and sniff them and you Can tell it's oregano or mint. They are both very pungent.
I KNOW mine is oregano bc I planted it in my herb bed, which is Really and Oregano bed. That will be remedied, as I remove them to DD's yard needs.
MUCH better than weeds.

 

[flowerbug]

We let the poppies self seed every year, and I have dill and cilantro that volunteer too, although the batches are almost gone now because I haven't been letting enough of it go to seed.

some year i will get some cilantro going someplace. some year...

 

[flowerbug]

Crush leaves and sniff them and you Can tell it's oregano or mint. They are both very pungent.
I KNOW mine is oregano bc I planted it in my herb bed, which is Really and Oregano bed. That will be remedied, as I remove them to DD's yard needs.
MUCH better than weeds.

we did plant a few different oregano types at one time, but since then they've wandered around and been overgrown by the pennyroyal. i'm not sure we have any around anyplace now. for some reason Mom rarely uses fresh herbs from the gardens so planting them was some exercise in wishful thinking for her or something. once in a while i'll go find some mint for tea but otherwise it is dill, green onions, green garlic and a few chives that get the most use here. it's just not a habit for us and it's kinda sad because i do like some fresh herbs a lot better than the dried kinds.

as i just mentioned in another reply here i really would like to get some cilantro going here at some point and if i'm doing that i could also get some other large leaf parsley going in there too... hmm...