Accessible Gardening: #19 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners , 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:

I humbly bow to the wisdom of your wise cacti. Our native prickly pear seems unenlightened. That is to be expected from cacti living in the humid sub-tropics. They have something that looks like powdery mildew by the time sauna summer gives way to dry roast summer. Sauna summer doesn’t want to give way this year. Kay is moving some of the succulents into pots with porous soil and good drainage. There has been so much rain they are not looking happy in ground. I can’t detect it yet, but Kay says it is beginning to smell like the Everglades.

This year we weren’t able to grow organic vegetables for disabled people on Food Stamps or whatever the program is called now. Amargia Farm is still open for foraging for those with the ability and knowledge. This time of year it is the last of the blackberries and the beginning of the Brown Turkey figs. The land isn’t as lush here as it is further north in the state’s black belt, but it is still rich in wild and semi-wild edibles most of the year. I don’t have a forager’s know-how, but some things are obvious even to me. Wild plums, huckle berries, pawpaws, dewberries, blackberries and raspberries, several kinds of wild muscadine grapes, southern blueberries, mulberries, elderberries, figs and pomegranates are all available for the picking. There are perennial vegetables like asparagus, sunroot and vegetable burdock. There are also all the herbs that basically take care of themselves. I could not even guess how many oddball things there are like canna and colocasia with edible roots and roses with fruit the size of grocery store plums that are eaten like vegetables or made into tea. The wild edibles are Nadi’s thing. She and J., one of the young homeless people from L.A. both claim they could live off Amargia’s plants, if necessary. It’s a pity J. has an alcohol and drug problem. The kid is otherwise well suited to take over Amargia’s work. The prevailing attitude here is still that addiction is a moral failing instead of a disease. It is sad that these kids end up panhandling on Venice Beach instead of being looked after in the community they were born in. I should say the idea of threatening our northern neighbors with bringing them back home to manage Amargia was their idea.

I am trying t think of any edible permaculture plants suited for the desert. All I can come up with is dragonfruit, date palms, yucca and prickly pear. I didn’t know about dragonfruit before I encountered Katiebear.

Wave, if you have a free moment, Carrie. I’m worried about you. Kay says I worry too much and you are probably busy writing.

Nadi visited the Dothan Botanical Garden today. I think she mainly goes to visit with the frogs and turtles, but she snapped a few pix of plants. She said the continuing sauna summer was having an effect there too, but their roses looked good. I don’t know how they pull that off. All our roses are gone by this time of year.

(Jim)
1. 'Pumpkin on a stick' Ornamental Eggplant.
2. A friendly Turtle
3. 'Irresistible man' rose
4 'Brides Dream' rose
5. 'peace' rose so Peace out Yall.