Uses For Plants

A Lazy Man's Garden

by Corcceigh Green

Many would-be Independent Americans are put off from growing their own food simply because of the hard labor involved in beginning and maintaining a garden. It may come as a surprise to the lazy American, but gardening does not have to be so labor intensive.

By investing a couple of weekends in the spring and autumn, the lazy gardener can begin to produce his or her own food crops without the fuss of weeding, tilling and continually preparing the soil year after year.

Such convenience comes to us by the way of perennial plants, trees, shrubs and weed barriers.

Perennial plants do not just die out over the winter. Their root system and, with some perennials, their stem systems survive to re-grow and produce more food. This makes replanting crops year after year unnecessary. A one time labor investment in preparing the soil and planting is all that is necessary.

In northern climates, grow your perennials along the wall of your house's southern exposure. Know where your plumbing, drainage, power, phone and gas lines are. Mark these areas so as not to dig in them. Next spade the remaining soil removing any plant roots. Mix in top soil or potting soil to bring the volume of your soil up to it's previous volume when the sod was present. Follow the instructions of your nursery person to plant your perennial in it's new home. If you do not have enough room along your southern wall, you may follow the same instruction along a hillside or in a garden plot. A wall or hillside; however; will afford the added benefit of collecting extra heat, causing your perennials to grow and produce more quickly and abundantly.

Placing your perennials against a wall with a southern exposure will increase their productivity and hasten their growth.

After planting, place weed barriers around your plants. (I know, I said this was a lazy man's garden. It will turn out that way, but I also said that you'd have to make a small investment in time and some labor over a couple of weekends.) You can buy weed barriers from your nursery or feed store, or you can make your own. Use used carpets by cutting them to fit and placing them upside down around your plants. Plastic drop cloth and garbage bags also work, but you'll need to replace them yearly. Place the plastic around your plants and bury them in bark or gravel.

If you can lift your posterior up to water your plants from time to time when they're thirsty, you'll have yourself a lazy man's garden. Oh yeah, sometimes you may want to mulch and/or fertilize your perennials in the summer and fall.

Which perennials should you plant that will provide the greatest abundance of free and relatively labor free produce?

Rhubarb tops the list of perennials that will provide the greatest amount and variety of food in the lazy man's garden. Rhubarb is grown mainly for it's stems. When picked young and tender at their reddest, rhubarb's stems provide a sweet, fruity tasting treat. Just a few plants will provide a freezer full of their famous stems during a growing season.

Rhubarb stems are a superior source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. The leaves of rhubarb are poisonous; however; so be certain to remove and compost the leaves. Rhubarb has unfairly earned the reputation of being an un-tasty favorite of elderly relatives, usually served as pie. This reputation is mainly due to the lack of knowledge in preparing rhubarb. Rhubarb stems are best utilized after finely mincing. Do not cut the stems in large sections. This usually leads to attempts at overcooking to make the stems more tender. This does not work! Finely mince the stems in a bowl to save their juice and lightly cook to preserve most of their juices and tenderness.

Add the finely minced rhubarb stem to your fruit dishes to stretch your servings. Generally, add 1 part finely minced stem to 6 parts fruit. This will apply to anything from strawberry shortcake to apple jelly or pie filling. The same will be true for most jellies and jams. Some fruits such as raspberry, strawberry, apple and cranberry greatly benefit from the addition of rhubarb.

Rhubarb-aide can be made by pealing, then juicing the stem. To make one quart of rhubarb-aide, add to 1/4 pint of rhubarb juice 1 3/4 pints of pure, filtered or distilled water. To this, add 8 to 10 tablespoons of sugar to taste. Mix well. This lemony tasting drink will be a big hit in the summer and will save you a pretty penny in lemon-aide.

Though rhubarb's main contribution is it's stems, they are not the only benefit provided by this perennial. Rhubarb is a close relative to the dock family, (burdock, yellow dock and crinkly dock), as well as buckwheat. When let go to seed, rhubarb will produce several large heads of grain. The grain when golden brown is edible and is high in essential oils and carbohydrates, which are necessary to maintain body weight and health.

Rhubarb grain heads growing. These will develop seeds that can be ground and used like buckwheat.

To harvest the grain, pluck the entire grain stalk. Holding the stalk near the grain, thresh the grain into a large container. Allow the grain to dry for a few days, or store as is. When you are ready to use the grain spread it thinly on a flat hard surface and crack the grain by pounding on it with a metal rod or pipe. Next place the grain on a blanket and winnow the grain, tossing it into the air, allowing the paper like shells to blow away in the breeze while catching the grain on the blanket.

One variety of rhubarb, (chinese rhubarb, rheum palmatum), is used in herbal medicine. Beside the culinary purposes mentioned, the root of rheum palmatum is powdered and utilized as a laxative, antiphlogistic and as a hemostatic. It is used in cases of constipation, diarrhea, jaundice, intestinal hemorrhage, menstrual disorders, traumatic injuries and superficial sores and ulcers on the skin.

Rheum Palmatum or Chinese rhubarb. This plant can be used medicinally, or as food.

Overall, whether you are a lazy person aspiring to be a gardener or are a full blown self-sufficient, grow your own food gardener, rhubarb is a plant you will want on your homestead.

Our next perennial is asparagus. Asparagus takes a bit more effort than does rhubarb and it's only benefit comes in the form of it's young tender stalks, but their flavor is worth the effort and garden space to most, including the lazy gardener.

The impatient gardener; however; may have a problem waiting for the plants to mature. Once prepared, you must continue to mulch and water your asparagus bed for three years before gathering a full harvest.

First buy some asparagus crowns. They should be one year old and of a non-hybrid variety like Martha Washingtons. In this way they will be self propagating. Once you have your crowns, remove the sod from your bed area. Dig a trench sixteen inches deep and eighteen inches wide. Multiply the number of crowns you have by eighteen and make the trench that long in inches or divide this number by two, make the trench thirty two inches wide and plant the crowns in two rows. Next set the crowns in the trench eighteen inches apart.

Asparagus are heavy feeders, meaning they like very rich soils. Mix the soil that you dug from your trench, (not the sod), with very liberal amounts of sheep, rabbit or composted chicken manure and bury the crowns. Place a metal weed barrier around your asparagus bed to prevent grass from moving back in. Add mulch to the top of your bed and water daily to keep moist. Add sheep, rabbit or composted chicken manure twice yearly, (spring and autumn), and mulch heavily in the fall. In three years, you may begin harvesting and enjoying your asparagus.

Every year allow a few of the stronger asparagus stalks to fern and go to seed. Allow the seed to drop naturally into the bed before mulching. When harvesting, do not pick the smaller weaker stalks as they will be seedlings. Allow these to fern and develop for up to four years. In this way you will be able to maintain your asparagus bed indefinitely.

Next, we come to trees. A small orchard of fruit trees will yield a surprising amount of food during the growing season. Trees are easy to put in, come in varieties that will fit any parcel of land and are quite easy to care for and manage.

Upon bringing your trees home from the nursery, dig a hole to accommodate the root ball or nursery peat pot, but make the hole just a bit deeper and place peat moss and steer manure in the bottom to bring the tree's graft up a few inches above ground level. Water the tree well before planting.

To plant your trees, place them in the hole you've dug. Mix the soil that you've removed from the hole and mix well with peat moss and steer manure, then cover the root ball, filling the hole back in. Water your tree after planting and place in more soil to cover your tree's trunk up to ground level after the water causes your soil to compact. Generally, space your trees twelve feet apart.

Trees are extremely long lived and will last your entire life, plus the lives of many of your descendants. Allow your trees a few years to bear their first crop. In some climates, you will need to spray for disease and/or insects. This could be as frequent as once a month in the summer, as well as dormant spray in the winter where the climate is hot and humid, therefore prone to insects and diseases, or could be twice a year for climates with less insects and disease. I can generally get away spraying MVP, (a bacteria strain that infects moth larvae), once a year. If I notice rust or blackening bark, I use a solution of 1/4 cup bleach to 1 gallon of water, dampen a sponge and lightly dab the solution onto the bark while the tree is dormant. This works for me in my climate. It should at least slow down any infections or pests in most areas.

There are a great many types of fruit trees to be had. There are apples, cherries, peaches, pears, persimmons, oranges, paw paws, date palms, etc.. The list is so vast that there is no way to fit them all in a single article. A lazy gardener can take advantage of his/her easy chair to research the varieties that can be grown in his/her area and which are the most carefree. When deciding on your favorite, invest a weekend and buy and plant your orchard.

This standard golden delicious bears many pounds in apples per year. As part of a small orchard, it keeps it's gardener in a healthy quantity of food.

Oranges can be grown in warm climates and provide excellent fruit for food.

Though, palms, like theses washington palms, in the desert southwest are used mainly as ornamental trees, when allowed to grow flower stalks will produce small, round, black dates. They are edible, extremely delicious and high in sugars and fiber.

Fruit from your trees can be eaten as is, or made into cider, jams, jellies and other preserves, fruit leather and pie filling to keep over the winter until next harvest. The fruits are excellent sources of vitamins sugars and nutrition. They help the stored wheat baked into bread go down smoother and just plain taste great. In the case of olive trees, you will also have an excellent source of cooking and lighting oil.

Other than fruit trees, you may also wish to invest in some nut trees. Nuts are a tremendous source of carbohydrates and oils. Perfect for feeding you through winter months between harvests. Your nut trees can also be your very own cooking oil resource. More on nut oil presses in a future article.

Shrubs make excellent landscaping plants and there are many fruit bearing varieties that are easy to tend to, look great in the yard and raise no suspicions as to a source of food. Berry bushes are good examples of heavy bearing shrubs. They can provide gallons of sweet fruit every growing season. Like other fruit, berries can be preserved as jams, jellies, fruit pie filling and fruit leather or dehydrated.

To plant your berry bushes, spade the soil to loosen and mix generously with sand. Dig a hole in the prepared soil to accommodate the root ball. Place the bush into the hole and bury up to where the canes begin to extend through the surface. Water well before and after planting.

Berries that grow on canes, like blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries tend to spread out and need regular pruning every autumn, especially if grown in rows. They can quickly overgrow an area, and because of their thorns, can make picking their fruit difficult. They are worth every scratch; however; and yearly autumn pruning will cure this problem.

You will also need to control pests on your berries. Again MVP does the job where I live. You may also walk through your patch and pick off pests by hand, but this issue's column is devoted to the lazy gardener.

Other berries which are more bushy and do not develop on canes look very ornamental and may be perceived as such should you wish to hide your food source. Currents can be grown as a hedge or to stand in clumps in the lawn for a classic aristocratic look. Their bright red berries are often passed over, perceived as non-edible by those who do not recognize them. Quince has been an ornamental shrub in most every home town in America, but rarely used as the great source of food and pectin it is. Mashing quince fruit and placing it in a jar with other fruit will provide enough pectin to make jam and jelly preserves.

If you are one of the many Americans today who has yearly procrastinated at beginning your gardening skills, start with some of the above plants and increase their number yearly. You will gain gardening skill and knowledge yearly. One fine day you may catch the gardening bug and decide to put in that vegetable patch to supplement all of the fine produce you are collecting from your orchards, berry patches or perennials.

Read the supplement to The Lazy Man's Garden

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