This morning is cool with a slight rime of frost visible on the black earth of my garden beds, but it appears to be the start of a sunny, blue-sky day. Yeah!
Yesterday afternoon, Hubby took the mulcher-bagger and collected a whole garden shed full of lovely big bags of leaves for mulching. I think I have enough now!
While packing them into the shed, I noticed that the Jerusalem Artichokes were finished blooming and the leaves were yellowing. Back in 2017, I got a tuber from a friend and planted it in the pile of sod we'd stripped off of the very first raised bed we made. I knew they had a propensity for taking over, so put them where it wouldn't matter if they did. The 'chokes have been growing and spreading merrily since then.
We got a spade and dug up a few. We will be trying them later. The tubers aren't too big, as they have had to compete with sumac and raspberry canes, and don't get a full day's worth of sun. They are in the shade each morning, especially as the summer wanes, as they are near the eastern edge of our mown clearing in the bush.
I did a little research on line. They are a species native from Central to North America and were cultivated by native Americans as a food source. Early colonists sent tubers back to Europe, where it naturalized. Its name has nothing to do with Jerusalem. It somehow got bastardized through translation through different European languages.
My favourite name is the Canada Potato
I have never tried them. Do you mulch your vegetable garden with leaves? I experimented with raking a lot of leaves on my garden last fall. However, with the leaves came tons of seeds and I ended up fighting tiny Manitoba Maple trees all the time. I'm curious to know what you do. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteHi Jenn. I'm going to roast the tubers in the oven when the turkey goes in. We've never tried them either. Yes, I use leaves as mulch, mostly maple, poplar and basswood. I mulched my pepper, tomato, broccoli and turnip beds this summer, and it made a big difference in the amount of watering needed through the dryer part of the summer. There haven't been tree seedlings popping up so far. We used to have Manitoba and Norway maples when we lived in town, and yes, lots of seedlings with them.
ReplyDeleteThe Canada Potato, I like that!!! Happy Thanksgiving Rosalea! :)
ReplyDeleteHope you had a good TG weekend as well, Rain.
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