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malabar spinach

A preview of tasty morsels and, oh No … It’s BAAAACKKK!!!

Some more green beans are growing in my garden. These little blooms are a foreshadowing of a side dish to come.
And this pale little strawberry will soon be ruby-red and ripe and juicy — ready to eat while I am standing right in the garden. (But be careful, the juice will run down your hand and get all over you if you’re not careful! These strawberries are NOT white and hard inside, like those in my grocery store.)
The variegated lemons are small but powerful — a few more months and they will be delicious and ready to pick.

But WAIT.
Oh NO!
As I was picking weeds in the pathway, what do I see?
Do you recognize this little leaf?
It’s the EVIL Malabar spinach that threatened our very existence with take over last season.
It crawled up the house wall, scaled the garden and tried to come out into the yard. You can check it out on my pulling my hair out post, “Ok, don’t laugh!”
It was a heck of a lot of work to keep it from taking over and smothering the rest of the veggies in the garden.
And then I had the epiphany. I would rip it out and feed it to the deer, who were suffering last September from the drought and 40+ days of 100 degrees.

So, here’s the deal. We’ve had about 10 days at 100 already. It’s dry as a bone and the drought is STILL going. And the last few days I’ve seen a yearling doe in the woods looking for bird seed and her waterbowl.

My DH bought a protein block for the deer today.
And now I am thinking I might let that evil Malabar keep growing in the path and use it to feed the deer.
What the heck…
By |2016-04-14T02:44:34-05:00June 20th, 2009|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden|0 Comments
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Mmmmmm…’maters!


Yumm-O as Rachel Ray would say!  Tomatoes are a’comin’ on the vine.  These cooler evening temps helped the blooms set and now they are growing like mad, hoping to beat the first frost.  Here that’s normally not until early December, but we’ve had unseasonably cold temps at night this week – into the 40s at my house, so they’d better grow quickly!
They are pretty tasty — not quite as sweet as last year’s but we are enjoying them.

See that little clump of green near the middle of the photo?  That is the LAST of the Malabar spinach — my DH and I cut off all the vines threatening to take over our garden and our house.  We fed them to the appreciative deer and they will get that last clump tonight for dinner.  Then it will be done!  Whew!  
By |2016-04-14T02:45:06-05:00October 29th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments
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Oh, my…

I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I just don’t have one.

But I do have a story to tell.
Tonight as I was closing up outside, I heard rustling on the other side of the fence where Kallie and I placed more Malabar spinach vines for the deer.  So, I snuck in to peer out the window, and there was … not Emmy, but a young buck with pretty antlers munching on my spinach.  He turned and cocked his head in my direction – saw me, and ran off. I had my camera in my hand, but it would have never worked … it would have been a photo into the dark, far away and through the window…talk about a challenge.
But, it was so nice to see him there, having a late dinner and a drink from the water bowl, knowing that these animals are desperate for moisture and food since we are down 13 inches below our normal rainfall (and our normal rainfall isn’t much to begin with).  
I’ll change my tune when he tears stuff up later in the week, but tonight, I’m soft-hearted and touched.
By |2016-04-14T02:45:08-05:00September 30th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments
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Ok, don’t laugh!

So, I had a brainstorm.

If you’ve been following my posts about my veggie garden, you know I have rampant Malabar spinach that is literally taking over my garden and threatens to consume my very house.
While Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil and Robin, of Getting Grounded were here visiting last week and shaking their heads at how it’s taking over, we thought perhaps the deer would like to eat it — instead of my newly-planted Cuphea!
What a great idea~


So, last night my DH helped me haul an armload of long vines full of juicy green leaves out to the edge of our septic field and next to the water bowl I leave out for the deer.  The picture above shows the path that leads into the woods and the septic field (the bright green grass on the hill in the distance).
 And this morning, lo and behold, the vines are strewn about and the leaves have all been eaten off of it!
I know – feeding the deer is precarious, but better this than live plants!  And, besides, it’s almost like they are in the garden beside me pulling the vines out to make room for more Fall garden veggies!  (well, not quite!)  It might take me a little longer giving them bunches at a time this way, but hey — this way, I literally am … “sharing nature’s garden.”
By |2017-11-29T23:27:52-06:00September 29th, 2008|Blog, deer, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden|7 Comments
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Garden mish-mash…

These are a few of my newest little knick knacks in the garden.  No baby birds live here, but I do have a little red Cypress Vine that’s climbed up the fence and is trying to find a room!  

(Actually, I think I might want to plug the hole rather than inviting birds to live IN my vegetable garden — what do you think?!)
On that note, I thought this ceramic Mr. Cardinal was a clever way to keep some less-than-friendly friends out of my garden and make me smile at the same time.

His real-life cousin lives on the other side of our yard in the woods, where he frequents the many feeders my DH fills.  He also occasionally pecks at my windows in a very unfriendly fashion, for which I manage to forgive him since I have been wholly unsuccessful at detering him!

Well, this little cuke was green and healthy a week ago when I ripped out the rest of the cucumber vine.  I left a few vines since this seemed to be ok.
Clearly it isn’t ok!  Don’t know what it has, but it is an unhappy plant, that’s for sure!
But take a look at her neighbor.  This is my Malabar Spinach, and it is taking over.  And it’s not just taking over my garden, I think it has designs on our whole neighborhood and maybe even Austin!
Whatever got the cuke sure didn’t get this girl.  She’s gonna find herself a window and come in the house pretty soon!
Hmmm… I guess if my posts start to sound strange soon, you’d better check to see if she’s a body snatcher that’s taken me over because of my gardening weaknesses!
By |2017-11-29T23:27:52-06:00August 28th, 2008|Blog, cucumbers, malabar spinach, Sharing Nature's Garden, vegetable garden|0 Comments
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