An Alphabet of Oddments!

[veggiechicken]

Are you ready? Off we go again...................

H is for..............

Halimione portulacoides/Atriplex portulacoides/Sea Purslane/Sea Pickle

Hamburg Parsley/Turnip-rooted parsley/Petroselinum crispum var. tuberosum

Hovenia Dulcis / Japanese Raisin tree

Humulus lupulus / Common Hops

[veggiechicken]

I is for..............

Ipomea aquatica/ Entsai/ Ong choi/ Water convolvulus

J is for............
Japanese Burdock/Shosaku Gobo (Very old seeds. Grows to 7' and roots 1m long . Puts me off trying to grow it.)

K is for lots and lots of Kale (not really an oddment).

[Thelma Sanders]

Parsley root is ok I thought the roots tasted more like celery than parsley or parsnip though. Weird.
Never grew it again - which says it all. For parsley leaves I always grow.........parsley

Apart from Kale, never heard of the rest let alone grown them!

[veggiechicken]

L is for..............

Lathyrus tuberosus (Earthnut pea)

Liquorice

Loquat

M is for .................

Mangel (Yellow Intermediate)

Mertensia Maritima (Oysterleaf)

Minutina "Erba Stella"

Millet

Morus alba (White mulberry)

Two of these (one L & one M) will be sown tomorrow but which two?? Any suggestions?

[Thelma Sanders]

Erba Stella is quite nice in early Spring when collected in the wild in Italy - dunno much about growing it. If you forget what/where it is you'd probably weed it out!

[veggiechicken]

Thanks. I think its one to grow in a pot until I know what it looks like.

[Small pumpkin]

Can't you grow the millet with your chicken food growing experiment. Then you can still grow 2 from your list . No idea which ones, millets the only one I know anything about. And that knowledge is the total sum of....birds eat it

[Nicos]

I grew a loquat in a pot on the kitchen windowsill for several years. I save the seed/stone from one I ate in Israel.
Sadly it died .
Not really a windowsill plant!

I quite fancy growing liquorice..it'd be nice to be able to dig up a root to chew on whenever you fancied.

[veggiechicken]

Can't you grow the millet with your chicken food growing experiment. Then you can still grow 2 from your list . No idea which ones, millets the only one I know anything about. And that knowledge is the total sum of....birds eat it

Millet makes me think of Bobby and Billy, my budgies when I was a child (just a few decades ago, rary). I've eaten millet too as a grain, so its definitely one for the chicken food bed - next month sowing, would be better for it, weather I think.

[veggiechicken]

I grew a loquat in a pot on the kitchen windowsill for several years. I save the seed/stone from one I ate in Israel.
Sadly it died .
Not really a windowsill plant!

I quite fancy growing liquorice..it'd be nice to be able to dig up a root to chew on whenever you fancied.

There's a garden near me that has loquats in big pots. I think they bring them in in winter.

Liquorice, according to the packet, is a hardy shrub, graceful with light spreading foliage with an almot feathery appearance from a distance, grows to 5'. The seeds should have been sown by 2012 though, so I'm not holding my breath on this one!
Today's its big day, and it will be sown with the Mertensia (which was supposed to have been sown fresh a couple of years ago).

[veggiechicken]

N is for..................

Namenia - a leaf thing for salads

New Zealand Spinach . Should really be a T as it is Tetragonia tetragonioides but that's a bit of a mouthful! Its perennial but not frost hardy so treated as an annual here.
Recommended to soak the seeds before sowing, so I'll do that overnight and it can be my chosen N to be sown tomorrow.

[Ananke]

This is a great thread VC. Haven't heard of most of these.

Blue Sausage Fruit!!! You have got to give these a go

[veggiechicken]

O is for..................

Olea europea ( Olive)

Okra - Red & Clemson Spineless

Orach/ Atriplex hortensis. Red, Red Plume, Purple and Purple Mountain. They may all be the same for all I know.

Orach sounds useful in several ways - leaves eaten when young, flowers for arrangements, greenfinches like the seeds and as an attractor for hoverflies whose larvae eat aphids.
Tomorrow's Oddment sowing will be Orach.

[Small pumpkin]

That orach looks very interesting. Just gooooogled it. It can grow to 7ft tall !
I think I grow it or something like it a couple of years ago. Don't think I tried it as baby leaves. But the larger leaves were a bit like furry, chewy spinach!
Thinking about it the stuff I grow had a name that sounded a bit Chinese.

[veggiechicken]

Orach is one of the Chenopodiae/Goosefoot family apparently - like spinach, beet, amaranth, huazontle, lamb's quarters, Good King Henry etc. Lots of weird name stuff to play with.
I'm going to grow it as an edible ornamental "hedge" - like the sound of the red leaves.