Today was bitter sweet. I don't normally post but I feel that I should to prevent others from making this same horrible mistake that I have made.
I do permaculture designs and implementation. Part of that involves gardening. I made 6 gardens at this one location so far, a raised bed garden, a pond garden, a pond edge garden, a vine garden, an herb garden, and a garden around a fruit tree. In all of these I kept seeing a particular plant pop up. It compleatly filled my raised bed garden to the point where my other plants weren't getting enough sunlight. I duitifully pulled these "weeds" and let them rot out where they had grown. I don't throw weeds away, if they are going to seed i'll throw the seeds out but i don't throw the body of the weed away as it's useful in feeding the soil while creating ground cover to lock in moisture and a few other reasons. So after a while of this I finally took some pictures(today) and sent them off to 4 or my plant nerd friends for an identification. Intuitivly in the back of my mind I had been thinking Amaranth but I had never seen the plant myself or even heard much of a discription if any of it. Turns out my hunch was correct. This made me rather sad. I was destroying Amaranth. I'm glad I didn't kill it all.
For those of you who don't know, if you have bad soil you WANT amaranth and clover. These do wonders in making your soil better.
If you don't have bad soil, YOU WANT AMARANTH.
This plant was a staple of pre-Columbian Aztecs. It's leafs are much like spinach and are great cooked or raw.
the seeds are a wonderful grain, high in protein (about 16 percent) . Also it has lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids that you don't find in a lot of grains. High in fiber, a few times higher than wheat. Also contians: calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins A, C and E.
To think that I was killing this wonderful plant. I'd be willing to trade out my other crops to keep this one around. I think at this point though they will both live in harmony.
I plan to havest the seeds and plant them everywhere. (see my roots revolution post.)
Moral of the story, before you destroy what you think is a weed, find out what it is. There is a good chance you might be throwing away something very valuable.
This is also true in many other areas of life. So before you dismiss people as kooks, loosers, scum, or whatever, find out who they really are.
Before you pass up an opertunity, find out what it really is.
before you vote, find out who your voting for really is.
Knowing will make the world a better place.
Shalom.
Comments (10)
Most plants that're considered weeds are wonderful for soil. Dandelions, for example. Every inch of our land is covered with dandelions. These plants improve the soil with more subtle ways, they confirm what we already knew; our soil has a ton of clay, and they tell me that the previous owners of this place haven't totally poisoned the ground with their herbicides.
I'm worried about getting clover and ground ivy, to spread here, but with the flourishment of the dandelions, I find myself much less concerned.
More or less, it just tells us that even at such a basic level...monoculture is unhealthy.
Anyways, more on point, yes; we should all have our eyes and minds more open to the gifts the world leaves in our lives (plain as day, in front of our noses)...and we should all appreciate it more for what they are -- gifts!
@MyFreedomWings - I do enjoy working with the earth. It has a lot to teach for sure. You are lucky that you have clay on your land. I wouldn't mind getting some of that in powder form to make some liver bricks. Liver bricks are great for fish farming because they attract flies which your fish can feast upon. you just have to dip them in water every week or so but I think i have a good design to save the work of even doing that. I honestly don't know why more people don't have ponds in their lawns or gardens. So many benifits. I'm about due to start looking for frogs or tadpoles to introduce into a few of the designs i'm working on although a few frogs have already come on their own. Although i'm working in some of the poorest soil in the area the gardens are some of the best. I don't think I will ever plant things in a row or right next to each other. I mix the plants well, keeps the bugs confused. I've seen bugs starting to get at various plants but that never last more than a few days.
God has indeed created a beautiful system and through studying his designs I am making huge progress in growing His plants. I just have to be careful not to reject his gifts in the process thinking they are weeds.
I think i'm going to try to get more rare plants, I know one guy who got ahold of some blue patato's online. Variety is the spice of life as they say. The plant that I would like to cultivate at this location the most right now is chocolate mint.
Some of the broadleaf plants have medicinal uses. Don't ask me which, but I'd wager MFWings knows some about it. And thanks for sticking up for me... as a possible kook.
@saturnnights - I'm always up for learning more. I know a few medicinal plants but could stand to expand my knowledge.
Do you garden much? It's a great hobby or job.
@saturnnights -
Lol, my Mom's big on the herbal cures. What'd you wager? =P
Aww, who was getting at you? =o
@MyFreedomWings - @saturnnights - It is my belief that sickness and disease is first spiritual, second mental, and third physical. When addressing healing it should be done in that order for best results. Of course this is just my humble opinion as a healer of sorts.
Knowledge is a good thing to gain more of on various levels and would be happy to hear the herbal cures you guys use.
@gogreen3 -
As a person coming from a family that self-treats, we tend to try to tackle all three aspects at once -- as there's not always time to try to do it in an order. It's kinda habit by now.
Mostly, prevention over cure in practice -- we're just big on book knowledge. Alot of it's diet based, to try to work WITH the body to get it to fix what's wrong without a cure in itself. When in need, though, like with small things like colds...we'll make the most god-awful soup you've ever tasted, force ourselves to drink at least a mug of it, and it almost always clears up the cold by the next day.
The rest is knowing the right plants, there's a plant to encourage clotting to stop bleeding. There's a plant to encourage blood flow, as well, there's a plant to prevent pregnancy...aloe for burns and minor scrapes, tea tree oil for cuts and blisters. Honey to fight infection. Catnip for sleep and digestion, ground ivy to relieve headaches and minor pain/stress... ETC, ETC. It goes on and on. I don't know nearly as much as my Mother does, but I'm young yet, I've time ^_^
The other day, on one of our walks, Mom pointed out the mayapple plant and told me that it's often thought to be good for treating cancer. Walks are really good for learning things, ^_^
@MyFreedomWings - Veeeery Cool!
@MyFreedomWings - lots of good information. Feel free to ad more. I like hearing more about what plants do what. I'll ad a few things 2 the list but I need to go sleep so it will be short.
Oak - tea made of leafs twigs and or bark can sometimes be used to treat skin irritations. With some people it works on poison ivy but Birch bark tea and crest regular toothpaste are really good to put on poison ivy. (soak a rag in the tea and lay it on affected area.)
treat ant bites to bee stings by chewing up an oak leaf and putting it on there. Oak tea or a chewed up oak leaf should also encourage clotting if your bleeding pretty bad.
.. Sleepy time.
I'll ad a new plant 2day.
Pine trees. (if you don't know what a pine tree is don't try this stuff with something that looks kinda like a pine but might not be.
Pine needles - when green (younger the better) you can make a nice tea out of them which is Very high in vitamin C. I'm not sure if the water is heated 2 hot if it looses some of it's goodness but i imagine it might. Sun tea is always good. (where you put it in a glass jar in the sun and let the sun make the tea)
vitamin C is great for when your sick.
Pine sap is a good thing to put on cuts. keeps em nice an "clean" keeps em from getting infected.
I know more uses for this tree but I'll leave it at that for now.