January Work Day and getting to know Oxalis

First up today I wish to share an inspirational TED talk by Garden Guerilla Ron Finlay from Los Angeles.

Last Sunday it was a morning of digging or turning over the soil in the large community area that was planted in potatoes last year followed by a green crop that was cut back a couple of weeks ago.  

After the ground was cleared, I had the job of using a cultivator to mix in a light scattering of sieved compost, then the team followed up with planting silver beet seedlings.   

We share our Silver beet with the animals at Auckland Zoo.  A member of the community drop off as many greens as is available each Wednesday. 

Where we had broad beans growing last year beetroot seedlings (Bulls Blood) were planted out.

Rampant Oxalis

While digging over the green crop we were collecting buckets of oxalis.  It's starting to flower so we timed it well to try and get out as much as we could.  I have been overrun in my own plot with this voracious little weed that no matter how many times I try to dig they still pop up.  

The white bulbets or bulbels underground is the start of a new plant.  A few leaves on top
usually unmasked a clump of oxalis.

I am always keen to see if I could use weeds in some way so that I don't have the same level of resentment to them.   You have to admire this little plant's tenacity to reproduce and grow so quickly.

Pretty tiny pink flowers with four leaf petals that look like a
four leaf clover or shamrock.  Another common variety has pale pink flowers
and rusty red leaves.

Oxalis is a member of a very large wood sorrel family.  It naturally occurs in forest situations in Europe but it manages to live every and anywhere in New Zealand and is a curse for the home gardener.  

The leaves and flowers have an astringent fresh taste, similar to garden sorrel.  While its called sorrel, garden sorrel and oxalis are not in the same family.  Their only relationship is that both contain oxalic acid.

True in very large amounts oxalic acid may be considered slightly toxic interfering with proper digest and kidney function.   However oxalic acid is also present in more commonly consumed foods such as spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprout, grapefruit, chives and rhubarb.  General scientific consensus seems to be that the risk of actual poisoning from oxalic acid in persons with normal kidney function is "wildly unlikely".

And yes it has been an edible wild plant consumed by humans around the world for centuries.  Kiowa Indians chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst, Cherokee ate it to help mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois used it to help cramps, fever and nausea.  I feel better about it already.

I know its a tradition in France to seat sorrel soup in early spring to cleanse the blood.

So you can eat the zingy four leaf clover shaped leaves and the delicate pink flowers as an interesting addition to your summer salad.  

Of course yams are also in the same wood sorrel family and you know that once you have yams you will never ever be without them.

But in the gardens the oxalis has to go or at least being limited.  As we are a closed system where we deal with as much of the weeds and materials on location as we can, we put the invasive weeds into large plastic bags where they stay for at least 2 years.  After they completely break down and rot then the plant material can be added to the composting system.

Good news there are other ways of naturally getting rid of them.   These other methods are not really practicable for our large community areas because it relies on not digging or disturbing the soil.   But in your own plot or home garden you could try to conquer it by any of these three methods.  They all work on the principle that the leaves take energy from the sun so if you keep killing the foliage the bulb will eventually die. 

- Baking Soda Spray - 2 Tablespoons of baking soda, a squirt of dish washing liquid  and 500 ml of water.  Spray on a hot day.  Repeat to weaken regrowth until gone.

- Pour boiling water over the leaves.  Continue to do this every time new shoots come through.

- Cut off foliage - new leaves will appear and you will need to cut them off each time they appear before they can get the energy from the sun.

The bad news is that either of these methods could take up to 2 years to get rid of it.  I have found the baking soda method has worked but I haven't been consistent with it.  One thing is for sure digging and even sieving will not be a solution.

While I was on the digging team, others worked at putting down carpet, on the path and around the Rosemary hedge bordering the herb garden.  The carpet isn't so pretty so wood chips were piled on top.

 

Its amazing what you can  achieve in 3 hours with a good number of people.  That's what community gardening is all about and after a physical morning we all enjoyed a delicious shared lunch.

The birds have been feasting on our sunflowers and on Sunday there was harvest day for the beans growing up the sunflower stems.   

Here is a mix of my very productive Cobra Runner beans from King's Seeds, with the purple beans that have been twining around the sunflower stems in the community garden.   Unfortunately as soon as you blanch the purple beans they turn into a dark green.  However when young these beans are incredibly sweet and crunchy to eat raw.  You could slice them into salads or couscous but you need to keep them raw if you want to keep the colour.  My grandson Beau would never eat the beans cooked but I left a pile from my garden collection on the table and he began just munching them raw.  

My featured garden plot photo this week is Richard's plot.  I love the combination of colour here

that actually looks better than the photograph portrays.   Red and yellow dahlias with purple amaranth

and in the background peans - a cross between a pea and a bean (more on peans and amaranth at another time).

While I was at the gardens today I met four or five groups of people who were enjoying the transformation of this land into such colourful and productive gardens. I realise that I am indeed privileged to be a part of the Sanctuary Community Garden.