Plant of the Month: the Oak Tree

I was three years old then. They planted that young oak tree in front of my house in suburban New Jersey. I was small and the oak seemed a mighty giant, its pointed leaves and unusually shaped fruits, a delight to a child’s passionate eye. It became a neighborhood challenge to see who could scale [...]

Plant of the Month: Red Clover (trifolium pratense)

“The more you cut it, the more it grows. The more you eat it, the more you have to eat.” When we were kids all we knew was that clover had three leaves, and the ultimate prize was finding one with four. The trick was to split one of the leaves so carefully that it [...]

Plant of the Month: Dandelion

The Ubiquitous Dandelion Dandelion. The thesaurus does not list this word as a synonym for ubiquitous. I guess Roget did not have to mow his front lawn every week. Or maybe he did, but refused to allow this ubiquitous “pest” into his treasure house of words and phrases. Dandelion. Dent-de-lion. “Lion’s tooth”. Bright little suns [...]

Plant of the Month: Chenopodium Album, Lambsquarters

Chenopodium Album: Lamb’s Quarters, Fat Hen I expect that we will be harvesting lamb’s quarters here in Southern Illinois for 10 or 11 months this year. Because of our very mild winter the plants had an early kick start this spring. I have seen lamb’s quarters grow up to 10 feet tall in good organic [...]

Permaculture Plant of the Month: Comfrey

When I think about the penultimate plant for Permaculture sites I go immediately to comfrey (symphytum officinale). Simply by cutting a button sized piece of tap root and planting it, within two weeks a new plant emerges. In Southern Illinois I take four cuttings of the above ground portions a season and use them in [...]

Permaculture Plant of the Month

Each month we will be posting information on a significant plant for Permaculture systems: guilds, food forests, main crop, etc. Read our first post tomorrow: Comfrey (symphytum officinale). Look for the plant of the month link in the upper left hand corner of this page…