Stealth Gardening

[freeholder]

Good thread -- I was taking notes all the way through!

In Texas, wouldn't you be able to grow mesquite? Or was that mentioned and I just missed it? Honey locust will grow here (Eastern Oregon), but I think there are conflicting opinions on how edible it is even for livestock.

As for who you are hiding your food crops from, I would suspect most likely the government. Wouldn't have thought that a few years ago, but they are wanting to corral as many people as possible into the urban areas; don't know what methods they'll use to 'persuade' people to move there (higher fees and taxes and deteriorating and not repaired infrastructure will probably be primary means) but I wouldn't put it past them to make it illegal to grow our own food.

We have wild currants and gooseberries here, but their fruit is only marginally edible (and the birds get it first).

Kathleen

ETA: I just did a little more research on the honey locusts, and I think I will plant some.  I know where I can get seed locally (from several different trees). 

[steev]

So you get the birds while they're stuffed and unwary.

Here in the Bay Area, we generally get large flocks of migratory robins (Turdus migratorious), which tend to gorge on Pyracanthus berries (from which a nutritious syrup or jelly can be made) and then fly crashing into things; folklore has it that the berries have fermented, so the birds get drunk. Horse-poo! The robins fly for hours, migrating, stop to rest and re-fuel in a Pyracanthus, eat a quarter to a third of their body weight, and try to fly away. Who among us could eat that much and walk a straight line?

[blackox]

Don't forget Agaves and Aloe if you're in Texas. Candy-Barrel Cactus would probably be another good one.


Oh! And Jajoba if you can get your hands on it! The nuts are edible. And if you grew that I wouldn't mind buying some from you.

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For those of you that were talking about pigeons earlier in this thread, go with American Giant Homer. Much larger than normal pigeons, more meat. They're kind of like the Jersey Giant of pigeons.

I would suggest Muscovy ducks as they can mostly take care of themselves. But they are illegal in much of the southern U.S., I do not know if Texas is one of these states.

I've only had time to skim through this thread real quick, I'll go back through it later.

[coppice]

Oca on the forest border. Hickory family nut trees. Garlics. Asparagus. Cane fruit. Smaller prunus, like beach plum.

Upland or low land blueberry depending. Bear-berry. Cranberry.

[freeholder]

Steev, probably a good idea on the birds, at least some of them. Don't know how magpies would taste, but we have plenty of them, and they help themselves to any dog food not guarded (the livestock guardian dog, Cameo, does a pretty good job of protecting her dish) and they are probably eating more chicken feed than my chickens are. High on the priority list this year is new or revamped chicken housing that the wild birds can't get into.

There are also lots of Brewer's blackbirds most of the year, which rate about with starlings for being nuisances. I wouldn't have any problem eating those, though they aren't very big (slightly smaller than a robin). We have a couple of pairs of wild doves, but I wouldn't eat those unless we were starving as there don't seem to be any more than that here. (We don't want to eat our seed stock.)

Mostly, though, I need to figure out how to raise enough stuff to feed my own chickens (and the goats). As long as I can feed them and have a garden, we'll get by.

Kathleen

[flowerweaver]

circumspice As a professional botanist I used to teach the uses of the plants of central Texas. There are a lot of medicinal and edible plants in the hill country, but I would hate to have to live off of them for any length of time. Yet I'm confident I could if I had to in a pinch.

There's a group of my botanical friends in Austin that have an organization called Useful Wild Plants of Texas. You can find them at www.usefulwildplants.org/

They offer classes known as 'WeedFeeds' where you go out into the hill country for a day or a week and eat off the wild plants. These are fun and affordable, and would give you an excellent idea of what you could plant. It's taken them a couple of decades to publish three volumes of their encyclopedia. So far these volumes just cover A-C so this is a very long-term project! Each volume costs around $135 but they are phenomenal. Many Texas libraries have them available in their reference sections. Hope this helps.

[steev]

Wow! That whole WeedFeeds and encyclopedia thing sounds awesome. Having been infected with the foraging bug by my Grandad, there's just something about finding undomesticated food that feeds my heart.

Studying as a zoologist, I only took one botany course, so my grasp of plants is practical and autodidactic, related largely to my 35 years running a landscaping/maintenance business in the SF East Bay, a very climatologically privileged area. My farm, however, is rigorous; 30F nights and 80F days is not that uncommon for January (although 10 degrees lower, both night and day, is more usual). It's a bit of a whipsaw for some trees, poor babies.

[synergy]

I am just discovering there are so many edibles amoungst my ornamental plantings, wisteria blossoms are edible for instance so knowing what part can be eaten when and cataloguing that or being familiar with the harvest and preparation should become more routine . I have mixed in food plants everywhere around my property. I am thinking we should encourage mixing food in ornamental front yards by sharing that publically and destroy the meme of the unused mowed grass front yards.

[steev]

Front lawns are the result of peasants aping the aristocracy (whose lawns were to expose attackers to view); a waste of space; nobody relaxes on that front lawn; it's just for show and resentment (Get off my lawn, you little @!&%$&#!).

[blackox]

We use the front lawn to grow dandelions. Edible roots and leaves and flowers; unless they're sprayed down with chemicals, then I wouldn't consider any of it edible. Dandelion has many health benefits.

[flowerweaver]

After the drought I no longer have any lawn, and I say good riddance! More room for food crops, flowers, and native plants. Thankfully I'm not in some home owners association that can dictate what I can and cannot grow out there.

[richardw]

I set out a large lawn so the kids could have plenty of room to boot there balls about,yet the flower gardens still takes a hiding,i'm sure that if i made the lawn even bigger they would only end up boot the ball even harder again.

[steev]

Young kids are the only good reason to have a lawn, IMHO. They can play and you need a place to put the kiddie pool.

[raymondo]

When I was a kid, lawns held zero interest. I liked gardens, the wilder the better. We also had large mangrove swamp nearby. Stalked many tigers in those gardens and in the swamp (yes, Australian tigers prowl mangrove swamps!).

[synergy]

I thought the front lawn might be for sheep grazing and recreation , I watched too many episodes of the Edwardian Farm I guess . Adults should play a little too I think . But food is about to go up dearer in price again eh? Oil, infrastructure , dollar buying less, climate , China buying US food production . Keep scheming for more food . I love having my rabbits and they are stealthy : )