Chickweed - Vogelmiere

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English: 

Chickweed grows a bit all over my garden beds and pots. It's a great addition to my salads and one can also make pesto with it, just substitute basil with chickweed and you will be astonished how great this tastes. Remember to cut it into small pieces before processing it in a blender, since the centre of the stem has a little string that is not easy to process in there. Chickweed also grows in winter under the snow, so it's definitely one of the few fresh winter plants. It has also a number of medical properties: it is said to reduce inflammation and to be beneficial in the case of fragile superficial veins, just to mention two.

Further reading:

• Plants for a Future
• Wikipedia

Deutsch: 

Vogelmiere wächst irgendwie überall in meinen Beeten und Töpfen. Es ist eine super Zutat zu meinen Salaten und man kann auch Pesto damit machen. Man ersetzt das Basilikum einfach durch Vogelmiere - und: es schmeckt wirklich toll. Bitte nicht vergessen, die Vogelmiere klein zu schneiden, bevor sie in den Mixer kommt. Ihre Stängel haben einen Faden, der im Mixer nicht zerkleinert wird. Vogelmiere wächst auch unter Schnee und gehört somit zu den wenigen frischen Winterpflanzen. Die Pflanze hat auch medizinische Eigenschaften: man sagt, sie sei entzündungshemmend und sie helfe bei fragilen Venen an der Hautoberfläche, nur um zwei zu nennen.

Mehr lesen:

• Wikipedia

Sunburn on crops

I am really not sure if this is actually kind of a sunburn, but mainly the leaves of peas and beans are having some kind of trouble with the sun. I cannot move the two pots with peas on my balcony into shade, but I could do this with the beans. The peas got more or less devastated. They went all dry while the beans only have some parts of the leaves "burnt". No, it is not a pest, it can only be the sun. I have a similar situation in the garden:

Flashback - My garden on May 20, 2015

When plants protect one another - Magenta Spreen

Magenta spreen ... my husband hates it, because it literally invades every small angle in the garden and it is loads of work to clean up. On the other hand I love it, because it protects little seedlings from cold weather and is one of the first crops one can harvest in bulk.

Magenta Spreen - Tree Spinach - Chenopodium Giganteum

Magenta spreeen, though it is an annual, I do count it among my perennials: seed once, let it grow and go to seed and you will have more than you can eat.

The seeds of this so called tree spinach distribute all over the place. When the plants start to grow I thin them out and, depending from what I am cooking, I use the little plants in salad, stews, soups and when I don't use them right away, I dehydrate them and afterwards put them in my blender to cut them into small pieces. Once done I mainly use the dried parts together with other dehydrated greens in soups or stews.

When I pick them, I choose those that are a bit bigger and I go through my garden beds once a week to harvest.

Lamb's quarters is a close relative to magenta spreen.

Time ago I found a video where someone was substituting part of the wheat flour with magenta spreen flour and made bread ... not sure if I like this, because the green bred looked a bit weird.

Be aware: once you have it in your garden and let it go to seeds, you won't be able to get rid of it again. The seeds survive in the soil more than one year and come up spontaneously, when they feel like doing it.

Garden today - 3rd May 2019

What I actually did:

* I harvested some lemonbalm that started to overgrow my seedlings
* Parsley got sawn in place
* Dill was sawn in place
* Spinach was sawn in place
* I covered up the places where my cat messed around with the soil (in the garden beds)

And then, here you go with a rare picture for the month of may: my daffodils are flowering now and not like usually around the second week of April.

Well, indeed these are cold times ... some frost is to come along and the three tomato plants (bought ones - the seedlings are not even out) and a cucumber plant I received as birthday present are cuddled so that they stay warmer. The tomatos will be covered completely during the night. They should well make it.

Gartenbilder - Gardenpictures - Foto del giardino 21.05.2017

Vor ein paar Wochen sahen die Stiefmütterchen so aus, als würden sie es nicht schaffen, weshalb ich drei Kapuzinerkressesamen in die Erde gegeben habe. Zwei davon sind aufgegangen. Und allen geht es inzwischen gut.

Some weeks ago the pansies seemed to be almost dead. Therefore I added trhee nasturtium seeds of which 2 germinated. Well ... now all of them seem to live well.

Alcune settimane fà sembrava che le viole (del penisero se ricordo bene) sembravano morire e quindi ho aggiunto tre semi di cappuccina, dei quali 2 hanno germinato. Ora stanno tutti bene.

Unser Garten am 16.03.2017

Bei uns am Berg ist die Natur um einiges langsamer. Während ich neidvoll auf die Bilder meiner FreundInnen blicke, bei denen schon viel wächst sind bei uns nur die Ersten Ansätze zu sehen. Hier ein paar Bilder. Dieses Jahr werde ich vieles nicht machen, denn es ist einfach zu viel und war es eigentlich letztes Jahr schon.

Der Pfirsich bereitet seine Blüten vor.

The peach is preparing its flowers.

Il pesco sta preparando i fiori.

Der Rosmarin schaut schon etwas traurig aus ...

Our rosemary seems to be quite sad ...

Il rosmarino ha un aspetto un po' triste ...

Der Giersch kann ab sofort für Salate und ähnliches geerntet werden.

The ground elder may be collected and used for salads etc.

L'aegopodium podagraria (non conosco il nome italiano) si può già utilizzare per insalate e simili.

Der Mini-Birnbaum bereitet sich vor ... bald gibt es mehr zu sehen.

Our little peach tree is preparing for growth. Soon we will see more.

Il nostro piccolo pesco si sta preparando. Presto vedremo di più.

Hinter der Knoblauchsrauke zeigt sich ein roter Punkt: Rhabarber.
Behind the garlic root you note a red spot: rhubarb.
Dietro all'alliaria c'è un punto rosso: rabarbaro.

Baumkohl ... er hat den Winter überlebt ... mal sehen, ob er wächst.

Cabbage ... the plant survived our winter and should grow high. Let's see.

Il cavolo è sopravissuto l'inverno e dovrebbe diventare abbastanza alto. Vedremo :-)

Den Erdbeeren geht es gut :-) hier auch noch ein vergessener Knoblauch vom letzten Jahr.

The straberries are fine :-) and also the garlic we forgot to take out last year.

Le fragole stanno bene :-) e anche l'aglio che l'anno scorso abbiamo dimenticato di raccogliere.

Der Liebstöckel zeigt sich (die kleinen weinroten Spitzen)

Lovage ist coming out (the litte dark red plants)

Il levistico (sedano del monte) sta iniziando a crescere (le piccole punte colorate rosso vino)

Auch mein Salbei hat es geschafft.
Also the sage survived.

Anche la salvia è sopravissuta.

Zwiebeln ... ob die sich selbst ausgesät haben? Könnte sein.

Onions ... who knows if they distributed their seeds themselves ... it could be.

Cipolle ... chissà se si sono distribuite i semi da se ... è possibile.

Veilchen
violets

viole

Der alte Apfelbaum vorm Haus.
The old apple tree in front of the house.

Il melo vecchio davanti alla casa.

Gänseblümchen

daisies

margheritine

Schöllkraut

celandine

celidonia

Gundermann

ground-ivy

edera terrestre

Osterglocken

daffodils

narcisi gialli

Aronstab
arum lilies

gigaro (Arum)

Hier kenne ich den Namen nicht.

For this flower I don't know the name.

Non conosco il nome di questo fiore.

Knoblauchsrauke

garlic root

alliaria

Und Fanny kontrolliert natürlich alles ...

And of course, Fanny needs to check everything ...

E naturalmente Fanny deve controllare tutto ...

Haselnuss

hazelnut
nocciola

Brombeerstrauch

blackberry bush

rovo