Spring Parking Lot Garden!

It’s nearly summer.  Spring in the Bay Area has been a turbulent mix of quasi-tropical sun days and torrential down pour.  The rainy spring has been great for the Sierra snow pack, the young bare root trees planted this winter and the general environmental health of California.  The bees have finally started bringing in honey and I’m getting jealous at the size of some of my neighbors tomato plants.  I’ve been working hard in the courtyard and parking lot of my warehouse, to create a Spring/Summer garden.  Here is a short photo tour of what I’ve been up to!

Courtyard list of characters:  two beehives, tandom bike, scrap wood, bamboo, roses, redwood siding planters, dream catchers, compost bin, trash can…..

Our Courtyard

The left/north side of the courtyard gets the most southern exposure, so I decided to plant some tomatillo’s and Pepino’s.

Sunny Side of Courtyard

Pepino Dulce (Solanum muricatum) are native to South America and produce a delicious sweet melon.  Max at People’s Grocery raised these in the green houses.  Hopefully the courtyard in Oakland will be hot enough!

Pepino Dulce (Solanum muricatum)

The final fruit look delicious!

Pepino Dulce

In the corner of the courtyard we’ve go New Zealand Spinach in large Safeway container, some cucumbers along the fence and a wild strawbery from oregon in an old gaudy planter.  New Zealand Spinach is a perennial green that will spread if you let it.  Ideally I would have planted this in larger bed, but I’m determined to keep leafy greens in soil thats been tested for lead.

New Zealand Spinach

Spinach close up.

New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)

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Recently Planted Brassica (I think it's a Brocoli?? Damn)

The Bee Hives.  One of them swarmed last week and landed across the street on to the same pear tree branch that it swarmed to last year.  Weird bee intuition.

Da Bees

Outside we built a raised bed along the fence from redwood burls and stumps.  This was our main garden last year.

The Parking Lot

Some pretty Brassica Close ups

Lacinato Kale

More Kale (we eat a lot of it)

The Sea Kale below is a portuguese perennial collard that Max grew at People’s Grocery.

Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)

A goji berry in a big pot.  Might need more cool temps.  We will see.  Got this little bad boy along with some other great/rare perennials from Anders and the Merritt Landscape Hort Plant Sale!!

Goji Berry (Lycium Barbarum)

A pine box planter I found on the street.  A polyculture including tomatos, kale, lettuce, beets and carrots.

Pine Box Polyculture

Beauty Lechuga

Beauty Lettuce

Our fence soon to be covered with Scarlet Runner Beans

Nasturtium Barb Wire

Oca ready to be moved into a bigger pot.  This is a root crop from Peru that grows well in the Bay Area.

Oca (Oxalis tuberosa)

Ice Cream Bean Tree (Inga edulis) is a sub-tropics/tropical plant that might work in the Bay.  The large bean tubers have a vanilla flavored cotton candy fiber that you can eat!

Ice Cream Bean Tree (Inga edulis)

Parking Lot Nursery

Parking Lot Nursery

Roof Top Nursery

Roof Top Nursery

Thats all folks.

Mulberry = Angel Food

Fruitless Mulberry

Mulberry!

I really wish our cities were littered with Mulberry trees.  Wait….  they are. Unfortunately most of the mulberry trees planted in Western urban areas do not bear any fruit.  Ornamental, but sterile, these fruitless trees not only take up important growing space, but cause serious bouts of berry craving.

As the super stars: pear, apple, plum, peach and apricot attract fruit growers across the U.S. with their juicy round fruit, mulberries are somewhat of a wallflower in the West.  Unfortunately, mulberries are not widely cultivated as a commercial crop because the berries are so fragile and hard to transport. I’ve only found a handful of fruiting mulberry trees in the Bay Area, compared to the hundreds and hundreds of lemon trees… too bad.

The mulberry situation improves the farther East you head.  The Red Mulberry tree (Morus rubra) is native to eastern North America, ranging from Vermont to Florida and as far west as South Dakota. Mulberries were an important food staple for Native American tribes, but today mulberry trees are far less prevalent.

Mulberry Fruit

Mulberry trees have been are incredibly important in Chinese culture.  The white mulberry (Morus alba) was cultivated 4000 years ago for silk worm production.  In Chinese medicine the fruit is used to treat greying hair.  The leaves are antibacterial and are used to treat eye infections and flu.  Tinctures from the bark are used to treat a number of common ailments, notably toothaches.

Mulberry!

Look at this berry!!

The largest mulberries come from Black Persian Mulberry trees (Morus nigra) which in California typically fruit in July. These berries can  be four inches long and when timed right taste great.  They do have an intense acidic/tart taste coupled with high levels of sugar.  Most people absolutely love them.

The Morus alba mulberry tree is allegedly as good as the Black Persian berry.  Look for “Oscars” and “Pakistan” varietals.

Mulberry trees are self-fertile and prefer well-drained soil.  They should be planted in a sunny spot where they have plenty of room to grow.  They will reach height 30 to 40 feet over the years.  It takes a while for the tree to get established and you probably won’t be eating mulberries for five or more years. Delayed gratification.  Everyone in your neighborhood will love you after 15 years when the tree reaches full production level.

More information about mulberry trees.  Information about which varieties test the best!  Burnt Ridge is a great nursery to order a Mulberry tree from or check out Spiral Gardens in the East Bay.

My Favorite Tuber so far: Yacon – Smallanthus sonchifolius

Imagine biting into a watermelon, but instead of a juicy and watery mess, your teeth slid through a crisp, apple like texture.  This tuber is angel food.  Filled with inulin, a sweet indigestible sugar (few calories),  this tuber is the dieters dream.  It is also my dream and several of my friends dreams to have an army of Yacon spread across Oakland.  The plant does extremely well in the Bay Area.

Yacon is a perennial tuber in the Asterids family, closely related to sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes.  Native to the Andes, it is an important South American domesticated crop.  Yacon syrup is a grabbing attention as a health product for its immunity boost and digestion assistance

Yacon should be planted early in the Spring to allow ample time for crown roots to form before winter.  This is less of a concern in the Bay Area where our few frosts won’t threaten root structures.  Find a sunny spot with healthy soil.  Yacon can grow as tall as 2 meters and will produce small yellow flowers.  These plants are incredibly productive, yields of 2 kilos per plant have been documented.  You can store the edible roots for several months after harvest.

When you dig up the root system in Autumn, look for two different types of root structures.  The large potato looking tubers are the one’s you should harvest to eat. Smaller structures with eyelets and should be divided and planted again for the Spring.  Don’t let the roots dry out while you store them to plant in the Spring.

Yacon leaves and stems can be cooked as vegetables in a stir fry or salad.

Here is additional information on Yacon.  Here you can order root crowns if your friends or local nurseries don’t have any extra for you.

Look how excited these guys are about their Yacon Harvest:

Spec that Pather’s Sweatshirt!