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AlittleSalt · August 3, 2016

This one is kind of long and hopefully it gives room for thought.

I saved purslane in two pots and one grown in-ground in a raised bed when I started solarizing our main garden. It was growing in the main garden as a weed, but after pulling it up - I noticed that it is a spreading weed with a central root base. In the area they were growing in - there were hardly any other weeds growing. This started a thought from things I learned long ago - along with some new ideas I have. I'll explain:

A weed is defined as an unwanted plant. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=weed+definition So any plant could be called a weed if you don't want it growing in a certain place. (Something I already knew.)

Our main garden is 45' x 45', so we plant in rows. In-between the rows, there are weeds growing and it's a lot of work keeping them weeded out. My idea is to plant purslane in-between the rows and letting them spread out to control unwanted weeds. Purslane also has beautiful little flowers on it. As far as eating it - I've read that some are okay to eat and others are not. I wouldn't be growing them to eat though.

In this way of looking at purslane - they would no longer be a weed. They would be a summertime cover crop that adds both purpose and beauty to the garden, and they reseed like weeds.

It's just a thought.

August 3, 2016	#10
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	This one is kind of long and hopefully it gives room for thought. I saved purslane in two pots and one grown in-ground in a raised bed when I started solarizing our main garden. It was growing in the main garden as a weed, but after pulling it up - I noticed that it is a spreading weed with a central root base. In the area they were growing in - there were hardly any other weeds growing. This started a thought from things I learned long ago - along with some new ideas I have. I'll explain: A weed is defined as an unwanted plant. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=weed+definition So any plant could be called a weed if you don't want it growing in a certain place. (Something I already knew.) Our main garden is 45' x 45', so we plant in rows. In-between the rows, there are weeds growing and it's a lot of work keeping them weeded out. My idea is to plant purslane in-between the rows and letting them spread out to control unwanted weeds. Purslane also has beautiful little flowers on it. As far as eating it - I've read that some are okay to eat and others are not. I wouldn't be growing them to eat though. In this way of looking at purslane - they would no longer be a weed. They would be a summertime cover crop that adds both purpose and beauty to the garden, and they reseed like weeds. It's just a thought.