Desert Island Fantasy.

Im in need of a little fantasy today so please humour me :))
If you were living on a desert Island and could take only one flowering plant and one vegetable with you what would they be?

Of course mine would be the hardy geranium, my own hybrid Jennifer to remind me of her, and the vegetable would be peas because I could eat them forever and not get fed up!!

I would take iris, because I don't want to even think of a life that doesn't reward me with their beauty each spring, in return for total neglect most years. My food would be the humble yam, which contains almost every nutrient we need.

But I would be digging and searching that island for something I could cultivate for a green salad, and some root or seed I could make into flour for bread. Oh, I would pray for an olive tree, so I would have oil in which to dip the bread.

Wow Aimee if we ever get washed up together I dont think I would ever need worry!! :)

I have always wanted to do what Euell Gibbons did and take trips during which I would live off the land. In a very minor way, I do some of that when health permits, and I have a few books with great information about eating wild plants. But I'm a sissy and need a cup of coffee now and then, not chicory.

I have a copy of the Air Force Survival Guide, which covers all aspects of wilderness living. You didn't ask about which book we would bring, but that's my choice if I can only bring one.

My choice for wardrobe is simple. I would bring my denim jumper and some t-shirts, some plain white socks and my hiking boots.

For personal grooming needs, I would bring one of those stretchy head bands to keep the wisps of hair out of my face, and numerous clips and pins to wad it up and put it on the back of my head, out of the way. If I stumbled across a nest of eggs, I would eat the yolks of some, and save some of the whites to tame my hair. I would use an egg yolk to condition my hair occasionally. If there was some wild chamomile growing in a sunny open spot, I would harvest a small bit for tea, and use the leftovers to add highlights to my hair. The juice from slippery elm bark would serve as a cleanser for my body and a shampoo for my hair. It would need to be made into an infusion, so I would need to make a fire pit and gather some rocks or heartwood to hold the twig basket just above the pit to slowly make the infusion.

I would try to reach Horseshoe with my cell phone, because he is the original Mountain Man. Cooooeeeeeee....

LOLOL Aimee!!!

Ray Meres (survival man) is one of my heros but I hate sleeping rough!

So, which musical instrument, not electronic, would you bring? I think mine would have to be a small bongo set.

Instrument? I think I have to be the most non musical person ever but I have always wanted to learn to play the flute :) Annies song - James Galway takes me right back to my childhood.

Hmmm,,I'd HAVE to take Portulaca,,,thus the name MossRose..and it'd be hard to decide between the tomato and potato. Of course I'd have to take a guitar. I tried to learn to play back in the 60's,,when it was the rage,,and I guess like every young person I wanted to be a Rock Star. I can still strum a tune out,,,but it seldom sounds as it should. My fingers, along with every thing else, are not so nimble anymore.

I'd take a brug, the strongest smelling one I can find and onions. Cause if I have onions, we can share and make each other veggie better:)

Somebody holler coooeeee??... :>)

Hmmm...have to take a tater plant for sure. A perpetual plant that needs no pollination to produce, and can be eaten in different ways, eh? (Tater salad, baked taters, boiled taters, mashed taters, taters w/tiG's onions, etc...) (Does it sound like I'm trying out for a role on Forrest Gump?)

Not sure about what flowering plant...daylilly maybe? Pretty, plus you can eat the flower buds!

Music, hmmm, if not a guitar then it would have to be a fiddle, mainly cuz I wanna learn how to play one. Time on a desert island would be the perfect place to learn! (Just hope there are cats on that island tho...ya know, just in case I break a string or two.) ô¿ô

My vegetable would have to be a banana plant, we'll call it plaintain to meet the 'vegetable' requirement. Again, these would contain 'most everything needed to suppport life.

My flowering plant would be a hybrid daylily. Cannot imagine not having these. The seedlings would vary greatly, and soon there would be all sorts of blooms. Also, every part is edible. (Gee, 'Shoe, great minds thinking alike and all...)

And leave it to tiG to think of SHARING!!!

LOL As I was reading this thread I was thinking of the plants I would want with me and the flower I came up with immediately was the daylily because the flowers are edible in my salads and all other parts of the plant are edible too.

As for my vegetable, I would also have to say the potato. As Shoe wrote it is great for lots of ways of cooking and can be combined with other plants to make a delicious dish or three.

Thanks to tiG for the sharing of the onions we could have great fried taters and onions. YUMMMMMYYYY Of course I would have to request my onions be the Walla Walla that are in season right now. Ohhhh those sweet onions are wonderful!

Uuummmm, since psilo is bring peas and several people are bringing onions, I will have to bring stringbeans. Lots of vitamins, and lots of protein! Not to mention adding nitrogen to the soil, and being able to eat them at all stages, and being able to store them forever. I hope your desert island contains some wild boars. Gotta have side-meat to go with them.

Now for the flower. You know, I have nightmares about only being allowed to grow one flower! I can never decide: some days it just has to be a rose (which one???) other days it just has to be lavender, or lilac, or sweet peas, or poppies, or oleander or orchids or... see why I have nightmares about this choice? LOL

I also learned to play the guitar in the 60's, but gave up when I couldn't keep my fingernails short enough!

How about which one person would you bring? (spouses cannot be included!) I think I would bring my second brother. He knows little about horticulture, but has so much practical wisdom that he would get us a raft built in a week! And figure out the tides so we would make it to the shipping lanes.

Hmm Lupi I would bring my dear friend who became a proxy Grandpa for our son. He knows so much about a lot of things especially vegi gardening and is a hoot to be around plus he is wonderful on the harmonica. The fact that he is 90 years young means that he can tell us lots of stories too and with great humor involved. And if we need something that doesn't exist he can probably invent it for us.

Boy this desert Island is getting mighty crowded! LOL I think I will have to change it and rename it DG Island! LOL any dg'er is welcome only no mod cons are allowed! and spouses are definatly out!! LOL

We have some good nutritious food, interesting flowers, afew musical instruments, some wild boar and a possibility of some interesting guests, though I think we could do with some more! what else is missing???????

THE book is missing psilo...THE BIBLE!

How about what one woody plant? We can each bring one kind and make a beautiful garden!

I know what I would immediately choose: an oak tree. Lots and lots of lovely shade, acorns that can be ground into flour to make pancakes and bread. And the wood is so useful.

Of course this DG island paradise is filled with thousands of microclimates so we can grow all our different plants side-by-side.

Here I am again always breaking the rules LOL - Steve and I would be survivors on that island together - guess those with spouses would have to live on a far reaching end of the island LOL -
Wouldn't go without my fragrant star jasmine so I could sniff perfume all night long while chasing away scorpions while trying to sleep.
Food, not really a necessity for me, clear cold water will do the trick (perhaps a few bud lights LOL), but if I have to take a veggie I'd have to go with potatoes and for fruit one of my pineapples so I could have those chunks dipped in a bit of rum (oh, did I forget to mention bring that along LOL)