While weeding purslane out of my vegetable gardens I've noticed that wherever the purslane is thick, the soil is moist. I'm wondering if I just let it grow around the vegetable plants, if it will act as a mulch. It is very vigorous in my area - in fact, I was amazed to learn that you can actually buy seed for this stuff! I haven't been able to find any information on how much it competes with other plants for water and nutrients, though. Any ideas?
Using purslane as a living mulch?
The one that you buy seeds for is probably a different one than what you have in your garden, some sorts are better behaved and grown as ornamentals and what you have in your garden is probably the nasty weedy one.
Those are beautiful! Mine are their poor country cousins. They get tiny yellow flowers, if I let them grow that long. My thought was to limit them to the area just around the vegetables, because they seem to keep the soil moist. Now that you mention it, they do seem to keep other weeds down, too. But I'm still wondering if they would rob the vegetables of too many nutrients.
Yes, while researching I came across a lot of recipes. I'm working up the courage to actually taste it :-)
In my garden purslane is an uninvited pesty, quickly growing weed which reseeds profusively. It tried to take over my garden several years ago and the only way that I found to control it was to retire the garden. If a leaf or part of a stem falls onto open soil it will sprout roots immediately and before long there's a large flowering plant trying to take over that area.
The purslane that grows wild here has a greenish red stem, small green leaves with a small yellow flower. I would recommend a test area before trying it in any place where a weed isn't wanted. I consider it a highly invasive weed.
I have pulled and thrown away so much of it that I have no desire to eat it nor would I recommend it as a living mulch,.
Dotty: I have the same variety as you. I don't think eradication is an option for me - the only way I could control it would be to pave the garden! It even finds its way into hanging planters. I am experimenting with one small patch where I'm allowing some purslane plants to grow around some pepper plants. I'm keeping a wary eye on it, though, and pulling the mature purslane at the first sign of flowering. No worry that I'll ever run out of it :-)
Btw, I did try munching some, and it's not bad - crunchy, with a slight lemony flavor. Nice in salads.
jayne: When you pull the purslane be sure to drop the plant into a bucket or plastic bag and carefully dispose of it--don't let of it fall out or you will spread it. I've found it sprouting on top of a damp rock.
I've often wondered if it would feed the world.
Eat the purslane and think of it as free food! My son introduced me to the edibility of this weed. And I can attest that it's really good stir fried in a really hot wok with some oil, garlic, and soy sauce. You want to pick it when it's still slightly small and tender - when the stems get large, they're kind of tough. But I think it's really tasty and I love the idea of eating a weed - it's kind of like getting back at it!
I never thought I'd find a vegetable I wanted in an invasive plant list! But I did, I want some of this stuff, so I did a little research and found the native variety for sale on ebay here:
http://www.backyardgardening.net/scripts/ebay.php?query=purslane
I found a variety called Golden Purslane "Goldberg" at Johnny's Select Seed which is supposed to be bigger.
This could work out really well, as I plan to plant it on Army Corps of Engineer property around a lake. It's native so what the heck. I'll have to find out where Booplants got that big flowered variety.
thomas
I do gardening for a lady who uses it as a ground cover under her roses and eats it in salads.
It might make a difference if your plants being mulched are tall or short. Anything short could be shaded out, but taller ones might benefit. Interesting idea. I have a variety of sedum acre that spreads rapidly but is easy to tear out that I allow in certain areas as a ground mulch. It seems to keep "badder-worser" weeds from the area! Doesn't seem to hurt daylilies; salvias, centaurea grow right through it. I like its yellow-green color with yellow flowers as an accent color.
After I heard it was edible, I took a salad containing purslane to a potluck. Everyone ate it and liked it though they did not know what it was...LOL! They went back for more.... I did enjoy the looks I got when people found out it was "weeds."
You should also grow lamb's quarters and wild onion to really do your salads up right.
Yes, that was sarcasm.
Don't forget the dandelions :)
...which, by the way, are beautiful....
They are an excellant companion plant and help the veggies. They block weeds because I believe they have a shallow root system, and veggies grow deeper, also blocking a weed from acquiring a foothold, and they keep the sun and wind from sucking the moisture out of the ground. Small reptiles-turtles- stock up their winter diet with purslane, adore the little yellow flowers.
I use it as a mulch, it's roots are shallow and it does not seem to do any harm, does keep the weeds down and the moisture in. It is so hot here that i do everything i can to keep things growing. (southern calif) I would consider it a plus. you can eat it and it serves a purpose. my tomatoes especially are doing much better with it growing between the rows