Here is Trish’s account along with a special request for crop recommendations from any experienced gardeners out there; particularly if you have grown vegetables in an arid climate:

Vegetable Gardening Successes and Challenges in the Mediterranean

As a fledgling veggie gardener, I love your gardening secrets newletters! They’re great and give me a host of information. Our Mediterranean climate is perfect for growing almost everything but I’ve not been able to grow anything for years – a total failure.

Now, with your help, I have tomatoes and eggplants in raised beds and I’m planning asparagus and blackberries although I have to take sun and heat and very limited water into consideration.

Our latest challenge is the newly issued water limitation for every household to 2.5 cubic meters of water per person per month. And that includes showers, toilets, gardens, washing machines – the lot! SO I have to find edible, drought resistant – nay drought loving plants. Now there’s a challenge!

Do you know anyone who might be able to help? I do use mulch and drip irrigation. However, winter is on its way (lowest temperatures 8 degrees centigrade) and hopefully, rain. So the pressure will only be on next summer and until then I might be able to prepare myself. Thank you and shalom.

Embracing Wild Edibles to Tame Unfriendly Climates and Conditions

Shalom to you Trish! Have you considered introducing some edible weeds and native plants into your landscape? I would bet there are edible plants that grow wild in your climate and that they are capable of producing routine harvests with no assistance from any gardener.

Here in the Northeastern U.S. there are fruits like blueberries and blackberries that grow wild but can also be cultivated in the backyard garden. Likewise for edible weeds like lambsquarters, purslane, and dandelion; each of which is available in cultivated varieties that are even better served and enjoyed at the dining table.

If a plant grows wild in a particular region, it’s guaranteed to have the growth characteristics, hardiness, and some natural resistance to the localized pests and weather conditions. Those features would make it even easier for these wild edibles to flourish in the comfort of a garden in spite of a harsh growing environment.

Recommendations for Cooperative Veggies that will Grow Well in Israel

Are you aware of any wild edible plants in your region that could also be raised as garden crops? If so, you could include them in the veggie garden to supplement your other crops and to provide some insurance anytime the less hardy cultivated plantings fail.

Trish just followed up with me to add the following… “I do have rosemary, lavender, shiba (artemisia) and sweet geranium (we put in tea) none of which require a lot of water and when pruned during the summer spring back in the winter like crazy. But there must be other plants and I’ll ask around.”

Can anyone recommend drought loving edible plants that would be suitable for growing in a Mediterranean climate? If you have any suggestions or ideas that may be useful to Trish please leave them in the comment section located below. Thanks!

What has wings but doesn’t fly? And a set of wheels that never see the road? Its travel is limited to a distance that is measured by the number of feet per week, rather than the miles per hour that it covers!

No gasoline, electricity, or even solar batteries are needed to power this ingenious farm implement; so you could call it the ultimate in sustainability. And in spite of its amazing efficiency, it’s far from a slouch when it comes to performance…

This contraption will make short work of even the thickest tangle of weeds, and can cultivate the garden’s soil at the same time that it applies a layer of nitrogen rich organic fertilizer. Did I forget to mention that it also eliminates bugs, grubs, and the tiniest weed seeds?

If all that isn’t good enough for you, this hands-free device has an auto setting so that it works while you are off tending to other tasks. This baby can even be equipped with an optional attachment that will serve up breakfast if you’d like. So what do you think it could be?

I know I just have to get me one of these! Could one be stashed among all the other neat gadgets in the new Veggie Gardening Tips-OpenSky Shop? Hmmmm. You may think I’m exaggerating about this wonder, but you’d be wrong. For now I guess I’ll leave it up to your imagination to figure out the identity of this sweet dream of a green machine.

If you’re a master of organic farming and sustainable agriculture and already figured out the answer to this riddle, don’t be so fast to give it away. Let everyone else sweat and wrack their brains a bit over this one. You can just tease them with a response that you know the answer, or play along by adding a clue of your own.

So you know what to do… go to the comment section and jot down whatever you came up with as you read the riddle… and do it BEFORE reading what anyone else throws out there to confuse the matter.

Go ahead, I’ll give you some time and then return with the solution to this little gardening riddle. I’ll even share some photographs of this beauty in action to prove that I’m not making it up, and that such a device really does exist!

Well here are a few reports of mysterious, unidentified, mutated, or simply cross pollinated squashes that have been making appearances in backyard gardens this summer. The first sighting was reported by Anita who gardens in Ontario, Canada, in the Kawartha Lakes area.

Mysterious Canadian Squash Seeking Identification

“This mystery squash turned up in my garden.  I planted sweet potato squash, spaghetti squash and patty pan’s.  I did not plan on this squash, picture attached.  This monster started to surpass the sweet potato squash in size, it then changed colour, as in it was looking like a sweet potato squash, which are still creamy coloured and they are much smaller.”

“Do you think this could be a cross between a spaghetti squash and a sweet potato squash?  Or could it be a zucchini?  I cooked it and it was really watery and had the stringy texture of a spaghetti squash, but sweet and nutty flavoured.  The skin was also very soft after baking it, not tough as you would expect for the size of this, which I consider large, for this time of year in Northern Ontario.”

“It is sitting beside a Lodge Cast Iron Dutch oven to give you an idea of the size, 10-1/2 inches.  I have searched pictures on the internet and can’t find anything that resembles this.  Any idea what it might be?  I know that a zucchini can grow very large in a shot period of time.  Perhaps you have seen this in your gardening experience, I would appreciate it if you could let me know, or send it to your viewers, perhaps they would know.”

Anyone for a Serving of Sautéed Watermelon with Garlic?

Next up is a rather attractive fruit that was discovered growing in Patzcuaro, Mexico in a garden tended by Churchill, who is really baffled considering that they grew from a packet of what were supposed to be watermelon seeds!

“Hi, Kenny. I bought a pack of water melon seeds. What I got was not water melon. It is some kind of squash, but it doesn’t look like any of the pictures I have been able to find on the Internet. I think it may be a Hubbard.”

“I have attached four pictures. This thing is huge! I also included a photo of the plant and the squash next to it, which I call a soccer ball squash because if you let it, it gets about that size. The squash in question is huge, but our helper, Israel says it is still small.”

Latest Update: “About those squashes I thought might be Hubbards. Not! Quite large, I’d guess 4-8 lbs, and have a pale yellowish-green interior. They are common in Mexico, according to our farm hand. Already harvested two and expect another 10 and counting. When cut open they smell similar to water melon, but the seed structure is squash. Any takers on what kind of squash that is? They are quite tasty with enough garlic.”

Birds, Bees, and Cross Pollinated Squash Seeds

That’s definitely not a watermelon that Churchill is growing, but don’t ask me to say exactly what type of squash it is. Then there were the following comments that were posted here at Veggie Gardening Tips website…

“I have a patty pan squash that seems to have cross pollinated with my zucchini. It was suppose to be a white patty pan but it is yellow with green (just like the zucchini) on them. Is it possible that they are actually cross pollinating?” – Laurie

“Hello, I came across this thread while looking for answers to a “Patty Pan Squash” hybrid or ‘mutant’ that I have growing in my garden this year. I hope you don’t mind me asking this question here… Last year I grew a variety of summer squash – zucchini, yellow and patty pan. This year I had some “volunteers” from last year’s discarded seeds.”

“One plant is producing Patty Pan-type squash. The leaves and plant shape is identical to this year’s seed-planted Patty Pan squash, and the skin is light green and smooth, but the squash are oblong in shape… looks more like a gourd than a squash. Any idea how this could happen?” – LaurieLou

When it Comes to Squash be Extra Careful of what You Sow

Lessons learned… Cross pollination won’t affect your squash plants or fruits in any noticeable manner during the current growing season. But be very careful about squash seeds that you save or that volunteer because they cross so easily and once they do there is no telling what you’ll find growing in the garden next time around!

I don’t have a clue, but if anyone thinks the mystery squashes pictured above are actual cultivated varieties and can shed a bit of light on the matter, please do share in the comment section below. Also feel free to send in your own photos of any mysterious, mutant, or unidentifiable squashes lurking in your garden. Thanks!

Not exactly the happy ending that I was hoping for, but at least Tamara now knows to get rid of this weed that has invaded her vegetable garden. Andrew was the first to offer up the plant’s identity and even supplied the official botanical alias; Ambrosia trifida.

The Rap Sheet on Ambrosia trifida

Dar agreed with Andrew and added that this weed goes by the name of horseweed in Indiana, blooms from mid July right on through the fall, can grow to huge sizes if left unchecked, and has no common beneficial uses. Simon chimed in from the U.K. with the following: “It is a weed! There are millions of them here in England that usually camp out next to railway sidings.”

Identification was also sought from outside sources as Tamara reported in a later email to Veggie Gardening Tips:

“I contacted someone on Wisconsin Public Radio with a show called Garden Talk and he tracked down the answer.  This is rather humbling because I have been growing and nurturing giant ragweed!  They were stumped too so we shouldn’t feel so bad.”

An Expert Weighs in on Giant Ragweed

Kenneth Cameron Ph.D., Director of the Wisconsin State Herbarium was the expert who eliminated all doubt in a reply to the folks at Garden Talk public radio:

“The consensus here among a few people is that this is giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida).  Usually, this species has leaves with just three lobes, but young plants can be more dissected.  A Google image search on “giant ragweed” will pull up some pictures that look similar.”

“Hopefully the person who sent it to you does not suffer from hay fever!!  These look like they will become large plants!!!”

Plant Mysteries Coming and Going

Don’t worry Dr. Cameron; I have a feeling that Tamara has no intentions of allowing those giant ragweed plants to grow any larger in her vegetable garden now that she knows they won’t be producing tomatoes or any other edible fruits!

Thanks for the feedback and for helping Tamara to identify her mysterious plant. Since Andrew is obviously pretty good with his wild plants I’ll let him test his insect identification skills instead by sending him a copy of the book Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who’s Who, What They Do, and How to Manage Them Organically for coming up with the correct plant ID.

Finally, for those of you who just can’t get enough of a good plant mystery, here’s another for you. This time it’s an unusual tree discovered by Bea growing wild in the woods of Tennessee and loaded with small exotic looking fruits of some kind! Any guesses?

First there was the mix up between the look alike collard and cauliflower seedlings, then the case of the faux eggplants. Now there’s a new report of an unknown plant cropping up uninvited in a Northern Wisconsin gardener’s backyard!

The Latest Plant to Hit the Veggie Gardening Tips Most Wanted List

I don’t have a clue on this one, so Tamara and I are hoping that someone out there can shed a little light on the identity and culture of this rugged and vigorous looking plant. First a little background:

“I was on your website and saw that you were familiar with volunteer garden plants. Any idea what this plant is? I have ten of them growing in the garden.”

“I thought they were tomato plants since they showed up in a row spaced out where last year tomatoes were. I thought specifically maybe Thessolonikki. But they don’t smell at all like tomato plants.  Thanks in advance.”

A Rather Shady Looking Mystery Plant Resists Detection

And here’s the suspects lineup; we’re looking for a positive ID on this one and any additional background information will be appreciated and used to determine the fate of this mysterious volunteer in Tamara’s garden. Click on the images to get a closer look at the culprit.

With a quick glance at the first photo of the leaf close up I was ready to close the case and label this as some type of squash plant. That was until I saw the next full length shot; no way that’s a squash plant. It’s growing upward more like a coneflower or Jerusalem Artichoke plant, but that’s not it either.

A Difficult Cold Case that this Organic Gardener Can’t Solve

Now what really threw me was the close up of the stem in the last photo. Those do look a bit like suckers growing off of a tomato plant, but it can’t be a tomato, or even a tomatillo plant! I have to throw my hands up on this one but I sure hope someone out there can shed some light on this mystery.

I’m also wishing for this unidentified plant to turn out to be an innocent non-invasive. If it produces an attractive flower or a tasty edible fruit or tuber, that’s all the better. And if it happens to be especially nutritious or medicinal, that would be the ultimate reward for vegetable gardeners everywhere.

On the other hand if it is poisonous, invasive, unruly, noxious, or otherwise undesirable, at least Tamara will know exactly what to do with it next. And of course if no one out there can identify this plant then Tamara gets to name it and Veggie Gardening Tips will share in the credit of an awesome new botanical discovery!

So please help us out by sharing your insight in the comments below and let’s put this mystery to rest. Thanks!

Well judging by the following e-mail I just may add eggplants to the list of confused, though unrelated vegetable crops…

Growing a Rather Unusual Crop of Eggplants in Indonesia

“I am a very novice gardener, living in Bandung, Indonesia, which is one of the best places for growing veggies (cool nights, warm days, volcanic soil).”

“I had a go at growing some eggplant… The plants look fine, healthy. BIG plants and the stems are fine. But there is not a single flower or signs that any flowers are coming.”

“I am starting to question whether the seeds I planted were even eggplant, Ha! I have attached a picture… maybe you can make sense of it.”

“We are coming off the tail end of the rainy season and my seedlings did go in when it was pretty wet for a few months… Any ideas? Thanks in advance for your help and time. Regards, Bob.”

Good News, Bad News for the Novice Gardener

Well the good news is that the plants do look healthy… but unfortunately they are definitely not eggplants. You won’t be picking any eggplants from those babies but you just might coax a head of cauliflower out of them. I can’t tell for sure from the photo, but they look more like broccoli or cauliflower plants to me.

The next question to consider is exactly how this mistake in identity occured in the first place? Were these store bought transplants that were labeled and sold as eggplants by your local nursery? That would be a big blunder and the kind of mistake that a professional plant supplier should never make.

Or were the plants grown from seed to start with by the home gardener? In that case did the mix up occur during planting, or were the seeds packaged incorrectly? Again something that shouldn’t and probably doesn’t occur often with commercial seed supplies.

Avoiding Mistaken Plant Identities in the Backyard Garden

So how does the backyard gardener avoid similar cases of mistaken identity and disappointments in the vegetable patch? Keeping close tabs on your seedlings by labeling or mapping out their locations is a good start.

If purchasing transplants you’re at the grower’s mercy so at the very least do your shopping at a reliable supplier. And make sure that all the plants on display of a particular variety look alike, if not it’s time to ask some serious questions of the grower.

But once again experience will be your best insurance in these types of situations. Watching a plant grow from infancy to maturity and then ultimately bear fruit will reduce or eliminate the likelihood of confusing it with other plants, especially when the plants aren’t even distant relatives as in the case of Bob’s “eggplants.”

You’ll be surprised by how much you will pick up on little things like the noticeable differences between seeds and even the leaves of young seedlings. By paying attention to the small details it won’t be long before you are rattling off the variety or family of a long list of vegetables just by taking a quick look at its tiny unsprouted seed or a newly germinated seedling.

Jasmeen is finding this out the hard way as the following inquiry details…

“Hi Kenny, this is the first year I’m planting a vegetable garden. With no experience, I made a lot of mistakes. The big question I have right now is how do I identify cauliflowers and collard greens?”

“I planted kale, collards and cauliflowers in the same plot, didn’t label them thinking “oh, they’ll grow up to be different and I can separate them”. So far, the cauliflower doesn’t have its head or floret. And they all look the same. What should I look for to distinguish them?” – Jasmeen

It’s Times Like These When it Really Does Pay to Label Your Plants

There’s nothing more unnatural than a plastic plant labels protruding from the earth and many veteran gardeners take pride in their ability to identify their babies from the very first leaf, but that skill only comes through experience and close observation.

Even a master gardener will find it challenging to distinguish between different varieties of the same plant, or vegetables that they have never grown before. As humiliating and impersonal as it may seem to use labels, it’s better to play it safe than sorry when it comes to identifying your young seedlings.

Some times identity isn’t as important and you can sort things out as the plants mature and give away their true identities. But on other occasions it’s important to know exactly what plant you’re dealing with for the purposes of spacing, thinning, and planning production and harvest yields.

Nobody wants to plant a few heads of cabbage and lots of kale and collards, only to wind up with more cabbages than they could possibly eat and a supply of leafy greens that don’t amount to a much due to a case of mistaken identity!

Calling Out All the Masquerading Collard Plants

Most vegetables in the Brassica family, which include; kale, collards, Brussels Sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohl rabi, mustard, and turnips have leaves that look very similar during their seedling stages and sometimes even beyond.

There are slight differences that are difficult to describe, but observation and experience will be your best bets for telling the plants apart. In general collard leaves tend to take on a more rounded shape and the plants develop larger leaves as the plants grow in comparison to cauliflower.

The older any plants become, the more evident the tell tale differences will become to distinguish between related crops. Studying those details is the surest way to develop an eye for identifying various plant species, varieties, and even common weeds from the earliest stages of their development.

Leaf shape is usually the biggest give away, but you can also get important clues to a plant’s identity from its size, growth habits, and those subtle variations in color. The more dirt time you spend observing your plants as they grow, the easier it will become for you to tell them apart, regardless of their maturity.

Good luck at discerning the differences between your collards and cauliflower; you’ll probably be much better at that skill this time next season. For now I hope that your family enjoys eating lots of collard greens… or should I say cauliflowers?

“Is there a way to turn a fairly large patch of land that has quack grass on it into a viable garden area with out having the grass come up and create all kinds of weeds to constantly pull? I understand that I could dig up and remove the grass first, which would be a lot of work, and I could disc it, then rototill the heck out of it and just put up with the weeding, but is there any kind of organic herbicide, or is this just wishful thinking.”

“I want to grow vegetables for the family and do not want to risk contaminating the land. The current landowners whom we will soon be renting from and sharing the property with said that they wanted to use “Round-up” first, and that the product claims you can safely grow on the land in 4-6 weeks.”

“This sounds insane to me and I have raised my concerns to the landowners in order to try and convince them to go organic. We even offered to do most of the work weeding if they forwent the Roundup. I hope you can help. Maybe a response from you might be enough to help convince them of a viable solution.”

Natural Methods for Controlling Quackgrass on the Farm or in Garden

I don’t have any experience dealing with quackgrass on the scale that Ron is dealing with, but I have no doubt that it could be managed organically. Here are a few links that may be of interest to anyone trying to control quackgrass that is taking over their field or backyard garden:

• Quackgrass Control Methods in Organic Agriculture
• Organic Noxious Weed Management for Quackgrass
• Controlling Quackgrass

The last article mentions solarization, a simple organic technique that’s easy to implement and appears to be very effective against quackgrass. Best of all it isn’t labor intensive and can be implemented with some clear plastic film, sunshine, and time. The clear plastic is laid over the soil and left in place long enough to cook any weeds, rhizomes, and seeds that are in the ground.

For those that can’t set aside the entire garden area for solarization, cultivate/till/disc part of the garden to plant in this season and solarize the remainder of it to thoroughly eliminate quackgrass over the summer months. If the process works, you could then finish up by solarizing the other part of the garden next summer.

If anyone has any direct experience in dealing with quackgrass or other suggestions for eliminating it from the garden, please chime in. Thanks.