One of the first plants I got started in my garden is coming up with delicious leaves and shoots. It is known as a spinach though it is not the same as the kind that is grown annually. The leaves are thicker and hold up well when cooked. The rest of the plant is edible as well, including the seeds both ripe and unripe. I am really glad we got to harvest some greens this year, and it happened to come from this vining plant. And all being in the raised beds make me happy these are being used.
With just a few months of growth this vine has made its wall all the way to the top of this trellis. It would appear it will make its way all the way over eventually.
Not sure if the vines will survive the winter, or die back and make another attempt next year to conquer the trellis.
I leave the shoots at the end alone so they can keep growing as fast as possible. Though I think if I cut them back it would just top the vine and make it form new growth.
The fruits have no flavor to them, but the ripe ones have little seeds in them.. Not hard to chew through as they are quite soft.
When we cook them we take the leaves, and immature shoots and seeds. The ripe ones can just be eaten raw on the spot.. well all of the plant can, but we just do not prefer to cook the mature fruit.
This plant has needed almost zero training getting up the trellis, it wrapped itself around once I guided it towards the steel welded wire fence.
Vining plants are known to grow quick but one that is edible like this is especially impressive to me.
Looking at it from the inside of the trellis it gets a lot of light from both sides.. Lol my white shirt is washing out the video in some of the scenes.. sorry about that.
Insects seem to leave them alone, I guess spinach is not their favorite.
Really curious to see how its perennial nature handles the winter here. I expect it to completely die back to the ground. And then form new growth once the spring starts again next year.
But until then I will enjoy this plants leaves and shoots to eat. And just cool to see such a vigorous plant grow over the lattice in the raised beds. Maybe that hugelkulture is working overtime to feed this plant.
