Biodiverse Polyculture (USDA 8a Zone Pasture) - sounds better than "My Acres of Weeds"

Goldenrod is not the pollen issue. Many folks mix up goldenrod with ragweed, as they bloom at the same time. But ragweed is the one people are allergic to. Different plants! If you are the 0.05% of people allergic to goldenrod I may be wrong, but almost certain you are mixing them up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragweed

U_Stormcrow said:

I've read about it, but not tried it. We aren't really "salad" people, so greens for salads aren't high on our list of things to plant (except arugula, which is a guilty pleasure, and tomato because... if I shared my last name, it would be obvious as the nose on my face).

Large leaf greens - kale, spinach (I planted some of that this AM), chard, cabbages are all good, because I can chop them up add salt, garlic, pepper as a veggie, or steam them and use the leaves as a wrapper, or shred them into a soup with some ginger and spices, or just wilt them with some hot bacon fat, vinegar, and a pinch of sugar, or cook, squeeze dry, mix with cheese, and use to stuff pasta...

Click to expand...

You're making me hungry!

littlecoopnextdoor said:

Goldenrod is not the pollen issue. Many folks mix up goldenrod with ragweed, as they bloom at the same time. But ragweed is the one people are allergic to. Different plants! If you are the 0.05% of people allergic to goldenrod I may be wrong, but almost certain you are mixing them up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragweed

Click to expand...

Yes. Its a pollen issue, not an allergen issue. Helps turn everything a yellow green which rapidly becomes a grey green on every available surface, including the inside of my nose.

In this area, we know it as "Faire Funk" because its often at its peak during Rennaisance Faire season, together with certain oak pollens, who provide the bulk of it...

I know butterflies are supposed to carry its pollen, and bees, but I'd swear there is so much of it that the excess mixes with the oak pollens and briefly provides a very lovely color before if fades thru baby poo and into less attractive colors...

MadGardener said:

You're making me hungry!

Click to expand...

then (as a courtesy) I won't take photo of my spinach and cheese stuffed shells in a red sauce made with "italian sausage" which several of my older roosters provided the protein for. Because that would be impolite, as I'm not sharing...

Also, I don't do food porn. Have a great evening, and may your meal be at least as satisfying as my own.

/edit I didn't mention I use duck eggs from my flock as a binder and to add richness to the cheese mixture, did I?

U_Stormcrow said:

then (as a courtesy) I won't take photo of my spinach and cheese stuffed shells in a red sauce made with "italian sausage" which several of my older roosters provided the protein for. Because that would be impolite, as I'm not sharing...

Also, I don't do food porn. Have a great evening, and may your meal be at least as satisfying as my own.

/edit I didn't mention I use duck eggs from my flock as a binder and to add richness to the cheese mixture, did I?

Click to expand...

It's not impolite as long as you share the recipe.

Following! I'm in Zone 8b, so am slowly gathering info on safe chicken foraging items for the back yard. I need to crowd out weeds, so might as well grow something the foragers will love!

JAMarlow said:

gathering info on safe chicken foraging items for the back yard.

Click to expand...

Alfalfa is easy, grows fast, improves the soil, can be eaten fresh by humans and fowl or cut and dried for hay.

I've considered it, but I'm also in a high desert. Alfalfa would need more water than I prefer. Panic Grass is native here, so I'm going to give that a try in one corner. Oh, and sorghum. It would be wonderful if that would work.

raingarden said:

Alfalfa is easy, grows fast, improves the soil, can be eaten fresh by humans and fowl or cut and dried for hay.

Click to expand...

Goats too

We have some, volunteers from passing bird droppings it seem. I do not recall successfully planting any of it in one of the mixes I bought. But I am very heavy into numerous clovers which serve much the same purpose.

and panic grass? I can't sing its praises enough. Particularly scribners' panic grass. Little Bluestem is decent, too. Torpedo Grass (panicum repens) is BAD! Like Kudzu, it chokes everything else out. The taller panic grasses (many of the paricum vergatum) are attractive, but less useful. Switchgrass is in that group as a tolerable, but there are also "ornamentals" with very tall panicles of brightly colored teeny tiny seeds that I find much less impressive.

I'm trying panic grass variety "Panicum sonorum", which is rarer but native to the area. So I'm hopeful it will do well over summer when it can climb up to, and over, 115 degrees. It was traditionally planted during the monsoons and withstood the heat afterwards. Tribes used to harvest the tiny seeds to use for food (and, of course, birds love them, too!). Here is a picture of what it should look like: