Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, March 7

Happy first Saturday in March! Don't forget to Spring Forward!

Sometimes the professionals do a good job with landscaping. What can we learn?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Last week, WeeKreekFarmGirl posted this comment. The last part caught my attention:

42 Hi KT and fellow gardeners, still at it here. Just not much new to share. My Lady Banks haven't started to bloom yet. I did have to thin the under growth this year. My trellis is leaning at a wonky angle from the weight. It is 20 years old and we may have to severely prune it next year to fix the trellis structure.

Just planted 5 kinds of melons this morning, mahdu, Minnesota midget, model melon, charentais melon and a watermelon. Got my first jujube from my tree after 6 years. I hope I get many more as it was delicious.

Growing a new green/herb/lettuce, not quite sure what it is considered, called sculpit. It is very hardy and I seem to have a lot of it, it likes it here. I read the garden thread every week, keep up the good work horde!

She grows a lot of unusual and interesting things!

I looked up Sculpit in a blog from the UK: Sculpit – a herb worth letting grow

If you were to read a random selection of recipe books or growing guides, you would probably reach a limit of the number of herbs mentioned pretty quickly. There doesn’t seem much choice beyond the culinary standards we’re all familiar with. But in the real world, there are many more herbs available than even the most resourceful chef might have encountered.

One such herb that has barely made an impact in UK kitchens and gardens is sculpit (latin name silene inflata). But this green veg is much more common in Cyprus, Spain and Italy, where it’s also known as ‘stridolo’ and, in some parts, is celebrated with an annual festival. It comes under the tag ‘weed’ in North America, maybe because of its less appealing name ‘bladder campion’, but that didn’t stop me from attempting to grow some.

Like most herbs it grew fairly easily and quickly, throwing up tall stalks with long slender leaves. Besides using the leaves to pep up a range of Mediterranean dishes, from salads to stews, younger shoots are also picked in bunches and are the main feature of several pasta dishes. My harvest wasn’t vast so I’ve used it more sparingly – it has a lightly herby, peppery flavour which I think goes particularly well with egg based nosh.

But one of the best discoveries with this plant is not in its flavour, but its flowers. Allow it to grow and you’ll be rewarded with daintily spectacular blooms of petals perched on the end of miniature pink oval lanterns.

It's a Silene. Charming. More photos of the plant and flowers at the link.

Here's a U.S. seed source that mentions the festivals for this herb in a rather lengthy description of the culture and uses of this herb in Europe.

This deep cultural connection is evident across the continent. For instance, the town of Galeata in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region holds an annual festival ("Sagra dello Stridolo") each April dedicated to Sculpit, featuring market stalls and culinary demonstrations highlighting pasta and ravioli dishes made with the herb. Similarly, in Spain's La Mancha region, specialized foragers known as collejeros historically gathered and sold the wild leaves (collejas) for use in traditional stews like gazpacho viudo. Further evidence of its long-standing use comes from Crete and Cyprus, where browning the tender leaves and shoots in olive oil is a documented culinary practice.

Found anything interesting in your seed catalogs?

I have officially become that person who gets excited when the seed/plant catalog arrives. New potatoes? Tell me more... pic.twitter.com/fWyIKGgcVm

— Dan J Kroll (@DanJKroll) January 29, 2026

Ah, Nature

California Poppies and Lupines (In California and Arizona)

Gardens of The Horde

The blooming almond trees near us attract some bees to our rosemary, but not every day.

Anything going on in your yard, garden or neighborhood?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden at g mail dot com

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Feb. 28

I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.