Ideas for community gardens < water crops

WATER CROPS... for the community garden

Water crops supply us edible roots and leaves.

Planting containers

Water crops can be grown in large plastic pots. The larger the better. You will have to monitor the water level in the containers to ensure they do not dry out.

A way to make sure your water crops do not dry out is to find a number of old, discarded bathtubs. Place your plastic pots with your water crops in these, then fill the bathtubs. The tubs can be sunk into the soil so they are at ground level if this suits your garden’s sense of aesthetics.

Foam broccoli boxes make cheap but short-lived water garden containers.

Growing mix

Plant your water crops into a growing mix approximately one-third compost with the balance a sandy loam soil.

Safety

Pots will take most of the space in a larger water-filled container. But if you are concerned about young children falling into your water garden you can place a piece of weldmesh – a rigid steel mesh used to reinforce concrete – over the water garden. The plant foliage will grow through the mesh. Anchor the mesh around the side of the water garden to stop children lifting it off.

Mosquitos

Mosquitos breed in standing water – you might have seen the young wrigglers in ponds.

Gardeners have reported that the small water fern azolla or the water plant duckweed grown on the surface of the water reduces the opportunity for mosquitos to breed. Azolla and duckweed can be scooped out and placed on the garden as mulch. They will soon regrow to cover the water surface.

Azolla is especially beneficial – it is a nitrogen-fixing water plant that produces the compounds plants need to grow. It does this through a blue-green algae that lives in the floating roots.

The water crops

In general, water crops in the community garden:

• do best in a sheltered, warm microclimate - most come from tropical or subtropical ecosystems
• produce ebible roots or leaves eaten raw or cooked, depending on species
• include both annual plants (those going through their lifecycle within a year) and perennial plants (those whose lifecycle is longer than a year); some of the root crops such as water chestnut and arrowhead will grow from tubers or rhizomes left in the water garden - they are annuals that regrow.

Definitions

Underground plant structures

corm: an underground, swollen, food-bearing part of the plant; the corm is an organ of perenniation - the perennial part from which the annual, above-ground part of the plant grows

rhizome: an underground stem from which the shoots of a new plant grow and which serves as an agent of perenniation; refers to a horizontal underground stem

tuber: the swollen, food-bearing part of an underground stem or root; serves as an agent of perenniation eg.potato

bulb: an underground store of plant food from which a new generation of above-ground plant part grows; a bulb is an organ of perenniation eg. onion

Plant lifecycles

annual: a plant that goes through its life cycle - from seed to seed - within one year eg. spinach

biennial: a plant going through its lifecycle within two years; food is stored during the first year with flowering and seed production in the second eg. carrot

perennial: plant living longer than two years; in herbaceous perennials, the above ground part of the plant dies back in autumn and regrows from the underground part (corm, rhizome, tuber, bulb) with the return of warmer conditions.

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PAGE UPDATED... Wednesday, 16 January 2002