Unusual Plants for a Vegetable Garden

There are many different varieties of plants that can be planted in your garden that will bring some unusual texture, taste and variety to your meals beside which the plants add an attractive garden look.

Two cool season crops that will add variety to your garden are Mountain Spinach or in Latin Atriples Hortensis. This plant may also be called arrach, French spinach, orach or spelled with an e – orache. It has flower stalks that grow 2-6’ in height with triangular or arrowhead shaped leaves that are 5-7” in length. You eat the leaves on this plant which will be edible in 30-60 days. The leaves may be green, yellow green, purple or red and the stems match the colors. You cook it like spinach. It loves full sun but can withstand many soil types such as poor, salty, sand or even alkaline. It handles Zone 8b-11. It is planted in the winter months unless you live in the north then you plant it in spring. It can withstand some drought and frost.

 Corn salad which in Latin is Valerianella Locusta, but may be called feldsalat, fetticus, lambs lettuce, mache or nut lettuce. In the south you plant in the winter or in the north in spring approximately a month before the last spring frost or at the first fall frost. It is good through Zone 5 but will need mulch like straw to keep it from freezing. It goes to seed if the temperature goes to 80 F. You eat the raw leaves which have a sweet and nutty flavor. They are a spoon shape leaf that grows about 6” long by 1’ across in a rosette pattern. You only pick the leaves either before or when the silver blue flower stalk appears but never after it appears. Water when the soil is dry and it enjoys full sun to partial shade.

Also known as Asimina Triloba which is a tree that grows to 25’. It has spring maroon flowers that appear before the leaves and fall golden or brown leaves. After flowering clusters of green fruits appear that may grow 3-6” long and weigh up to a pound. The fruit has a banana/pineapple flavor. It prefers a well drained, rich soil with filtered sun for about two years but then can handle full sun. It is hardy from Zone 5-9.