Purslane

Q: My vegetable garden has been invaded by purslane. What should I do? Hoe it? Leave it to cover the paths? How can I keep it out of the plants?

A: Purslane--that flat succulent weed which grows to enormous circles, and has small yellow flowers in midsummer--is an annual, like most other garden weeds. Like all annuals, purslane can appear next year only if its seeds are in the ground, ready to sprout. Eliminate its seeds and it will be gone. However, purslane seeds are not the easiest to eliminate. They are produced in enormous quantities--hundreds of thousands on a big plant--and they can live in the ground for 40 years, waiting a chance to sprout.

I find it easier to wait to weed purslane until the seedlings are big enough to pick up. Each plant, no matter how big its diameter, will have only one central root. I cut the root, but other gardeners may pull or hoe. The next step is critical: remove every purslane plant to the trash, or to a hard surface where it will dry out. Purslane holds water in its succulent leaves for several days. If left on the ground, it will live long enough to make new roots and begin to grow again. Only when a plant is dry and desiccated is it safe on a garden path.

Try to remove all the purslane plants by the time that they bloom, and be equally vigilant in late summer, after the yellow flowers have disappeared. Years ago I learned the hard way that late purslane plants do not have to make yellow flowers before they make seeds. They form late season buds which go directly to seed without showing flowers first.

If you cut and remove all the purslane plants before they produce seeds this summer, you will not have eliminated purslane in one year, but you will have decreased its presence by at least 75 percent, and that is an accomplishment to be proud of.

Q: A friend told me that I should cut the flowers off my tomato plants before setting them out. Can that possibly be so?

A: Indeed it is. If you leave those flowers, they will make tomatoes, but the plants will go into a holding pattern. They will not make more flowers until the first few have developed tomatoes. For the best tomato production, cut off the flowers until the plants have been set in the garden. They will make roots first, and then lots of flowers as soon as the roots are big enough to support them.

Q: I made a 10 x 20 foot raised bed and filled it with layers of compost, straw, animal bedding, leaves and pine needles. Am I doing it right? Should I now cover the bed with landscape cloth or plastic and let it sit for a year before planting?

A: It sounds as if you have the makings of a very productive garden. But why wait a year? Top your bed with an inch or two of dirt so that you have something to bury seeds in and plant it right now. While the straw and pine needles need time to decay, the compost and manure are ready to go.

You might want to add a little nitrogen once a month this summer. That will guarantee that some is available to the soil micro-organisms, since some nitrogen will be gobbled up by the straw and leaves, which are still breaking down.

My one suggestion would be to put a two-foot wide path down the middle of your raised bed. That will leave you four feet on each side to plant, and more than that would be a long stretch to reach across. Plant in short rows perpendicular to the path. Plants in each row should be the same distance apart as the distance between the rows. For example, make pepper rows 12 inches apart, carrot rows just three inches apart. You will be amazed at the quantity of vegetables you can grow in that bed.

Master gardener Molly Hackett's motto is "Never trust a gardener with clean fingernails." She shares her gardening expertise in her "Dirty Fingernails" column in the first issue of the month. She welcomes reader questions related to gardening, pest management, plants, soils and anything in between. Those of general interest will appear in the column. Please submit your questions to her via email to mhackett@centric.net, call 406-961-4614 or mail questions to 1384 Meridian Rd, Victor, MT 59875.