Walk With Me To See My Year-Round Outdoor Salad Bar

It was misty then overcast this morning. Later it rained and will be cold again tonight for a few days. It's not cold yet so we are going to take a walk and look at my year-round outdoor salad bar this morning.

All my perennial salad plants as shown below grow and can be harvested year-round here. And unlike annual plants, I don't need to replant perennials every year. Minimum input yet maximum rewards. In addition, there is no laboring, no tilling, no exposing bare soil, and no disturbing soil life every year. It's mimicking nature and very sustainable.

I am also very exicited that I have found the best all-season leafy green that can thrive not only in steaming hot summer here but also in the winter! I'll point it out in the walk.

Let's start the walk by taking a look at the lake. There are still a few migratory ducks there.

There is otter manure by the lake. If you look closely, you can see undigested fish bones and scales. It smells like rotten fish. It's under an Avocado tree, which will be very happy for the newly added plant food.

This is Longevity Spinach (Gynura procumbens), an all-season winner in my garden. It's can be eaten raw or cooked. It's not only a vegetable but also a medicinal plant, which has good properties for contrasting diabetes by improving insulin sensibility and inhibit gluconeogenesis in the liver. Other medical properties include antimicrobial, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antihypertensive.

They grow like weeds in my garden as shown in the next three photos below. Nothing is better for edible plants to grow very fast like weeds. :-)

Sweet potatoes grow year-round here, too. Winter is not the best season for them as you can see. But we manage to pick up good young leaves to eat every single day. It is a good source of Protein, Niacin, Calcium and Iron, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Manganese.

This is my longest bed of sweet potato vines on a Hugelkultur.

I see some wild rabbit manure. I have enough plants to share with wild rabbits. They eat and deposit their manure next to the plants as plant food. Nature makes the perfect connection between different elements!

This is Okinawa Spinach, which has been known to lower cholesterol, and has even earned the nickname “cholesterol spinach”. It can be eaten raw or cooked.

We harvest green papayas and shred them to make a fermented salad. If you haven't tried it yet, I can only say it's divine. My kids like it much better than kimchi.

Freshly made green papaya salad will be fully fermented in 3 days.

An almost ripe papaya

Cranberry Hibiscus is still blooming. Both flowers and leaves are edible. Leaves have the taste of cranberry!

This is Canna Edulis with edible flowers, young leaves, and root.

Asparagus grows here year-round. I harvest both the young shoots and the young leaves.

The one with white flower is Spanish Needle (Bidens), a medicinal weed plant growing everywhere in my garden.

Thank you for walking with me today. I hope I have encouraged you to grow some perennial salad plants if you live in a tropical climate or have a greenhouse. See you next time!