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My defeated silverbeet tells me it’s time to focus on the summer greens. Read your garden.

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I looked out this morning and saw my silverbeet wilted, defeated. It’s not a lack of water… it’s actually too wet and humid here now. What will I do? Nothing actually – I will not try to fix it.  

What I will do instead is feed this to the chooks, compost it and/or do a chop and drop, and eat something else.

This is a clear sign to turn to the plants that love the hot humid weather that we get here in the subtropics. Just up the path a little is this powering pumpkin. Look at all those amazing leaves! Dinner…. There’s lots of great perennial greens around too.

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New pumpkin leaves are totally edible and delicious. As soon as they are cooked, any sign of prickles disappears. I also steam them for a few minutes and make great wraps with them. (Don’t overcook them, because they are so tender, take care not to overcook them or they will fall apart as a wrap) 


It was only a few days ago I was picking great big dark green leaves from this silverbeet. You can see the leaves in my handful of leafy greens below. How quickly things can change when the seasons change.  We’ve had rain for a week now and lots of heat too.  I don’t mind, I know I’ll get more silverbeet in Autumn.

Cycles of nature and the natural cycles in the garden remind us to keep diversifying so something is always thriving and there’s always food. It reminds us to embrace the seasonal changes and to look beyond what we normally think of as the ‘food’ in our garden.

I love pumpkin leaves in anything I would have used silverbeet. They’re excellent food. 

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Read your garden, read your plants – it’s a beautiful language full of richness and indicators for what we can do as gardeners who want to work with nature.

Here are a few of the other greens I will be focussing on now:

  • Surinam spinach
  • Brazilian Spinach
  • Sweet Potato leaves
  • Cranberry Hibiscus 

 

Happy gardening. Feel free to share this post.

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2 Responses

  1. Mel Duncan
    Mel Duncan at |

    Hey Morag, I was just wondering if you can eat all squash leaves. I have a mystery squash growing in the garden – could be a pumpkin, zucchini or cucumber – not sure as it hasn't fruited yet! Are all those leaves edible?

  2. Morag Gamble : Our Permaculture Life
    Morag Gamble : Our Permaculture Life at |

    Yes they are all edible, but some are tougher than others. Just use your judgement. Some, like the pumpkin leaves cook very quickly. Others like a cucumber leaf is tougher and would need more time cooking.