info@jumpingmouseprograms.org
JUMPING MOUSE OUTDOOR SCHOOL
  • Home
  • About
  • Programs
  • Scholarships
  • Register
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Volunteer Opportunities

Story of the Day

Resources, stories, mysteries, and tales of adventure for naturalists, adventurers, and woods-wanderers.

blog home

Friendly plants of my driveway

9/4/2014

3 Comments

 
Remember that Joni Mitchell song about paving over heaven? Imagine someone paving over a meadow back when Joni recorded 'Big Yellow Taxi' back in 1970. That meadow is now my driveway. I live in a very old building with a couple of different apartments in it, and the driveway accommodates three cars on a regular basis. Who knows how many exhaust pipes have coughed lead-laced fumes into the gravelly earth, or how many fluids have leaked from cracked gaskets. Who knows the trash that has languished there and bled icky juices into the dirt, what dog poop has been smeared, what pesticide residues persist. Turns out, though, that heaven isn't so easy to squish.
Picture
Plantain aka Plantago major. Followed European settlers across the water. Likes to be stepped on. Very safe edible and first aid plant, but make sure you harvest from a clean place. Apply a leaf poultice to abrasions, rashes, stings, bites, or irritated skin. The long, upright seed stalks bear seeds that are edible and very mucilaginous. Plantain seeds (different species) are what metamucil is made of!
Picture
The leaves of plantain are edible, but I personally don't find them tasty. Best time to eat is in the spring when they are tender and young. Look for a basal rosette, entire leaves, parallel leaf veins, and veins that are tough and elastic-y when you pull the leaves apart. Has a close cousin, Plantago minor, who is also awesome but not in my driveway.

Read More
3 Comments

    Author

    Hi everyone! I'm a small, energetic mammal. I sometimes go by the name Zapus hudsonicus.

    Archives

    July 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    October 2013

    Categories

    All
    Climate Change
    East
    Family
    Gatineau Hills
    Geologic Time
    Gratitude
    Hazards
    Health
    History
    Home
    Landscape Tracking
    Nature Connection
    North
    North West
    Ottawa River Valley
    Relationship
    Safety
    Sit Spot
    Story Of The Day
    Thanksgiving
    Ticks
    Time Travel
    Tracking

    RSS Feed

click here to connect with us via our facebook page!