Naturalizing Ethiopian Kale | The Survival Gardener

Now this is a great idea! Organic Gardner comments:

I did an experiment and let several plants go to seed. I hung them upside down on my fence to dry and let the birds peck at the pods and spread the seeds. now our entire fence is lined with the plant. I think technically it’s a mustard green vs. a kale. Anyway it tastes great and keeps coming back every year and makes great edible and decorative landscape. The fence keeps it partially shaded/cooler so it doesn’t bolt as quickly.

That comment was left on my 2014 post about Ethiopian Kale.

By allowing the plant to self-seed (bird-seed?), Organic Gardner let nature select the strongest plants for his area.

This is good gardening!

It reminds me of what Joseph Lofthouse does, but on a backyard scale.

Some years ago, we threw Seminole pumpkin scraps into a garden bed we were using to make compost. The plants that lived gave us a great yield with no work. There were probably a few hundred seeds in there. Some grew and we got lots more pumpkins from those survivors.

I love the idea of doing the same with Ethiopian kale. It’s scrappy and well-suited to Florida and the Deep South.

Throw those seeds around and see what happens.

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