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Five things to do in the garden this week:

1. For an exotic, drought-tolerant addition to your vegetable garden, plant New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides). It is not botanically related to regular spinach but it does have a similar taste. Do your own research before consuming, though: Leaves are semi-succulent and can be eaten raw, but it is advisable to boil them in order to eliminate oxalates which, if consumed in great quantity, can be toxic. This plant was eaten by Captain Cook and his shipmates to prevent scurvy after he landed in New Zealand in the 1700s. It is advisable to keep New Zealand spinach fertilized with a high nitrogen formulation such as 21-0-0 in order to prevent flower formation which stops its growth. New Zealand spinach is a tough plant with minimal water needs and is pest and disease free. Unlike regular spinach, it thrives in hot weather. You can find fifty seeds for three dollars at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com).

2. Okinawa spinach (Gynura crepioides), native to Indonesia, is another leafy edible you can plant now or anytime. It is unrelated to either regular or New Zealand spinach but easier to propagate than either one. The foliage has a delicately nutty flavor with young leaves being tastier than older ones. Some studies have shown that Okinawa spinach can lower cholesterol. Foliage is highly attractive and gently serrated, green on the top, purplish on the underside. It is best grown with some shade but can handle sun with more frequent irrigation and makes an excellent perennial ground cover. Propagation is a snap as terminal shoot cuttings root easily placed directly in good garden soil or in a glass with an inch or two of water on the bottom. Okinawa spinach grows as a perennial in frost-free zones. Order three plants for $16 at rareseeds.com.

3. If you have an oak tree in your backyard, consider it a free source of nutty flour for baking purposes. Acorn meal is coming into favor as a product of self-sustaining oak trees since they yield abundant crops yet require no inputs of water or fertilizer. Expose fallen acorns to the sun for one month. Then crack and peel away the acorn jackets. Soak the meats repeatedly in very cold water in order to remove tannins that impart bitterness, which could take several days. After each soak, sample some acorn meat to see if it is edible. Eventually, the bitterness gives way to a slightly sweet and nutty flavor. Dry the edible meats on low heat in the oven. Now put them in a food processor until they are transformed into a fluffy flour, from which pancakes, fritters, pastries, and pasta can be made, just as with ordinary wheat flour.

4. If you are thinking of utilizing rain barrels to store this coming winter’s rain (even as we pray that it comes), start the project now. The Metropolitan Water District does give partial rain barrel rebates, even if the amount is not extravagant. Rain barrels, available at home centers, need to be placed under your rain gutters to trap rainfall before it goes to waste. If your rain gutters go down to the ground, this means you will need to cut them off at the height of your barrels and direct the flow into your barrels by affixing properly positioned downspouts to the newly cut edges of your rain gutters. To apply for a rain barrel rebate, visit socalwatersmart.com. When you get there, click on “Residential Rebates” and then scroll down until you see a picture of a barrel. Click on the barrel and follow the instructions. For a step-by-step guide to barrel installation, go to treepeople.org. When you get there, click the magnifying glass in the top right corner and type “rain barrel” in the search box.

5. Begin to assess your trees for pruning this fall or winter, the best seasons for this task. The only trees you don’t want to prune are tropical species such as the weeping fig (Ficus benjamina), which goes into a funk and loses its color when pruned in late fall or winter, although it probably won’t die. Remember that less is more when it comes to tree trimming and no more than a third of a tree should be removed at any one time. This should be done without compromising the height or shape of the tree but rather by merely thinning out the branches.  When it comes to pruning, there is one golden rule: Never top a tree. If a tree is growing over roof lines or is a hazard to vehicle traffic or people, consider having it removed and replacing it with a species more compatible with the existing space.

Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com

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