Well, the May Long weekend continued with its tradition. It rained on the days I was home over the weekend, so I did not get to dig up more of the red rock.  Instead, I started counting ferns in the red rock bed.  I counted over 20 of them. So, moving on to saving the ferns! The first step is establishing what kind of ferns are in my rock bed.  I snapped a picture of my ferns and uploaded them to the app PictureThis and what I found out……….. I have a lot of Ostrich ferns.

 

Now that I know what I am dealing with, what do I need to do to these ferns to keep them alive? Well, my Facebook algorithm now wants to show me everything and anything about Ostrich ferns.  Lo and behold, what do I stumble across?  A Facebook post telling me that Ostrich ferns are edible.  I started digging deeper because I realized you can not believe everything on Facebook.  I found a Government of Canada website reviewing food-safe tips for fiddleheads, which is what the curls from the Ostrich fern are called when they first sprout. In the video below, I will show what my fiddleheads look like in red rock.  Mine are too far gone this year to try sampling.  Next year, I want to sauté fiddleheads for a sample.  I have read that fiddleheads can taste similar to asparagus, broccoli, spinach or green beans.  I can’t wait to try them.

 

Returning to my app/webpage

The perfect time to transplant Ostrich ferns is mid-spring to early summer.

Lucky for me, it’s curretly mid-spring. Ostrich ferns need partial to full shade.  I plan on returning them to the area they are currently in, so they will still have partial shade.  I have started moving my ferns from the red rock bed to flower pots until I can remove all the red rock and transplant them back into the flower bed.  Two down and eighteen more to go!