Garden Pic Wednesday: Virginia Spiderwort

 Yesterday I weeded along the south side of the house behind the Strawberry bed, along the block wall border and cleaned up the rain garden area. Today, I continued working on the bed behind the rain garden, raking out leaves, mulching them with the mower, then replacing them. I moved some of the Canna root clumps. They tend to spread and I like them to form a back row. 

Today's Garden Pic is a recent photo of a really beautiful Spiderwort in my garden:

Turns out, this pretty weed is edible.

 Virginia Spiderwort is what is most common throughout Canada and the Eastern U.S. and is easily found growing in the wild, in your beds, in your grass, everywhere. It acquired the name "Spiderwort," because the roots could be used medicinally to treat spider bites. The plants other names included "Lady's Tears," & "Indian Paint."  
I literally have tons of it. Everywhere.
It is perennial and blooms cute bluish flowers. Here in the South, it's everywhere year round--if not actually blooming, then it's tuffs of it's scallion-like leaves pop up everywhere. 

It can be quite the pretty pest.
Apparently it was introduced in Europe in the 1600's as a plant to cultivate in gardens.

If you dig them up, their stems & roots look very similar to a green onion.

Interesting Edible Facts About Viriginia Spiderwort:

The seeds ripen between August & October, depending on regional location, and can be eaten when roasted. Though, the article said they tend to have a slightly bitter taste.

The leaves can be made into a tea or chopped and tossed into salads or soups.  (I'm going to try this sometime.)

The flowers are edible can be tossed on top of a salad or used decoratively on food. (I also want to try this. Hubby's up for it!)

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Now that I know this, I have new respect for this pretty weed. I might try it out and will probably do more with encouraging it to be in clumps various places.