A staircase from Texas Tiny Houses

It's All Growing Now

On Friday we packed the last bit of Mushroom Insulation into the peak of the roof. Now the entire roof and walls are alive and growing! The mycelium is colonizing the chopped up plant stalks, forming a continuous insulation and air barrier to keep tiny house dwellers comfortable and cozy.

Birds eye view.

All closed up! Also, check out the door and window that we’ve started to frame. Stay tuned to see us build the front and back wall, and weatherproof the whole structure.

The beauty I shall behold for you today is one of my favorites. In particular because I don’t eat gluten, and this plant is a great for replacing wheat grains! …

FAGOPYRUM DIBOTRYS! (perennial buckwheat) Is a member of the Fagopyrum genus in the family of Polygonaceae.

USES: Leaves - raw or cooked. Boiled or steamed and used like spinach. Of excellent quality according to many, but we have been less than impressed by the flavour, which has a distinct bitterness especially when eaten raw[K]. The leaves are rich in rutin and so they do make a healthy addition to the diet. Seed - it can be sprouted and eaten raw, or cooked and used as a cereal. Dried and ground into a powder, it can served as a thickening agent in soups etc. The seed is rich in vitamin B6. MEDICINAL USES: The whole plant is anodyne, anthelmintic, antiphlogistic, carminative, depurative and febrifuge. It stimulates blood circulation. A decoction is used in the treatment of traumatic injuries, lumbago, menstrual irregularities, purulent infections, snake and insect bites.

A decoction of the roots is used in the treatment of insect bites, dysmenorrhoea, inflammation, lumbago, snakebite and traumatic injuries.

The leaves are rich in rutin which is a capillary tonic, antioedemic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic and hypotensive. Rutin also inhibits carcinogenesis and protects against radiation.

Functions as 

Anodyne

Anthelmintic

Antiinflammatory

Antiphlogistic

Antispasmodic

Cancer

Carminative

Depurative

Febrifuge

Hypotensive

CULTIVATION: A very tolerant and easily grown plant, it prefers dry sandy soils but succeeds in most conditions including poor, heavy or acid soils and even sub-soils. Prefers a good soil in partial shade, growing very well in woodland conditions[K].

The dormant plant is hardy to about -20°c, though the growing plant is frost tender[K]. It is often excited into growth quite early in the year if the weather is mild, and will then be cut back by the first frost. It usually regrows quickly from the base[K]. Perennial buckwheat is occasionally cultivated for its edible seed, though this is not produced as abundantly as in the annual members of this genus. Our plants flower in late summer and early autumn, and have not as yet produced any seed. Since all our plants come originally from one seedling, it is quite possible that the plant is self-sterile.

There is at least one named variety, selected for its ornamental value. ‘Variegata’ has variegated leaves.