Carrot Seed Update

Here's an update on my carrot seeds.  This one is growing nicely.  Bushy and green and healthy.

 

The others?  They rotted in the ground and left behind a hole.

All four of them!  Four holes and one plant!  I hope they don't have to cross-pollinate to seed or I'm in trouble.  We'll see later this summer.

Carrot Seeds

Did you know that carrots are biennial?  That means that in order to get seeds from them you need to wait until their second year.  Well, I decided to take the challenge and give it a try.

What you do is save some carrots from the previous harvest year.  I stored mine in a plastic grocery bag that I loosely tied shut so they would still get some air.  You don't want it completely sealed or they might rot.  You keep them in a cool place - I kept mine in the extra fridge downstairs.  This is what they looked like this spring.

 

I dug a trench at the end of a flower-saving garden in the back yard.

 

I stuck the carrots in the trench.

 

Then I covered them up to the top of the carrot.

 

The carrot blossoms are supposed to be a bee magnet.  We will see what happens as summer progresses and keep you informed.

 

 

Spinach Time

Last year I let my spinach go to seed so I could save some to plant this year.  Since I was often away or busy, the spinach got away from me and much of it reseeded itself when I wasn't looking.  I was still able to save a fair amount of seed (enough to share at Seedy Saturday).

Here is my huge patch of spinach that is ready super-early.

 

 

We have been eating steamed spinach sprinkled with vinegar and also spinach salad with bacon, mushrooms and boiled eggs.  I plan on using some for soup as well.

 

Someone else likes fresh spinach as well.

 

 

Lulu stays close to the edge of the patch as she enjoys her feed of spinach.  We don't mind sharing with her since there is so much of it.

 

She also likes that some of the leaves from last fall are near the spinach.  She likes to scratch and look for bugs while feasting on the spinach.

 

"Oh boy," exclaimed Lulu.  "I sure like all this green stuff!  Yum, yum, yum."

 

So Lulu is enjoying our nice weather - eating, scratching, dustbathing and sunning herself most of the day.  ;)

 

 

 



Seedy Saturday

Lillooet held their 5th annual Seedy Saturday this past weekend.  This was the fourth one I've attended, missing only last year. 

There were info booths on seed saving, weeds, indigenous plants and berries and much more.  They also had seeds for sale that are open-pollinated, heritage and heirloom, organic from a number of smaller seed companies.   

To me the highlight is always the seed swap.  Here you can get  seeds saved by local gardeners to try out.  In the past I got some seed potatoes, Deer Tongue Lettuce and a variety of beans.  This year I got some seed potatoes again - 2 red (Red Dutch and Desiree) and 2 white (Russet Norkotah and German Butterball).

This was the first year, I was able to contribute some of my seeds.  I donated a half dozen varieties of lettuce and greens, two kinds of spinach and a number of herbs.

They also have a raffle every year with numerous prizes from a load of manure to home canning, pottery and seeds, to teas and gardening books.

Lulu came along for the ride but waited in the car especially since it was raining quite heavily.  When we returned home, it had just stopped raining so I left Lulu out for some fresh air.  When she was coming in, it took her a long time to climb the stairs because she was drinking the raindrops had were hanging from the stairs and table right next to the stairs.  She reminds me of a curious little kid - always checking things out that most of us don't even stop and notice.

Later in the afternoon, I got a call that I won one of the raffle prizes. :)

 

My prize was a tortilla chip and dip tray, 3 squash, a jar of pickled garlic scapes and a quart of canned apricots. 

 

All in all, it was a great day!  Everyone had thoughts of the up and coming growing season as the rain washed away a number of  snow banks.  Yippee!  Spring is on the way! 

 

 

 



Cucumber Seeds

One of the seeds I decided to save this year were cucumbers.  Some of the cukes grew up the wire I placed around the cherry tomatoes to keep you-know-who from picking at all the reddish ones early in the season.  Lulu is not a good sharer so I had to restrict her access to the cherry tomatoes so I could have some as well.

 

You are to leave the cukes grow and ripen as long as possible in the garden.  Here is one of the ones from the wire that has yellowed nicely.

 

When I was worried about frost, I picked the large yellow ones and allowed them to ripen off the vine even more.  You can see the one in the top left is starting to rot.  It is now time to save the seeds.

 

First you cut the cucumbers in half so you can scoop out the seed pulp.

 

You do not need the flesh and skin so add those to your compost heap.  If you have chickens they may eat them as well.  Lulu is a more finicky eater and likes the seeds not the flesh.

 

Next place the seedy pulp in a jar.  Add some water and shake. Over time the mixture will separate.  Leave them for about five days.  The good seeds should sink to the bottom.  I ended up pouring off the scummy water and poured the good seeds into a colander.  I then rinsed off the seeds and repeated the process.

After the second time, I rinsed the seeds well to make sure no bits of flesh were still attached.  Drain them well and place on paper towels or screens to dry for several weeks.  When they are hard and dry, bag and label for next year's use.

Parsley Seeds

Did you know parsley is a biennial?  That means it produces seeds the second year before dying off.  Here is my parsley earlier this year.  This is the first year I've had it regrow the second year.  When I lived in Saskatchewan, it was too cold for the plant to survive the winter.  Last year, I covered my herb beds with leaves and it seemed to protect the plants.

 

The plant did not take long to start sending out flowers. 

 

It looked quite pretty and lacy as the flowers were greenish-white. 

 

The bees and other insects really liked the parsley flowers and were always swarming around it. 

 

As the flowers turned into seed heads, I decided it was time to harvest before I had a huge parsley field covering my herb garden and walkway.

 

I cut off bunches of seeds and laid them on the lawn so I could tie them together to hang up to dry.  Of course, Lulu had to come over and check out what I was doing.  Parsley is not a favorite of hers.  In fact, none of the chickens were very interested in it.

 

After the bunches were tied up, I hung them up to dry.  Lulu stuck around hoping for something more edible.

 

Here the plants have dried sufficiently to harvest the seeds. 

 

After the seeds were removed from the stems, I laid them out to dry some more.  I always try to make sure the seeds are totally dry so they don't spoil during storage.

 

Now I'll have seed for the next few years plus some to give away.  ;) 



Growing Soup Beans

We have a Seedy Saturday seed exchange here and I have tried several different seeds over the past several years.  I tried several bean varieties last year - pinto, black and white.   I only had a few of the white beans so I used them all for seed this year.  They were labelled as Cherokee Trail of Tears so I have been calling them that until I went on the internet and found that Trail of Tears beans are black.

Here are the beans in the garden earlier this summer.

 

They are a bush-type bean.  They grow green pods with a pinkish blush on some of them. 

 

As they got more mature, they turned pinker. 

 

I pulled them out before they were completely dry so they could dry indoors.  Last year I left my beans too long in the garden and a number of them split and spilt their seeds in the garden.

 

I tied them together and hung them in the greenhouse.  After they dried, I shelled the beans.

 

 

I set them on a tray to make sure they are completely dry.  Notice the shape of the beans - they are more roundish than regular white soup beans.  I'll have to do more research to see if I can find out what they are. 

 

 



Saving Spinach Seeds

I decided to save my spinach seed this year.  Here are the plants going to seed.

Did you know that spinach has male and female plants?  You can't tell the difference until they start to go to seed.  (maybe some people can but I can't)  This is a female plant.  You can see the little lumps in the joints?  That is the start of the seeds.

This is the male plant.  It gets many tiny flowers all up the stalk.  When the plant moves in the wind or if you brush against it, the pollen looks like a yellow dust cloud.

Here is a female plant drying up outside.  I let them dry most of the way out in the garden.  When you are saving seeds, you don't want to save the first plants that go to seed as that is not a trait you want.  You also try to save seed from the largest, nicest plants so you continue those traits.

When the plants are fairly dry, I pull them out of the ground and tie them in bunches.  I then hang them upside down in the greenhouse to finish drying.  This way I don't have the spinach reseeding itself in the garden.

When the spinach is all dry, I put it in an old chicken feed bag to knock the seeds off.  Some people pick the seeds by hand but I don't really care if I have some leaves, etc. in with the seeds.  The seeds won't grow any better if they are clean and my way takes much less time.

After crushing the plants to remove the seed, I dump it into a container.  I usually spread the seeds out for a final drying.  I then sort out some of the larger chaff and then label and store the seeds until next year.



Lettuce Go Crazy!

If you see me and my nose is wiggling and twitching, you'll know its because I've been eating too much lettuce.  I got carried away when I planted my garden this year.  Last year it wouldn't have been a problem because the chickens would have loved the excess lettuce and greens but Lulu can only eat so much by herself.  FYI - my rows are around 25 feet long give of take a couple of feet.

I have 1/2 row of mixed greens from my own seed I gathered.  I originally had a package of Mesclun mix and saved some seed from the various plants that grew.  I love the variety of colour and texture in this mix.

This is my 1/2 row of Deer-Tongue Lettuce.  I got the seed from a Seedy Saturday several years ago and have since saved my own seeds.  I love it because it takes a long time to turn bitter.  You can usually eat this long after your other lettuce is gone.

This is 1/2 row is a mix of mustard greens that I saved from mixed seed packages grown over the last couple of years.  The mustard family plants seed earlier and easier than some of the other lettuce and greens.  They add a nice bite to the salad, a bit peppery without being really bitter.

This is my 1/2 row of Super Gourmet Salad Blend.  It is a mix of 5 varieties of red and green lettuce.  I started with at least half a dozen different blends of seed and planted a bit of each.  I've been trying to save some of each type of seed but haven't been successful with all of them.  These seeds are some of the original store bought seeds I have left.  They may be getting too old all they did not sprout as good as my own saved seeds.

This is some salad bowl lettuce from seed I received from Erin, a fellow blogger and gardener.  I also have a volunteer red lettuce and a sunflower growing there.  I planted sunflowers last year for the chickens and have a couple of volunteers from seeds they overlooked.

This is the last of my Bon Vivant mix that contains according to the package a mix of "exotic leaf shapes, textures, and colours ranging from deep reds, bronze tones, and various shades of green."  I have still have several types of lettuces seeds in this mix to collect including some with deeply textured leaves.

I finished that row with more of my mixed greens.  I love the look of a salad with numerous colours and shapes of leaves.  Many of the leaves have a different flavour as well - some peppery and some satisfyingly crisp.  I also use some spinach in my salads as well.

This last 1/2 row is an Ooops row.  I have a second garden that I am not using this year and we were going to till in some grass clippings.  I saw a number of volunteer lettuce plants that weren't big enough to eat but too nice to till under.  So I dug up the individual plants and planted them in an empty 1/2 row at the end of my cabbages.  It wasn't marked with a stake and I didn't bother to go into the house and check my map.  Several days after I planted the lettuce I remembered that was 1/2 row of cucumbers.  I was upset with myself for digging up my cukes before they sprouted.  I found that I missed many of the plants and they are growing alongside the lettuce.  Yippee!  :)

For new seed savers, I found that lettuce is one of the easier plants to save the seeds from.  The biggest problem is removing the flower fluff from the seeds.  I didn't bother to remove it all (too time consuming) so my own seeds get seeded thicker than store bought and as a result grow up much thicker.  If you have a particular lettuce you want to grow again, give it a try.  Really what do you have to lose and in the end you may even save money and have some of your proudly saved seed to share with friends.  ;)