saving garden seed

This is a great time of year to think about saving seeds. A number of garden plants are either starting to bolt and flower, or are already bearing seeds at this time. Rather than pull plants once they're past their prime, consider leaving some to complete the cycle of growth in your garden.

I have been been focusing almost 100% on growing heirloom varieties, which makes seed saving feel even more rewarding. For example, the melons I'm growing are from seed that dates back to the 1800s. There is quite a history in that plant! I take it as a responsibility and a challenge, and one that I enjoy.

I thought I'd share some of what's happening in our garden right now, in terms of seed production.

Sage seed is ready for harvest. See the dark, round seeds inside the dried flower heads?

We hardly need to save calendula this year, as I harvested an enormous amount last year, but I have been keeping a few seed heads here and there. Calendula seed is ready to harvest when the seeds easily rub away from the flower head.

I have had this enormous Bull's Blood beet plant in the garden all spring and summer (I should have taken a photo of the whole plant!). It's actually been kind of an unsightly nuisance, in the most inconvenient location, but I have been patient. There will be hundreds, maybe thousands of seed pods to harvest soon. Beet seed is also shown above in the first image.

 Some of the earliest of the pea vines I planted have a few pods coming close to harvest. With peas and beans, simply leave some pods on the vine until they are completely dried. Then you can remove the inner peas/beans and store.

Coriander (cilantro) seed is coming along. I will use some for cooking, and save some for planting. Cilantro flowers also add a delicate beauty to the garden bed.

Kale, planted last year, is another monstrous tangle that I have been waiting patiently for. The pods are now dry and the seeds fully mature. There is more than enough seed on this plant grow countless gardens full of kale.

 Honey bees like when plants are left to go to seed, too. They are completely crazy for the leek flowers shown above, and at most any given time you can go out and find 2-6 honeybees on any given flower head.

Here is a brief post I wrote about seed saving last year as well, if you are interested.

Do you save seed? I'd love to know anything you'd like to share about your own experience.

pickling

  

 A recent rainy day presented the perfect opportunity to finally do some pickling. I’m growing Boston Pickling cukes this year, just for this reason, and they have been producing pretty well. I’ve been stalling on this project for a while. Being my first official foray into canning of any sort, I admit I felt a tiny bit intimidated. The worst that could happen though, is I would lose a few pounds of cucumbers. So!

 

 I followed the garlic dill pickles recipe from Marisa McClellan’s site, Food In Jars. This is a quick pickle (she recommends letting them sit 2-4 days before eating), so you won’t have to wait for weeks to try them. The only modification I made was I added 1/2 tsp coriander seed to each jar. I also followed her guide for salt substitution, and used the sea salt I had on hand in place of pickling salt.

 These were pretty simple to put together, just as I was assured they would be. The hardest part was just waiting for the water to boil to sterilize my jars, and then again for the water bath.  I realized halfway through sterilization, that I shouldn’t be using the canning pot on a glass cook top (indicated on the pot, and in part, because the base of the pot is not flat), so we moved outside onto a propane camp stove for the water bath. The water bath process can be skipped if one wants to keep their pickles in the fridge, but I’d rather have the fridge space.

 I waited about 36 hours to pop open the first jar. And yes, this is a great pickle! Classic dill pickle flavor, with quite a kick of heat. If you like it spicy, I think Marisa hit it just right (I think my 1/4 teaspoons were overflowing a little). If spicy is not so much your thing, you may want to tone it down on the chili flakes. I noticed that as soon as I finished making these, I felt excited about sharing them. I especially can’t wait to give some to my pickle loving sister.

I can see how people get really into canning. It’s a fun process, and the results are so satisfying. I am already looking forward to more. Next up? Maybe some tomato jam.

hand pollination update

 A while back I talked about how I was hand pollinating my melons for the first time this year, since they are growing in a hoop house. With quite a bit of fruit growing now, I thought I'd report back. Pollination has been pretty successful.

This melon is the largest of them (and seems quite large for this variety's average size!), and was the first one I pollinated. I started out pollinating with a little piece of jute, but found that a small watercolor paintbrush really made the job easier. I picked up a little bundle of watercolor brushes for less than a dollar at the thrift store.

I count 4 or 5 melons that I know for sure I pollinated myself, but I have also had more help than I expected, so I've gotten lazier about doing it myself.

I spotted a honey bee in the hoop house one day, and there have been a number of mason bees as well. It's definitely not buzzing with bees in there, but apparently there are enough, because there are quite a few fruits on the vines.

And speaking of mason bees, the houses we put up have some residents. Within a week, 6 holes filled up in the first house. We were able to watch some of the action even. The second house, which we put up a little later, has one hole occupied. It's pretty late in the season, so this might be it, but it was great to see them go to use so quickly. Next year they will have an earlier start.

Did anyone try making their own mason bee house? 

a little bit wild

My garden is pretty different than my vision for it was early this spring, and from any previous year. It has taken me a while, but I am finally fully appreciating and enjoying it for what it has become. Instead of seeming haphazard and messy, it now seems full, textural, thriving and beautiful.

This year I have acted more on cues from my plants than from a preplanned idea. I have worked in defense from pests, and in response to things that might not have worked out as planned. As a result I feel like my garden is really thriving, more than ever! I've even been able to grow broccoli for the first time (not been easy here) and I have made it through a number of problems that came up this year.

When my kale started to suffer from root maggots, for example, I experimented with home remedies (I talked about one of those remedies here) and I quickly started to interplant with onions, arugula, rocket and nasturtium. I let calendula grow where ever it had self sown last year.

 When much of my first planting of carrots didn't come through, I re-planted in and amongst other plants that were already getting established. In the light shade of these other plants, germination was quick and easy, and I didn't have to water the "carrot bed" 3 times a day. 

The mix of flowering herbs and greens has added a lot of beauty to the veg patch. I didn't have to plant any calendula this year, yet there is an abundance. I have many volunteer ground cherry, fennel, chamomile, bean plants and more. I plan to let some of my arugula go to seed right in place this year, as I am loving the ease of this kind of self-planting, and the fun of the unexpected.

Though my studies haven't been super in-depth or intensive, my long time interests in permaculture, companion planting and high density gardening have no doubt had their inputs. It's been fun to see new ways of doing things take shape, and I am already feeling excited for next year, with my new knowledge and experience.

diy mason bee house

I have a fun, simple project for you this week, and it will most likely cost you nothing, take you just a few minutes to make, and will create habitat for garden pollinators. It’s also an enjoyable way to observe nature at work. With a little pile of scrap wood, we made a few mason bee houses for our garden and yard, and a few to give as gifts as well.

 Mason bees are small, cute, fuzzy little bees that make efficient pollinators in the garden. They can be blue-green, or dark-colored like the one pictured above. This little lady is not the first to make a nest in this hole in our unfinished door frame.

The female mason bee gathers nectar and pollen and stashes it in the back of the hole until there is a sufficient food store for her young. Once there is enough food to supply the larvae, she lays an egg on the food store and then seals it in with a bit of mud. She then brings in more pollen and nectar in front of the previous mud layer, lays another egg, covers it with more mud, and stacks like so until the cavity is full. Once the cavity is full, she seals the hole with a final layer of mud. Maybe you have seen these mud filled holes and wondered what was in there.

Here is a link to more information on mason bees, if you are interested in learning more – http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm. I think these little bees are pretty fascinating!

 

We have an endless supply of scrap wood from our various home projects and are always looking for functional ways to use it up. We cleaned up some sections of 4×4, cut an angle at the top to accommodate a little sloped roof, and then drilled 1/4 inch diameter holes in the outer rows and 3/16″ holes down the center. We used all the depth we had in this case, and drilled almost to the back of the 4×4. Typically, larger diameter holes are recommended (5/16″), but maybe our bees here on the coast are pretty small, or maybe they actually prefer smaller than the recommendation. The hole in the door frame is about 1/8 inch, for example.

We used sections of old fence pickets for the roof (not totally necessary, but shelter from rain is nice, right?) and as a backing to make mounting it easy.
Apparently, it is best to hang the house facing east or southeast, for morning sun. The face of that door frame above is pretty much dead south, so a little variation from that recommendation probably won’t break the deal.

I'm looking forward to observing these bees more closely.  We really enjoy creating habitat for beneficial species of all kinds at our place.

How do you invite beneficial insects to your garden?

mid june highlights

It's mid June, and the garden spaces are filling in beautifully with all the warmth and moisture. Just a couple weeks ago I'd go out and things would seem slow and sparse (in my idealist view of the fullness that could be), but I realize even now how early it still is, and how much growth is still to come. It's not even summer yet! That makes me sigh with relief. As a gardener, this season can feel all too fleeting.

Summer squash is coming on. This one is Caserta, an heirloom variety from Baker Creek.

 Abundant fresh herbs and their flowers make it into most all of our meals these days.

 New beds are being dug and planted.
 

 Once-weedy, overgrown spaces are becoming beautiful new perennial, edible spaces.

 Tomatoes are growing! The hoop house has really gone wild this week, with visible growth spurts every day.

And flowers are blooming everywhere, bringing so many hummingbirds and the steady buzz of bees.

 There is so much to take in right now. I'm doing my best not to miss any of it.

hand pollination in a hoop house

This spring I was feeling bold, and planted four melon vines, which is more than I have ever attempted to grow, despite having had no real success in past years with this heat loving fruit. Our coastal summers are relatively cool, and though this melon variety is known to be cold tolerant, they haven't thrived out in my garden; so this year I've put them in the hoophouse. The only problem with this is not many pollinators make it into the hoophouse, so I knew I'd have to attempt pollination myself. I have been patiently waiting for female flowers to join the many male flowers that have been blooming, and over the last 3 days, the first 3 have finally opened!

At the same time I discovered the first female flower, I noticed a small pile of jute rope sitting near the plant. It seemed like it would make the perfect little brush. I cut a short section and separated out a small bundle of the fibers.

Above is a male flower. Notice the simple flower base sitting on the stem.

 I rubbed the stamen - the parts inside the male flower which are covered in pollen - with my little brush,

and then I brought it to a female flower. Notice the bulge of what looks like a tiny fruit under the flower. That bulge is the easiest way to identify a female melon flower.

  Here is the inside of the female flower, looking ready to receive pollen.

I brushed the pollen I collected from the male flower into the pistil of the female flower, repeating the process a number of times, visiting different male flowers - somewhat like a bee might do, buzzing from flower to flower. Hopefully I will have been successful, and my vines will set some fruit!

Has anyone tried hand pollination? How did it go?
I find the whole sexual anatomy of plants so fascinating. It's amazing how perfectly equipped each life form is, to perpetuate itself.