A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Predators that help the garden.

Went out walking in the bush behind the house today, and found a few fluffy piles of downy feathers. This didn't seem especially notable since we walk on all sorts of bush trails, and you do see that sort of thing. I did find it odd though that there looked to be a burrow next to each pile of fluff, this was not something I've seen before. But on closer expectation the disturbed earth was very shallowly dug. Not a burrow hole.

Having my dog with me, who is a scent hound with a powerful natural tendency to track (despite our feelings about that!) I could see he was piqued. Moments later he led me to another low spot, where at first I saw nothing, but then caught a glimpse of beautiful emerald green feathers. Then bright orange feet. Looking more closely I could see that it was the fully intact body of a male deceased Mallard duck, that had been carefully covered with moss and debris.

Because a creek runs alongside of the property, mallards nest here every year. DD & I also feed them during the month of May, and they often reward me by bringing the babies by before leaving for wherever it is they go. I can only imagine that an ermine got the nesting pair, and it was the female mallard remains that had been separated and buried in various locations. He had not gotten to eating the male yet. Given the state of the females feathers, and the other icky stuff still present I may have actually interrupted him. It explains why the earth was disturbed at the eating sites, he had dug them out after burying them.

I do enjoy having these weasels around, this year many of us are experiencing a huge amount of lawn damage from voles, the worst I've ever seen. There are holes all over the place (lawn and garden) and huge expanses of mud where grass once was. Something cyclical going on I think, the rise before the collapse maybe. My hope was that weasels would come and clean up as they have so many times, and it certainly appears that they are around. I don't know of any other predator here that stores bodies like that. I am tempted to go grab the duck and dispose of it, forcing the weasel closer to our yard to get the voles. But I hand fed those mallards for several years, and feel pretty bad they wound up like that. Nature is hardship indeed. While I nearly depend on the weasels for pest control, they exterminate great swaths of life, even the birds at the feeder. Their favours come at a price I guess.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

My Baladi/Marrakesh lemon tree arrived today. It is MUCH bigger than I expected (I had to pot it in a floor pot IMMEDIATELY, as it was already too big for a windowsill one!)

On the bright side, at that size, I could easily be looking at flowers by next year (if not by this winter).

Now, I just have to hope that I was correct about me not liking the preserved Baladi lemons I got due to how they were prepared, as opposed to just pain not liking the taste of Baladis (as, as far as I know ALL Baladis are preserved as Moroccan salted lemons, I have no idea what they taste like as it, anymore than I know what a Hunza apricot looks or tastes like when it is fresh.)

I also got my replacement herb, so I finally have my Chinese mint (plus, as a bonus, the ganghal plant they sent by mistake the first time, if I can find somewhere to put it).

I even have a spare pot I can put it in to expand a little before going in the ground, since it turns out my pine scented rosemary didn't make it through the last winter (of course, that also means I won't have any until next spring, as the company I order it from has a six plant minimum per shipment, and I have nether the money nor the room to add another SIX herbs to my garden this year from them. (actually, I may have a chance, I just took a look at the list for the people I got the mint from, and they have R. augustifolius as well, and they DON'T have a minimum.)

 

[heirloomgal]

My Baladi/Marrakesh lemon tree arrived today. It is MUCH bigger than I expected (I had to pot it in a floor pot IMMEDIATELY, as it was already too big for a windowsill one!)

On the bright side, at that size, I could easily be looking at flowers by next year (if not by this winter).

Now, I just have to hope that I was correct about me not liking the preserved Baladi lemons I got due to how they were prepared, as opposed to just pain not liking the taste of Baladis (as, as far as I know ALL Baladis are preserved as Moroccan salted lemons, I have no idea what they taste like as it, anymore than I know what a Hunza apricot looks or tastes like when it is fresh.)

I also got my replacement herb, so I finally have my Chinese mint (plus, as a bonus, the ganghal plant they sent by mistake the first time, if I can find somewhere to put it).

I even have a spare pot I can put it in to expand a little before going in the ground, since it turns out my pine scented rosemary didn't make it through the last winter (of course, that also means I won't have any until next spring, as the company I order it from has a six plant minimum per shipment, and I have nether the money nor the room to add another SIX herbs to my garden this year from them. (actually, I may have a chance, I just took a look at the list for the people I got the mint from, and they have R. augustifolius as well, and they DON'T have a minimum.)

I googled this lemon variety, having never heard of it. Is your tree the kind that makes the bumpy, almost teardrop shaped fruit or the smooth skinned one that is visually impossible to distinguish from other lemons? I could be getting Baladi lemons mixed up with Baladi citron, since both come up in a search.

 

[heirloomgal]

Written by a fellow Canadian.

Why I Keep Coming Back to Seed Catalogs - Modern Farmer

In the middle of the unforgiving Canadian winter, there’s one thing that brings me spring-like cheer: seed catalogs. I’ve been a seed catalog enthusiast

modernfarmer.com

The last line of that article I almost want to plagiarize for a signature - 'Inspiration is only a seed catalog away.' That about sums it up for me. :>

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I googled this lemon variety, having never heard of it. Is your tree the kind that makes the bumpy, almost teardrop shaped fruit or the smooth skinned one that is visually impossible to distinguish from other lemons? I could be getting Baladi lemons mixed up with Baladi citron, since both come up in a search.

Dunno, there weren't any fruit pictures on the site. I'm HOPING it's the same as the kind that was in the jars, in which case, it will look like a normal lemon, but much smaller (about key lime size).

"Baladi" just means "local" or "native" in Arabic, so it gets used a lot. The "native" breed of horse they have in Egypt (i.e. the decedents of the ones the Ancient Egyptians used.) are also called Baladi.

It's sort of similar to how, if you look at the names for Indian things, you see the word "desi" being used a lot. Same idea, "desi" means "local" or "native".

 

[heirloomgal]

Germination rates and risky business.

I ordered a packet of Hexentomate seeds from another province, and April 1st planted nearly the whole packet. Only 2 seeds sprouted, which was a disappointment but I'll take what I can get. As luck would have it I had DS help me move plants into trays as I have everything rotating under lights 24/7. I had just transplanted my ONLY TWO seedlings and he accidentally dropped one pot right on it's head; this in itself was a rather miraculous feat to achieve.
So, ONE seedling left. Not my favourite odds to work with!

This is one of the bittersweet things about gardening for me, you get one shot in a 365 day period. That's not much! I did not have great luck with many of my new nightshade packets this year - huckleberry, tzimbalo & sunberry didn't have great germ rates. Dunno why, they had the good starter mix, heat mats, etc. The epazote, kangaroo apple and nicandra have not sprouted whatsoever and it's been 22 days, so I'm not anticipating much at this point. Huacatay - a single sprout.

This almost has me wanting to consult one of those 'planting by the moon' thingees. Though I don't doubt I just bought old packets, because all my own nightshades sprouted at nearly 100%. Heck, even the chufa nuts sprouted in 5 days. I must say though, the Atlantic Pepper seed packets nearly all sprouted. 'Mucho Nacho' , apparently the most productive jalapeno bar none, was the only dud. So, that was great odds 14/15. Those people must be freezing their seeds.

 

[digitS']

Hexentomate

So the witch may have put a hex on those?

For seed saving, I imagine that nearly all have that 365 day cycle. There are several plants that flower and produce seed twice during a growing season and there must be a horticultural term for that. It's not as though the first garden seed crop, germinates, grows to a mature plant, flowers and sets seed within one season. That is too much to expect in a temperate climate.

Heirloom Gal, you might pack up your harvest on the equinoxes and move from one hemisphere to the other so that Spring arrives twice on your personal calendar.

Steve, now and then possessed by a Tasmanian devil

 

[ducks4you]

I KNOW that I am NOT the pepper expert here, BUT, as I study I have discovered that some seeds, and many older seeds will fool you to believe that they won't sprout.
The best example I can give you is the 35yo tomato seeds that my mother (RIP, if you can!)
had, and in her own special way of "I just can't throw this away, so I will give it to you bc you Like trash!"
from her father's special tomatoes,
I started them in a milk jug. They just SAT THERE, and sat there, and sat there.
I cleaned the kitchen, moved them to guest room next door and forgot about them.
Had I TENDED them, I would be saving seeds from them. About 10 had sprouted, about an inch tall, but dried out from neglect. I found them about a month later, little caracasses of what "could have been."
If you haven't disposed of these peppers, please give them another chance.
Maybe they are shy?

 

[heirloomgal]

I KNOW that I am NOT the pepper expert here, BUT, as I study I have discovered that some seeds, and many older seeds will fool you to believe that they won't sprout.

So true ducks! The only thing is though, that even though I know it's likely they'll sprout eventually, if they don't come up within a certain time frame it's hopeless regardless because they won't have time to set seed. I could conceivably make a point to really focus on some of the late sprouters and bring them indoors at night and back out in late fall to try and make it work, but given the volume that I'm doing there isn't the time or drive to do it. I'm a bit of a brutish, knuckle dragger when it comes to my plants.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I KNOW that I am NOT the pepper expert here, BUT, as I study I have discovered that some seeds, and many older seeds will fool you to believe that they won't sprout.
The best example I can give you is the 35yo tomato seeds that my mother (RIP, if you can!)
had, and in her own special way of "I just can't throw this away, so I will give it to you bc you Like trash!"
from her father's special tomatoes,
I started them in a milk jug. They just SAT THERE, and sat there, and sat there.
I cleaned the kitchen, moved them to guest room next door and forgot about them.
Had I TENDED them, I would be saving seeds from them. About 10 had sprouted, about an inch tall, but dried out from neglect. I found them about a month later, little caracasses of what "could have been."
If you haven't disposed of these peppers, please give them another chance.
Maybe they are shy?

Happens to me all of the time. Last year, when I dumped all of the "spoiled" seeds from the tomato that started the "Darkest Night" line. I dropped them in waited a month or two, assumed they had all died when I forgot to take them out of the final soak before storage and they all germinated in the water. Re-sowed the pot with the bean I was working with and brought it outside. Didn't notice one have survived until I looked and there was a pretty substantial plant growing in there with the bean.

Before that, there was the green cherry tomato. It wound up sharing a pot with the mint because I thought that none of the tomatoes in there had survived, so I planted the mint right on top (actually I think that's the one and only time any tomato in the "special" tomato pots my parent's bought ever actually DID anything, in every other case, they seemed to actually RETARD tomato growth and make them die super fast.)
And the ultimate is when I first started the watermelons, saw all of the seed was moldy after a few weeks, pulled it all out, then dropped the container on my floor. Didn't even LOOK at it for another month or two, when I noticed I had missed one and THAT had sprouted, on my floor, out of any sort of real light.

And it's almost a chronic problem with the citrus seeds, since, working mostly with legumes, nightshades, cucurbits and grasses (i.e. things that tend to germinate pretty rapidly) I'm not used to how long the take to come up (in general, the time they sprout is about a month after I start saying to myself they aren't going to and I really need to get rid of that pot to make room. Pretty much every seed grown citrus I have owes its existence to my laziness in getting around to cleaning house.)