A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Peppers. I think it's a wee bit hot in the greenhouse for the moment, so I planted two pole beans on one side to hopefully cool it off a little. Despite a few aphids the plants are mostly doing good. They've already done the 'v' growth maneuver and are flowering though I'm picking all flowers off until the plants size up. I learned my lesson last year letting them flower too early and start fruiting.

This one, Leutschaeur, surprised me with it's remarkably healthy growth once put in the hothouse. Curious what it'll be like.

Thunder Mountain is so spindly, I guess to support it load of long dangling spaghetti type pepeprs they need to have the extra height and skinnyness. Aji Strawberry Drop on the left is really gaining in size considering how tiny it was when it was brought in here.

Outdoor peppers.

Caixo peppers.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

6/6/23

May have a seedling in the pot of Mirahi basil finally.

I did a count of still living cucumber and sunflower seedlings today, to see if I needed to prep some emergency cucumber seedling replacements. It's sort on on the edge as it stand. There are eight seedlings total (probably six cucumber and two sunflower, based on the permanent leaves I can see on some of them.) Six vines WOULD be plenty to provide my family with enough cukes this year. But I can't help noticing that five of those six (along with the two that may be sunflowers, are not only quite a bit shorted than the last one, but are having MAJOR chunks of their leaves eaten by something, enough that, if it keeps up, they won't be there anymore. I only have ten seeds of that cuke left (though I could get more next year, I think.), so it's not a decision I can make super lightly.

Sort of the same thing with the long beans, quite a few are looking sort of fallen over and/or eaten. I still have plenty now, but I think I may need to re-think down the road. I already planted the other kind of long beans I had just in case. If the ones I already have make it, I can put them in with the corn in place of the rice beans (which still don't seem to want to come up, so I am concerned I left them soaking way too long and they all fermented and died.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Do you know the Latin name for Mirahi basil? Can't find it online?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Do you know the Latin name for Mirahi basil? Can't find it online?

it's Ocimum basilicum, same as regular. Mirhani is just the variety name, not the species one. It's a type from Zanzibar that the EFN store is selling. They also now seem to have a cross between it and standard basil available.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/mrihani-basil?_pos=1&_sid=a258a76a5&_ss=r

 

[heirloomgal]

The perennials are starting to pop. I think I like them best during the month of June, once the flowers in majority bloom. After that they never seem quite as lush, and if it gets really hot they will look a little parched. I've been surprised to see that the Echinops has been re-seeding itself a little. The seed heads on those are so odd; I have no idea what they require to germinate. I've been on the fence for awhile to rid the gardens of the Jerusalem Cross plants, but they always come up with such vigour and the plants are several years old and large, I can never bring myself to throw them away. DD keeps asking to pull them out, she prefers bouquet flowers.

A wee touch of color beginning with the Cornflowers and the Iris. The Globe Alliums flowered all by their lonesome.

My *pet* duck having a snack. Little did I know a few hours after I took this pic mayhem would break loose because a raccoon keeps showing up to eat the little seeds left behind. My dog, not pleased with another 4 legged creature eating within his territory, went head to head with him. Sounded awful. But hard to say no to those little begging waddlers.

This one's for you @Branching Out. Not sure if you've tried 'Feuille de Chene Blonde' lettuce, but this one is - from all that I've tried - probably my favorite lettuce, though I haven't tried near as many as you have. I like that it's so early, it's a generous enough size and it has been the easiest one I've ever grown for saving seed too. It doesn't bolt especially early, but early enough to make getting seeds pretty easy. I didn't seed these plants, they were dug up and transplanted from seeds that sprouted on their own in the front yard.

Camphor basil on the right; it's expressing a very columnar growth habit despite being pinched several times. Mediciney, smelly goodness. I hope it dries well. Stevia in the back, DD tried it for the first time this year and had to have it she liked it so much. I'm not crazy about it though, the sweetness is cloying and off to me.

A new tomato to me called 'Velvet Yellow' which originated as a somatic mutation on a 'Velvet Red' plant. The red plant had one branch with yellow fruits, and my friend saved those fruits' seeds and they've continued to come true for her. Curious to taste it as I really enjoy the Red Velvet tomato. Photo is a bit too close up to see how fuzzy and grey the leaves really are.

 

[Branching Out]

Gorgeous lettuce Heirloomgal. I have not heard of Feuille de Chene Blonde before, but it certainly is a looker!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Managed to get the unidentified flowering legumes into their pot today (just barely, if I had waited any longer, the sun would have gone down and it would have been too dark to see.

Also planted the one whatever species of Acanthosicyos I had left in as well (I started with both naudiensis and horridus, but don't remember which it is this one is. It's whichever had the larger seeds*.) I have seen no sprout come up yet, but the fact the seed has not rotted and I can't easily tug it out indicated the radicle must have grown some to anchor it.
That's probably pretty much it this year as far as planting is concerned. I'll put in the backup cucumbers (if any sprout) and the other long beans (to fill in for the fact the rice beans seem not to have germinated; I think I probably left them soaking too long and they fermented) but after that, I'm probably done with putting in seeds. The only thing on my list I have left I COULD plant would be the Senegalese Green Roselle, and doing that would leave me in a sort of double bind, since the plants are really too big to do comfortably in a pot but, at the same time, usually don't enter their flowering time here until after the frost has hit, so planting them directly in the ground isn't a good idea either.)

*I'm sort of leaning to the former, as horridus is a desert plant, and, as such, would be unlikely to germinate in the moist soil I use. If it DOES make a shoot, I should know soon, as only the former of the two has actual leaves.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Big news, it looks like one of the Vietnamese Giant Lime seeds has actually SPROUTED!. Of course, one did that last time as well, and it still died, but I can at least be hopeful this one will pull through (and I won't have to spend $35 and risk confiscation in order to get more seeds.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Managed to get the unidentified flowering legumes into their pot today (just barely, if I had waited any longer, the sun would have gone down and it would have been too dark to see.

Also planted the one whatever species of Acanthosicyos I had left in as well (I started with both naudiensis and horridus, but don't remember which it is this one is. It's whichever had the larger seeds*.) I have seen no sprout come up yet, but the fact the seed has not rotted and I can't easily tug it out indicated the radicle must have grown some to anchor it.
That's probably pretty much it this year as far as planting is concerned. I'll put in the backup cucumbers (if any sprout) and the other long beans (to fill in for the fact the rice beans seem not to have germinated; I think I probably left them soaking too long and they fermented) but after that, I'm probably done with putting in seeds. The only thing on my list I have left I COULD plant would be the Senegalese Green Roselle, and doing that would leave me in a sort of double bind, since the plants are really too big to do comfortably in a pot but, at the same time, usually don't enter their flowering time here until after the frost has hit, so planting them directly in the ground isn't a good idea either.)

*I'm sort of leaning to the former, as horridus is a desert plant, and, as such, would be unlikely to germinate in the moist soil I use. If it DOES make a shoot, I should know soon, as only the former of the two has actual leaves.

Green Roselle? Does that mean the dried flowered bracts are green, not burgundy?

I've often wondered about roselle. I grew some plants about 4 years ago, I don't know what specific kind they were, just 'regular red' I guess. But they did actually flower and produce seed for me, not much, but I think I only grew about 8 plants. But I've read several times that you have to be careful which roselle 'variety' you get because some, maybe most, won't flower in time. They sure were pretty plants though and I've thought to grow them many times since, it's one of my favourite herbal teas, too bad it needs sugar to bring the flavor out. My plants were not that big, maybe 4 feet, but the flowers looked just like Jing Orange okra flowers. Beautiful.

 

[Alasgun]

Would Stevia replace the sugar?