A Seed Saver's Garden

[flowerbug]

Actually, what tulips we still have probably ARE coming from bulbs of bulbs by now. We gave up planting tulips years ago (the deer eat nearly all of them anyway.) but we still got two flowers last year (well, one mature flower and one tiny one I accidentally broke off while planting the pansies.)

many of the bulbs are coming back each year (they don't hold over - they reform a new bulb each year) so the thing they need is for the leaves to get enough light that they can then send back down to the roots and basal plate to reform the new bulb. if conditions were not good enough they will not have enough energy to form a flower and they will shrink, but if the next year is better then they may be able to flower again. it takes several years to take them out completely as they can restart from very tiny parts left behind. having grown tulips from seeds the initial bulb formed may be just a few mm across to start.

this is the same for crocuses and daffodils.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Failed mission to get more peat plugs/jiffy pots from the nursery yesterday. Now that they are jumping on the bandwagon of offering Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas knickknacks as well, it seems they put the box away during the winter, and the people in the store didn't know where at the moment.

Buy sheer dumb luck this proved not to be as much of an impediment as I thought. I still have five plugs left, and, wouldn't you know, the sweet lime I sliced had EXACTLY five pits among the three of them. And I DO want those growing, unlike pretty much every other acid free citrus fruit I have encountered, I actually found the taste of these ones pleasant (well until I mixed them in the same cup with the juice of the regular limes I was checking at the time, not only did the one juiceable lime (the other two were bone dry inside) produced juice so acid it totally overwhelmed the sweetness of the sweet limes, but it also proved an exceeding BITTER lime, making the whole glass of juice/-ade undrinkable.

The nursery trip DID provide us with two things however, some replacement topsoil (we were running low) and, at the last minute I saw two bags of crocus bulbs on sale and got them to buff up the lawn display.

For buffing up the lawn display, they'll prove useless, since I got the wrong type those are spring and these are autumn. However since the type we got were sativus, not only will we have a bit of color in future falls but, if we are quick in the mornings, a bit of free saffron (not enough to sell, of course, but probably enough we wont need to BUY any anymore, as we don't use much.)

 

[heirloomgal]

We finally got the *mouse* in the house, though it turned out to be a vole. No wonder he was so bad at staying out of sight. Feel much better now about the seeds' safety, but I guess voles don't really eat seeds anyway. He did eat a significant portion of a small throw rug under the couch though.

All my pepper seed for 2024 are here, happy dance. So many nifty names in this bunch, really interesting combinations of letters which I'll never likely pronounce. I hope there are gems lurking in that pile of little envelopes. I'm posting the list in case anyone has grown some of them and has experience/opinions on them? Pretty soon we'll all be dreaming of new seeds for 2024...

With so many new ones to try I just might be able to finally have the resolve to only grow one plant of each variety.

• Broom
• Chile de Onza
• Cacho Black
• Cuzquerio
• Dulce Italiano
• Dulce De Espagna
• Fuszer Csipus
• Hatvani Eros
• Kapia Paprika
• Naso Di Cane
• Piluca
• Pimento Chorizo
• Pimento Cristal
• Portokalova Fifironka
• Santa Lucia Red Seasoning
• Sulu Adana
• Tollis Sweet
• Trilop Uchburum Bider
• Sonoma
• Datil Sweet
• Gypsy
• Ruby King
• Sweet Melrose
• Pl 427-291
• Ancient Sweet Red
• Sweet Red Bell
• Early Sweet Red Bell
• Aleppo
• Piquillo de Lodosa
• Large Sweet Antigua
• Targu Mures
• Kari Sitanana
• Aji Monagre
• Bola
• Corazon
• Dolmalik
• Ferenc Tender
• Florines
• Grueso De Plaza
• Kampanaki
• Morron de Fabrica
• Numex Halloween
• Nora
• Nocturne
• Verato
• Yaki Blue Fawn
• Pimento Pera Dulce
• Portugese Goat Heart
• Santa Lucia Sweet
• Tobago Season
• Pepperoncini Lombardi
• Yesil Tatli
• Turkischer Gewuir Papricka
• Semorah Early Sweet
• Trontarolo
• Urfa Bider
• Piquillo
• Jalapeno Orange SHort
• Chile Black
• Pimento Picon
• Manganji
• Valentine's Day Purple Pepper

 

[heirloomgal]

Yeah, the above list is a bit long but! there was a really good sale on those. So I capitalized on the opportunity.
A little.

Peppers seeds are done, and the beans I want I've already written down and have ready. I guess now I patiently wait for the 2024 seed catalogs and online listings to start rolling in. Don't think I'll order any new peas since I already have several that are low and need re-growing. No more flowers so that's that. Especially curious what Richter's new seeds might be for the upcoming year.

........

 

[heirloomgal]

Got a new book from the library. At this stage in my life I'm not really much of a reader anymore, and if I do, it's been Ann Rule mostly. But the science of seeds does interest me and I saw this was available, plus reading Ann Rule before bed doesn't generally make for pleasant dreams.

So far, he's presented a few neat perspectives. At least, from a macro standpoint. Interestingly seeds are, basically, purely terrestrial, while most of the planet is water. Makes sense of course but I just never really thought about that directly. He really illustrates well how so much of our lives is bound up with seeds - the coffee we drink ,and the chocolate chip cookies we dunk in there, or the bagel we eat with it, the shirt we're wearing while we drink the coffee, etc. etc. A lot of our world and day to day life is directly connected to a seed if you follow it all the way back.

 

[heirloomgal]

I stumbled across a plant I'd never heard of before yesterday while browsing '100 Vegetables and Where They Come From'. It's edible and really caught my attention because of how it looks; I've grown a similar plant called Caterpillar. At first I thought they might be related, but no.

Medicago scutellata aka 'Snail Medic'. They really do look snail-ish. I'd love to get seeds for this Southern European plant. I suspect it's also nitrogen fixing like Caterpillar. The greenery of the plant looks very similar. They've been in America for a long time it seems, the 1700's, but it does not appear anyone is offering them. I guess I can only hope that Richter's might have this one on their 2024 list.

The dried seeds look equally cool.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I stumbled across a plant I'd never heard of before yesterday while browsing '100 Vegetables and Where They Come From'. It's edible and really caught my attention because of how it looks; I've grown a similar plant called Caterpillar. At first I thought they might be related, but no.

Medicago scutellata aka 'Snail Medic'. They really do like snail-ish. I'd love to get seeds for this Southern European plant. I suspect it's also nitrogen fixing like Caterpillar. The greenery of the plant looks very similar. They've been in America for a long time it seems, the 1700's, but it does not appear anyone is offering them. I guess I can only hope that Richter's might have this one on their 2024 list.

View attachment 62282

The dried seeds look equally cool.

I've grown the related Medicago muricoleptis and that looks even cooler, since the pods have spikes on the sides of the whorl, so it looks like a seashell (when I first saw it, I thought it must be the related Medicago murex, since it did look like a murex (the sea snail from which Tyrian purple dye is gotten.)

 

[Branching Out]

I stumbled across a plant I'd never heard of before yesterday while browsing '100 Vegetables and Where They Come From'. It's edible and really caught my attention because of how it looks; I've grown a similar plant called Caterpillar. At first I thought they might be related, but no.

Medicago scutellata aka 'Snail Medic'. They really do look snail-ish. I'd love to get seeds for this Southern European plant. I suspect it's also nitrogen fixing like Caterpillar. The greenery of the plant looks very similar. They've been in America for a long time it seems, the 1700's, but it does not appear anyone is offering them. I guess I can only hope that Richter's might have this one on their 2024 list.

View attachment 62282

The dried seeds look equally cool.

Those swirls are so adorable. They remind me of rolls of taffy.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've grown the related Medicago muricoleptis and that looks even cooler, since the pods have spikes on the sides of the whorl, so it looks like a seashell (when I first saw it, I thought it must be the related Medicago murex, since it did look like a murex (the sea snail from which Tyrian purple dye is gotten.)

So neat! I love all the impersonator plants, and the jokester plants. I'd like to collect as many as possible. DD had great fun bringing little bouquets of electric daisies in her school lunches. Did you get the seeds from overseas?

 

[heirloomgal]

Those swirls are so adorable. They remind me of rolls of taffy.

Me too!