A Seed Saver's Garden

[ducks4you]

Snakes, ick. This summer has been the snakiest I've ever seen. Possibly, because the winter was quite mild the rodent population didn't suffer typical losses and so.....more to eat. I had a lime green one slither right up to me, head up, flicking its tongue while I was talking on the phone in the carport yesterday, and I've seen that one several times in the last month. Lives in the front yard garden I think. And on nearly every walk in the last 2 weeks we see at least one garter. One day, we saw 3 in less than 5 minutes - we were in the bush on an abandoned railway track and I guess they liked it on there. They were fat and big, it was disturbing, and equally so that they clearly had homes under those tracks because we scared one or two under there. It's commonly thought that garters are not venomous, but they are. Neurotoxin? No thanks!

Ifin' I wanted to, I could make "political hay" out of your gardening comments.
I have not seen any snakes since I started keeping multiple indoor-outdoor cats. Mine don't bring any inside with the tails hanging out of their mouths. Guess the mice are too tasty to share.

 

[heirloomgal]

Ifin' I wanted to, I could make "political hay" out of your gardening comments.
I have not seen any snakes since I started keeping multiple indoor-outdoor cats. Mine don't bring any inside with the tails hanging out of their mouths. Guess the mice are too tasty to share.

 

[heirloomgal]

More excitement in the garden today. One of my Bolton Haynes sunchokes plants got so big ( I have 2) and heavy it fell over and the stem broke --- the plant died. They were only just flowering so it was probably not making tubers yet. However, I poked around under there and found this. It's a start, I plan to dedicate some rows to a few kinds next year.

Grappoli d'Inverno. The question now, where to put these for storage? I thought of on top of the kitchen cupboard, but aside from that being a rather warm location I might also forget about them up there. Clearly I didn't think the storage tomato idea all the way through.

Another storage tomato, 'Ruby Treasure'. It doesn't feel like a tomato though, it feels like a ROCK. I cannot believe how HARD this fruit is. I'm sure it could be used as a puck and suffer no damage. Ironically, it is said to be the shortest keeping storage tomato of all the long keeper varieties. BUT it's also said to be the tastiest. We'll see. Hard to imagine these fruits will soften.

 

[Dahlia]

It does feel like fall . I see the trees are starting to turn color and some species have started to drop a few leaves. Shorter days and longer colder nights signals them to stop the photosynthesis process as the the chlorophyll in plants plants is what is used to turn light into sugar gives plant than green color. This time of year the plants are breaking down and not rebuilding leaving some plants to naturally turn red, yellow , orange for that autumn colorful sweep in the landscape.

Yes, it feels like fall here too! I'm not ready yet! I was hoping summer would continue through September which it usually does. The leaves are turning colors ...

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@Dahlia leaf color change is always a good thing. Fall colors can be quite breath taking in large and small gardens.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Looks like another potential snag. Not only has the probably flat pea only made one flower, but, looking from the side, it looks like the produced pod is only going to have one viable seed! (I can see the bumps of the developing seeds through the side at this point, and only one seems to be actually growing, and is already at least double the size of any of the others).
On the brighter side, we have the start of a second cucumber.

 

[heirloomgal]

Looks like another potential snag. Not only has the probably flat pea only made one flower, but, looking from the side, it looks like the produced pod is only going to have one viable seed! (I can see the bumps of the developing seeds through the side at this point, and only one seems to be actually growing, and is already at least double the size of any of the others).
On the brighter side, we have the start of a second cucumber.

I'm finding these Tinga peas are taking soooo long to fill their pods with dried peas. What was your experience with developing pods @Pulsegleaner?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm finding these Tinga peas are taking soooo long to fill their pods with dried peas. What was your experience with developing pods @Pulsegleaner?

Same. In fact, I'm not 100% sure the seed was ripe when I collected it. The pods had browned up, but when the seed dried down, it went all browny blotchy (as opposed to the black speckled brown they were when planted) and I usually associate that color with seriously immature seed that is basically bruising/ oxidizing as it dries.

 

[heirloomgal]

Same. In fact, I'm not 100% sure the seed was ripe when I collected it. The pods had browned up, but when the seed dried down, it went all browny blotchy (as opposed to the black speckled brown they were when planted) and I usually associate that color with seriously immature seed that is basically bruising/ oxidizing as it dries.

The odd thing is these peas, presumably, come from a location with a much more difficult growing zone than you or I are in; Prairie Garden Seeds is in northern Saskatchewan. I guess it isn't impossible but I can't imagine that they buy these seeds elsewhere and sell them. So how are they getting such good quality seeds is the question. Maybe the plants are very frost tolerant, and the vines will continue to persist deep into September early October. I messaged the company. We'll see what they say about seed maturity with these.

 

[heirloomgal]

More and more good news from the garden. After battling epic carrot crop failures for over a decade (partly due to poor/non-existent thinning, but mainly due to carrot rust flies + the seeming lack of nutrients in my soil that carrots apparently need to do well) I seem to have turned a corner. First all my carrots were way too small, then they were all ravaged by flies, and then I never grew them much due to said problems. Today, I feel I am a new carrot growing woman. Last year I started to creep up on a decent handful or carrots, but this year the carrots are really turning out as I have never seen them. AND it's only late August! Edible sized carrots tends to be more an October thing here! The fact that I did not resort to either radishes or coffee grounds to repel the flies and still got this result is miraculous. I wasn't quite ready to attribute the small carrot success to e-culture last year, but this year I am. I e-wanded up these guys right to the wazoo and it shows. And, NO FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I celebrated the victory carrots with homemade hummus, habanero cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches and some broccoli to go with. The taste of the carrots remind me why I do this.

Not really connected to the carrots, but we've been so busy around here lately I've been having to slap together faster food meals like this. Veggie burger and oven baked fries was scrumptious, & there was a great feeling to being able to slap on my own succulent slice of early season Russian tomato.