A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

Round the Garden Roundup.

1. I actually DO see some pods developing on a few of the Fava beans (not many, but we don't tend to get very good fava pollination anyway, and I count us lucky we've even gotten them all to flower this year.

2. Seedlings starting to appear in the Cherry Tomato pot.

3. One of the seedling planted tomato pots is looking MUCH better than the other. I HOPE that's the Phantome de Laos and not the Open Minded (that one would be much easier to find again.)

4. All of the pots on the barbecue table are doing well EXCEPT the wild peppers, which seem to have all disappeared (there IS still a sprout in there, but I can't tell if that is a pepper or a weed, it doesn't look like any of the old ones did.)

5. The transplanted stuff from the side still looks fine, but I STILL don't know what that volunteer legume is. Based on its look, it CAN'T be a rice bean (what I generally assume any errant legume that shows up in the yard is; that or a senna plant, which it isn't either.

6. The pots with the speckled tan and plain tan common beans are coming up like gangbusters, but the one with the black and white ones is extremely sparse. I may have to fortify the seeds there.

7. The tinga is about to flower, I can see the buds

8. It looks like some of the pea pods WILL make viable seed, they are filling out. I really should have put something in the picture to show you how small the pods are compared to normal ones, but just use you imagination (also, try and focus on the pods and not the absolutely totaled leaves. I have no idea what is skeletonizing them, so I have no idea what to do about it.)

9. The white and purple viola (the only one that made it that is one of the ones I bought for itself rather than another one that didn't make it), is still growing and flowering nicely, but no signs of pods yet. And if interesting pansies and violas keep getting harder and harder to find, I need those seeds more and more (as well as a better way of making them actually germinate.)

10. The two patches of lablab beans that did germinate (out of the four planted) are progressing nicely, and I can already see that they are indeed two distinct types. The ones in the left hand pot (which are a little farther ahead), clearly have a distinct purple cast to the shoots and leaves, so those are probably a purple flowered and podded one, while the right ones are still all green.

11. The Right hand pot also again has a number of morning glory like seedlings popping up, so no more weeding there this year without being careful.

12. I have sowed the large brown pot on the side with unknown flower #1, the one I call "purple pincushion". Once it has flowered, I will take a picture and post it, maybe someone here will recognize it (it's clearly a weed or some sort of wildflower, but we have a fairly international community here, so that may not be as much of an impediment as it sounds on the surface.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Round the Garden Roundup.

1. I actually DO see some pods developing on a few of the Fava beans (not many, but we don't tend to get very good fava pollination anyway, and I count us lucky we've even gotten them all to flower this year.

2. Seedlings starting to appear in the Cherry Tomato pot.

3. One of the seedling planted tomato pots is looking MUCH better than the other. I HOPE that's the Phantome de Laos and not the Open Minded (that one would be much easier to find again.)

4. All of the pots on the barbecue table are doing well EXCEPT the wild peppers, which seem to have all disappeared (there IS still a sprout in there, but I can't tell if that is a pepper or a weed, it doesn't look like any of the old ones did.)

5. The transplanted stuff from the side still looks fine, but I STILL don't know what that volunteer legume is. Based on its look, it CAN'T be a rice bean (what I generally assume any errant legume that shows up in the yard is; that or a senna plant, which it isn't either.

6. The pots with the speckled tan and plain tan common beans are coming up like gangbusters, but the one with the black and white ones is extremely sparse. I may have to fortify the seeds there.

7. The tinga is about to flower, I can see the buds

8. It looks like some of the pea pods WILL make viable seed, they are filling out. I really should have put something in the picture to show you how small the pods are compared to normal ones, but just use you imagination (also, try and focus on the pods and not the absolutely totaled leaves. I have no idea what is skeletonizing them, so I have no idea what to do about it.) View attachment 66194View attachment 66195

9. The white and purple viola (the only one that made it that is one of the ones I bought for itself rather than another one that didn't make it), is still growing and flowering nicely, but no signs of pods yet. And if interesting pansies and violas keep getting harder and harder to find, I need those seeds more and more (as well as a better way of making them actually germinate.)

10. The two patches of lablab beans that did germinate (out of the four planted) are progressing nicely, and I can already see that they are indeed two distinct types. The ones in the left hand pot (which are a little farther ahead), clearly have a distinct purple cast to the shoots and leaves, so those are probably a purple flowered and podded one, while the right ones are still all green.

11. The Right hand pot also again has a number of morning glory like seedlings popping up, so no more weeding there this year without being careful.

12. I have sowed the large brown pot on the side with unknown flower #1, the one I call "purple pincushion". Once it has flowered, I will take a picture and post it, maybe someone here will recognize it (it's clearly a weed or some sort of wildflower, but we have a fairly international community here, so that may not be as much of an impediment as it sounds on the surface.)

What kind of tiny pea is that in the photo?

Wow, the tinga is flowering already! You must have planted that awhile ago?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

What kind of tiny pea is that in the photo?

Like most of what I grow, it has no formal variety name. I found a few of them five or six years ago mixed into bags of red lentils from India (back in college, I'd find them a LOT in there, same as the small grass pea seeds, but both were much sparser the second time I encountered them.)

Wow, the tinga is flowering already! You must have planted that awhile ago?

I probably planted them around the same time I planted the peas, so maybe a month and a half to two months ago. Besides being very small, the unknown peas grow very FAST (that's why I keep growing them when I can, they're the one kind I can count on to make mature seed again before it gets so hot the peas wither and die).

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Only real new news is that, while cleaning out the box of Bambara groundnuts THOROUGHLY, and actually MOVING them all from cell to cell, I found ONE more seed (and therefore one more chance) to grow a black seeded guar bean.

I'm sort of on the fence about the tan/grey guar (i.e. the "normal" stuff.) I DO have the room, but I also know that, the last time I grew guar, it didn't mature before the frost hit. The black I can put in a pot that can be carried in at the end of the year to finish up, but there is WAAY too much regular to do that with them.

On the other hand, the very fact I DO have so much opens the door for a mass early selection experiment i.e. plant it all and see if I can winnow out any that CAN go full term here, and use those for a base (same as I do with the lablabs, or really pretty much anything else I plant.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Only real new news is that, while cleaning out the box of Bambara groundnuts THOROUGHLY, and actually MOVING them all from cell to cell, I found ONE more seed (and therefore one more chance) to grow a black seeded guar bean.

I'm sort of on the fence about the tan/grey guar (i.e. the "normal" stuff.) I DO have the room, but I also know that, the last time I grew guar, it didn't mature before the frost hit. The black I can put in a pot that can be carried in at the end of the year to finish up, but there is WAAY too much regular to do that with them.

On the other hand, the very fact I DO have so much opens the door for a mass early selection experiment i.e. plant it all and see if I can winnow out any that CAN go full term here, and use those for a base (same as I do with the lablabs, or really pretty much anything else I plant.)

I've always wondered what those bambara nuts taste like. Do you like the taste? I really liked chufa nuts, and I'm trying earth chestnuts (Bunium bulbocastaneum) this year. Apparently they're very good. I'd like to collect seeds from the plants but I'm not sure if they need to be overwintered, in which case I'll probably lose them. I can't even overwinter soup celery, or parsley even.

I googled guar gum seeds, as I don't know anything about them outside of the fact you occasionally see guar gum on labels for certain things. Looks like they can be eaten as green beans as well? The grey pebble like seeds are very pretty. Reminds me of the color of the morning doves that visit occasionally.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've always wondered what those bambara nuts taste like. Do you like the taste? I really liked chufa nuts, and I'm trying earth chestnuts (Bunium bulbocastaneum) this year. Apparently they're very good. I'd like to collect seeds from the plants but I'm not sure if they need to be overwintered, in which case I'll probably lose them. I can't even overwinter soup celery, or parsley even.

I've never eaten them either; the only time I had enough leftovers to consume any, those leftovers were infested with weevils, so eating them was off the table. And I still haven't had any luck growing my own.

I googled guar gum seeds, as I don't know anything about them outside of the fact you occasionally see guar gum on labels for certain things. Looks like they can be eaten as green beans as well? The grey pebble like seeds are very pretty. Reminds me of the color of the morning doves that visit occasionally.

Yes, green guar pods (usually called guwar) are a popular vegetable in India. You would not, however want to try and eat the whole mature seeds cooked, I understand they are EXTREMELY bitter unprocessed.
Black (really dark purple) seems to be the only other major color variation, though seeds with spots also show up.

Actually, the fact I have so much is a tribute to really sloppy cleaning rather than buying any explicitly. Much as those red lentils were full of grass peas, English peas, and vetch seeds for a while, until fairly recently, Laksmi's bags of horse gram were RIDDLED with guar seeds. I often wondered if there was enough there to affect the taste for any dal anyone would make from those if they used them for their intended cooking purpose and didn't clean them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Interesting article concerning the topic of not using iron tools in the garden. Never heard of this until fairly recently.

https://cultivateelevate.com/blog/iron-gardening-tools-versus-copper-gardening-tools-what-we-were-never-taught/

I think for my next b day I'll ask for a copper shovel, and a copper trowel.

Quality Handmade Garden Tools - Implementations at Waltham Place

Solid bronze artisan garden tools, hand-made in the EU. Practical, hardwearing, garden-friendly - and they help deter slugs and snails

implementations.co.uk

This video at timestamp 8:50 has a fascinating tidbit about why iron/steel tools mess with our gardens, and can increase pest presence, slugs and snails specifically.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Tinga flowers are open! They're quite a bit bigger than I thought they would be.

Oh, and it looks like the Syrian Oregano has been throwing its seed around, there are at least seven more tiny plants scattered all over the patio (three in cracks in the patio itself, four in the long pot closest to the oregano pot).

 

[ducks4you]

Video is interesting.
Personally, I want hand tools that won't bend and break. Otherwise, I prefer fiberglass handles instead of wood bc they don't care if you leave them out in the rain...bc you're Tired, or some other Lame excuse...and they don't break in half when a pony steps on them.
I think if I had a copper spade it would grow feet and leave the property.

 

[heirloomgal]

Video is interesting.
Personally, I want hand tools that won't bend and break. Otherwise, I prefer fiberglass handles instead of wood bc they don't care if you leave them out in the rain...bc you're Tired, or some other Lame excuse...and they don't break in half when a pony steps on them.
I think if I had a copper spade it would grow feet and leave the property.

I checked out the prices for copper tools, which apparently used to be fairly standard, and WOWZERS they are indeed pricey. A little hand trowel is about $75. But given that there are only about 3 tools that I use relentlessly at prep and planting time (hoe, shovel, trowel) I think I'll buy all of these eventually in copper. If I hadn't had such incredible results using electro culture, I don't think I'd consider it, but it's been a huge game changer for me. The market for copper seems to be very artificially manipulated right now.

I will say that I've been impressed with how well my tools have held up given that I seldom put them away at night, especially at this time of year. DH is an inveterate tool put away-er, and has scolded me countless times for my lack of good tool habits.