A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

I'm enjoying my fall garden so much, bare as it is, because the few things that soldier on are really in good shape. Brassicas in particular, chards, but more than that the nicotiana plants are really what has me perplexed. Despite the huge size of those tender looking leaves they are clearly quite frost tolerant.

I find this hard to believe, they just seem like the kind of plants that would be extra sensitive to frost, and those leaves are so big and thin. Yet there they are, still perfectly green with no imperfections from freezes, except for the flower heads. Frost caused the necks to bend and the flower heads to perish, but the rest of the plant is fine. It is something I will definitely plan for in the future when I think of purposely creating a fall garden. Front yard farming is not attractive in early summer, it takes time, but it certainly has potential at the end of the season compared to front yard perennial gardens.

I went through the pink amaranth heads tonight; I learned this plant has many names, aside from amaranth & Lagos spinach it goes by ruby parfait, quail grass, celosia and feather cockscomb too. A florist friend offers seed for it on her cutting garden website, so she uses it in arrangements. I can see why now that I've grown it, even dried the color is attractive. For 3 plants I'm happy with the seed volume, 1/3 cup, though I lost a fair few when I blew them out with the hair dryer. I am torn between the desire for impeccably clean seed, and the desire to keep each and every grain!

It turned out that my gluttony for the Schöenbrunn's ground cherries is not so unforgivable. I pulsed the fruits tonight and rinsed them, which left me with a respectable amount of seed to offer to others, and also regrow them. Too bad the plants are just so big (compared to regular ground cherries), because the fruits are possibly the most delicious annual fruit I've ever grown. I seeded them far too late as well, and collected only 1/3 of what the plants are capable of producing, judging by what was killed by frost. SO glad I tried this fruit, a real keeper for sure.

 

[digitS']

HeirloomGal, a question I had this season about the Amaranthaceae family is how the heck magenta spleen showed up in my garden. Tree Spinach!

Yes, it is a broad family with many similarities. Everything from Spinach to pigweed, lambs quarters, beetroot, and quinoa. I see gomphrena and celosia along with some types of amaranth as being a good deal more in the ornamental column but, I guess, all are edible. We allowed orach to self-seed for years in one garden and we were happy to move it around to grow for a table green, And, sorry that we didn't carry off some seed to have it in other gardens when we left that place.

The friend who gave us some amaranth seed a few years ago did not really know where it came from. DW was willing to eat this purple plant probably and mostly because it came from her friend. We will be buying seed for a green variety for 2025 because what i think is Chenopodium giganteum plants or with its genetic characteristics showed up in a few plants that volunteered this Spring.

I thought from the first that it was an ornamental amaranth someone had shared. Fine. And, the 2 tree spinach plants were pretty and growing where that could be appreciated. Growing? They continued to shoot upward! I finally cut them down at about 8 feet tall. Smaller plants with similar colored leaves were pulled anywhere else they were growing. Yes, we had several meals with the dark purple amaranth but the giants tried to take over the playing field. Also, DW won't hardly eat "red" beets so we will try for a green amaranth or an orach and pull out the 2024 volunteers that I am sure will be out there. Be advised, this family self-seeds readily and species may cross.

digitS'

 

[heirloomgal]

HeirloomGal, a question I had this season about the Amaranthaceae family is how the heck magenta spleen showed up in my garden. Tree Spinach!

Yes, it is a broad family with many similarities. Everything from Spinach to pigweed, lambs quarters, beetroot, and quinoa. I see gomphrena and celosia along with some types of amaranth as being a good deal more in the ornamental column but, I guess, all are edible. We allowed orach to self-seed for years in one garden and we were happy to move it around to grow for a table green, And, sorry that we didn't carry off some seed to have it in other gardens when we left that place.

The friend who gave us some amaranth seed a few years ago did not really know where it came from. DW was willing to eat this purple plant probably and mostly because it came from her friend. We will be buying seed for a green variety for 2025 because what i think is Chenopodium giganteum plants or with its genetic characteristics showed up in a few plants that volunteered this Spring.

I thought from the first that it was an ornamental amaranth someone had shared. Fine. And, the 2 tree spinach plants were pretty and growing where that could be appreciated. Growing? They continued to shoot upward! I finally cut them down at about 8 feet tall. Smaller plants with similar colored leaves were pulled anywhere else they were growing. Yes, we had several meals with the dark purple amaranth but the giants tried to take over the playing field. Also, DW won't hardly eat "red" beets so we will try for a green amaranth or an orach and pull out the 2024 volunteers that I am sure will be out there. Be advised, this family self-seeds readily and species may cross.

digitS'

8 feet, wow that is really huge. The first and only year I grew it I think it topped out at 5 feet, but apparently they can go up to 3 metres. That is a crazy tall vegetable plant. My guesses about your rogue would be it may have come in with other seed somehow? Or, it's an old seed that has been in the soil for years? The plant I grew was back in 2012 I think - and I'm still having the buried seeds sprout despite the fact that I've never let them grow over an inch before pulling/hoeing after that first year. The longevity of magenta spreen seeds is unbelievable!

 

[heirloomgal]

Is there another expression besides 'separate the wheat from the chaff' for that activity? I wish there was a more general expression? Whatever the name, it is SO satisfying! The smell of these coriander seeds was SO heavenly. I ate one raw because I just couldn't resist! Yummy! This is the best crop I've had yet. It's gonna be hard not to toast these and use them this winter.....

Now I'm really gonna be able to test how resistant nicotiana is to cold temps.

 

[heirloomgal]

I was just watching a garden tour with an organic gardener I like, and I was so surprised when he and the interviewer drifted onto the topic of cover crops. I don't do cover crops because my season is too short, plus I grow a lot of legumes anyway, but I was riveted when they mentioned two related points - one, that traditional cover crops are notoriously difficult to dig in. Wow, I didn't know that and it seems a bit funny to grow clover, alfalfa or vetch and struggle to turn it over? (Of course, they aren't thinking about this as large scale farmers with heavy machinery, but backyard UK gardeners.)

Both agreed that cover crops which are relatively easy to turn over are much preferrable, for instance, borage! They said that borage has actually higher nitrogen levels than comfrey - a plant often grown as a fertility supplement as liquid feed! Wow! I had no idea about that. I don't know to grow comfrey (looks complicated to start), and people talk about its invasiveness so I never really pursued it wanting to avoid complications. But borage, that I have grown. I gave up growing it a while back because I really dislike the numerous bees that come with the flowers. However, again so surprising, he said that if you keep the flowers clipped off it makes a better liquid feed because the leaves grow even larger! So technically, I could grow the borage and just clip the blooms off. Of course, I ask myself how often would I have to do that? Depending how quickly they regenerate that might be too big a bother, but hey, I think it's worth a try. I'm always wanting to level up with organic fertility so I think I may try this. Worst case scenario, I can't keep up with the blooms and I pull the plant out, make my first and only batch of liquid borage feed and be done with it.

Only thing is, I'd never be able to grow my own seeds for it with this methodology.

Borage Cover Crops – Using Borage As Green Manure

Using borage as green manure allows the nutrients brought up by the plant's deep taproot to be dispersed into the upper areas of soil when the plant composts. The result is healthy soil, rich in nutrients and deeply aerated earth. Learn more here.

www.gardeningknowhow.com

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Adding alfalfa meal is also a great way to increase soil tilth especially heavy clay soil. It is generally weed-free and adds nitrogen and trace minerals to soil. Also contains a natural fatty-acid growth stimulant called triacontanol helps stimulate plant growth. You can use it in place or with other fertilizers . The best soil amendments added in my garden was mushroom compost. Just added few dump truck loads.

In my experience I found it took a long time to improve the hard pan clay soil by adding cover crops and or fertilizers. By adding mushroom compost and alfalfa pellets took less time to improve soil showing better growth , using less fertilizer and easier planting methods during the growth period.

 

[Decoy1]

went through the pink amaranth heads tonight; I learned this plant has many names, aside from amaranth & Lagos spinach it goes by ruby parfait, quail grass, celosia and feather cockscomb too.

If it’s Amaranthus tricolor it’s also important in Caribbean diets as Callaloo, the name given to both the leaf and the dish cooked from it, I believe.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

maybe a fossil version?

Is there another expression besides 'separate the wheat from the chaff' for that activity? I wish there was a more general expression?

The word you are looking for is "winnowing".

 

[heirloomgal]

If it’s Amaranthus tricolor it’s also important in Caribbean diets as Callaloo, the name given to both the leaf and the dish cooked from it, I believe.

I don't know my amaranthus family very well @Decoy1, but it didn't have 3 colors so this may not be the one. It looked like this. I did try callaloo once though, made for me by a Jamaican friend and it was possibly the best green I'd ever eaten. Just delicious. No idea where she got it from though.

 

[heirloomgal]

The word you are looking for is "winnowing".

That's the one!