A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Do you fence your garden in, and do you have animals that eat your harvest? We (AU) have rats and wallabies that are eating the new shoots!

I don't have a fence, and for the most part my gardens have not been raided. Sometimes a rabbit or groundhog hangs around for a little while and eats the newer parts of plants, or birds/chipmunks steal dry the peas, but thankfully that hasn't happened often. Sounds like you need a fence though!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The annual brassica is a twisted-stem mustard.

At least, that is how I think it would be classified. After buying that seed off a rack in an Asian market, the store stopped selling garden seed. Or, seed specifically for gardening — given @Pulsegleaner 's interests and evidence .

Seed selling is a bit odd in China. Since the CCP officially owns all the land, and actually controls what and how much of crops farmers can grow (to the point of sending people out to destroy fields planted in excess or with the wrong crops/varieties,) sell seeds commercially for home use is sort of rare. Most seed packets from mainland China are HUGE, designed for farmers. And the ones that get here are almost sold under the table some of the time (I've mentioned the man under the bridge).

Packets from Taiwan or other Asian countries tend to be more normal sized, but they also sometimes have a problem with the same stuff getting into the same packets each time. I think most Chinese growers treat a lot of vegetables as fungible, if it's the right vegetable, and it grows where they are, that's good enough.


I'm not even sure some of the places in Chinatown bother to check if the seed they sell will actually GROW where they sell it. I've found packets of winter melon seed with some frequency in New York, even in stores, but I am still looking for one that can take our day length. I also have to assume anyone else growing winter melons here would have the same problem I would (even on fruit is way bigger than one person or even a small family to eat by themselves, and a patch will produce many, many fruits.)