A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

It was a fantastic mail day, so many seed parcels arrived!

The devil's claw (martynia) seeds came in! That's been on a wish list for awhile so - pretty exciting!! The specialty sunflowers, Sonja and Taiyo. I love the big, deep brown centers on Taiyo. One of the best cutting sunflowers in my opinion and Sonya is a diminutive sunflower, and only grows to 3 or 4 feet.

I wanted to save seeds for both, but they're probably a crossing species so it may be just a year to enjoy their beauty. Gotta do some research and see what's possible.

Some of the groundcherries! Somehow in French 'cherries of the earth' sounds more poetic!

Got some Elfin cherry tomatoes too, which I've read about from @Zeedman 's posts. So many tomatoes I'm not sure I'll get to it this year, another wait and see variety. I'm quite curious about these peas as well as that tomato.

I'm presently strategizing how best to grow these carrots. I don't really need to get them 3 feet long or anything, but longer than the average carrot would be neat. Baker Creek reports that they can get to 6 feet! It's the taste reviews that made me curious to try them really - apparently they're very good, above average even. Need to find my deepest garden spots. I thought those tomatoes looked good and it seemed crazy to order only one packet of carrots, so I added them in.

I need some hope right now because this is my garden today.

 

[heirloomgal]

I honestly don't remember. It got added to the side path flower patch, which I tend to forget about. I don't even know if it's still there or not (apart from the Scotch Broom and some Black Eyed Susans, I don't know WHAT is still there.

The good news seems to be though that it was not difficult to germinate since you got plants. This was a primary concern.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The good news seems to be though that it was not difficult to germinate since you got plants. This was a primary concern.

I got mine AS a plant.

 

[heirloomgal]

I got mine AS a plant.

Oh, I thought you had seeds for it. Well, here's hoping.

 

[heirloomgal]

It was -9C/16F today with bright sunny skies, and just that bit of sunshine caused some melting which felt GREAT. SO great I decided to dig out the garden shovel and start chipping the driveway. Almost 4 inches of ice where the tires run, but the driveway is sloped so there was a few bare spots from the last melty period. I was able to pry up against big pieces of that ice and eventually cleared 1/2 the driveway. I missed those cracks! Didn't think that would be my first use of the shovel in 2025 but it worked great, I just hope I can walk tomorrow. That ice was thick, my neighbours definitely thought I was a crazy fool out there. The world is still white. But I am soooo satisfied liberating that tiny piece of earth. Feel like a champ right now fist pumping in victory against the beast of winter.

This of course is all psychological push ups, because my motivation to plant anything in this deep winter atmosphere is zilch. Nada. I need some spring vibes real bad to get the oomph I need. Trudged through the snow to get some cell trays, got a bail of supposedly superior potting mix. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[ducks4you]

I think Sunflowers' colors are a personal choice.
I searched all over to find one that was:
short
yellow leaves
yellow center
bc one had volunteered in my big garden 2 years ago.

Sunflower Seeds, Arikara

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I bought the seeds, Arikira, and I think it was small bc some bird had dropped the seed and it sprouted late and in the shade.
Guess I don't get the "short" unless I start it inside.

 

[heirloomgal]

There are just so many different kinds of sunflowers, and all so pretty really. I've had birds seed a few for me too, from the feeder, but because they sprouted late they never developed good seed heads. I've tried a couple varieties over the years, one season I planted all the burgundy ones I could find. They were nice. I think I'm still partial to the yellow ones though. Always been curious to see the ones that have heads the size of garbage can lids, never tried them. Maybe someday, but you can bet they cast shade to the neighbours. I definitely plan to start mine indoors in May, since they do take quite some time to bloom. Can't wait. .....

 

[heirloomgal]

One of my new tomatoes came with the oddest bit of information. I've grown a lot of tomatoes and never seen anything like it. And my plan was to grow this isolated in a pot, but it seem a pot is a bad idea with this one? If this is indeed the case than this is one weird tomato. 8 weeks is standard time to start tomatoes before the last frost date??? I can't help but wonder if there may have been some other reason the plants were wilting on them?

Todays seeds....

My piece of reclaimed earth Two days of 9+ degrees and the ice chunks haven't melted....but I'm finally regaining my ability to walk without looking grampa Simpson.

 

[digitS']

It definitely makes sense to start sunflowers and transplant out, HeirloomGal.

Sunflowers come up easily in the garden but they also take transplanting well.

The problem with starting them outdoors is that every dang critter seems to want the sprouts for a snack. They are usually more in danger of being raided than peas and beans. Once up and growing, we have had few problems with critters (other than aphids). Birds will begin to raid the ripe sunflower seeds but that just suggests that the remainder should be harvested.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

That's kinda what I thought, too!
Oh, well...great minds think alike!