A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

The Hamburg parsley FINALLY emerged!! I had given up!! Thinning that will be interesting. Didn't seem like I sowed that much. Well, this is a firs , never grew the species before.

The Devil's Claw are up too!!! The packet said to sow in April and so I aimed for mid. Got them from Annapolis Seed, and they seem to seed things later than I do usually. So.....we'll see if I messed this up or not. I once started okra way too early and wrecked all the plants basically doing that. Hope this isn't a repeat of the great okra disaster. Sprouts seem awful big for a mid April sowing...

This is notable. Germination for Schoenbrunn ground cherries from 2024 has been quite poor, to my surprise, but despite some sprouting long after the other two physalis species, the sprouts are the same size?

 

[ducks4you]

I have not ever started okra inside, just direct seeding outside, and then I get a forest, and I ask, "WHY did I plant so MANY OF THESE?!?!?

 

[heirloomgal]

Got to tour around a bit more in the backyard garden today. Still very wet, and some slushy snow out there but I tiptoed around carefully in a few rows. I was ASTONISHED to see that my Earth Chestnut (Bunium bulbocastaneum) plants still look rather alive and even greening up at the base. Whoa!! Did not expect that, and I had exchanged messages with the seed company I got them from about their survival rates in winter; they live in BC on Salt Spring so they have much milder winters than me. And it was a brutally cold winter, so even more reason to assume they died. If they are truly alive (the next week will be the test) I will message the company with glee, because they were curious what I'd do and what my results might be here in Northern Ontario with them. They'll probably be as shocked as me!

So, good news. Was a little crestfallen tho to see some surface vole tunnels in certain areas now that the snow is gone...but none around my sunchokes - the only place where it really mattered they didn't go. So....holding out hope that they didn't get to them. I'm just so happy how surprisingly well everything overwintered!

 

[flowerbug]

... I'm just so happy how surprisingly well everything overwintered!

a good blanket of snow really helps a lot.

usually my years of worst losses are those where we don't have much snow cover then things get more dried out, frozen and also more frost heave.

 

[heirloomgal]

a good blanket of snow really helps a lot.

usually my years of worst losses are those where we don't have much snow cover then things get more dried out, frozen and also more frost heave.

 

[heirloomgal]

3 new tomatoes sent to me from a preservation gardener in Germany, which I'm twirly bird thrilled are growing wonderfully and germinated at 100% (gardening world instagram is awesome!) And another one that is SUPER rare from Catalonia called Rose de L'Etern. I had a good laugh about this one, a lady had asked me on the platform if the name means 'Eternal Rose', so I used google translate to check. It said the translation is 'Rose of Eternity' - what a gorgeous name right!! So I agreed, that it's probably something like that and shared the google version. I was all spiritually waxing poetic about how marvelous it is to be growing a tomato with such a magicalname....and then the lady who sent me the tomato popped into the conversation and was like, yeah, that's a nice translation......but it actually, technically means pink tomato from a village called L'Etern..... Ha! Well, we tried!!! Just goes to show, never trust google translate, it'll lead you way off into the wilderness. Of your imagination.

 

[heirloomgal]

Thinned all the physalis, crucifers, hamburg parsleys and tzimbalo pots tonight. Wowzers, it is SO easy to over sow. But you never know with seeds that aren't your own what the germ rates will be like, so you risk a late start if you don't overdo it sometimes. You almost have to anticipate low germ rates as a hedge!

It's a small thing, but once I was done with all that thinning, and disposing the green matter, I looked at all those teeny, lone plants in the cells. Each seedling seems almost naked after having all that company removed. But it is kind of a triumphant moment; for years I had dreadful troubles with thinning. I just loathed terminating all those perfectly good plants and many times couldn't bear to do it. But it really harmed the plants not to, all that competition is terrible for them and stunts their growth. I must have come a long way to be able to do it now, fairly easily. I guess once I started to have the courage, and saw how much better the plants did when thinned appropriately, it got easier. It's silly really. Thinning should just be a matter of course, but I think many dislike killing all those plants simply because they're extra.

I feel like I've finally arrived at the thinnish line.

 

[Decoy1]

I completely agree! It’s difficult at many stages. Further down the line, for example, yesterday I was potting on tomatoes and in some cases felt I had to reduce three plants to two. Throwing away a perfectly healthy plant is also difficult but, unless you have someone nearby who would like to adopt it, it just has to go for compost.

At least the compost benefits.

I rarely bring myself to thin carrots, partly I think because the results are quite acceptable. A few twist round each other but mostly they find space and develop acceptably well.