While waiting for spring to... spring (at least a month more), let's deep dive in a summer explosion of blossoms, blooms, flowers, fruit and seeds!
Seed saving is a natural part of gardening and tending the land as a whole. It's the logical conclusion of the amazing growth each plant achieves in a few short months. Each flower blooming in the garden is an invitation to save the seeds and propagate the abundance!
So that's what we do in our garden, with as many species and varieties as possible! Last year we saved the seed from a dozen tomato varieties and almost a hundred types of seed as a whole. Below you'll find a small selection of the plants that we're growing in our garden, from seed saved by us.
The first and obvious choice for this showcase is tomatoes, of course. All the best specimen of each variety are hand-picked for seed saving. Our tomato (eating) expert is always on top of the yearly selection! We have adopted two terms of her professional vocabulary to describe the taste of different varieties - bleurgh & yummy!
Even smaller varieties, like those Amoroso tomatoes or the 6 types of cherries we grow, have a place in a garden so we're saving their seed each year as well!
Leeks and onions are very easy to start from seeds and if you apply the tiniest of extra effort, you'll save yourself the money for buying onion sets. They also bloom beautifully and attract a host of insects! This white and pink supernova is a leek blossom.
Another species that has a great looking flower and attracts beneficial insects is the carrot, as well as all other umbellifers. I've talked to people that have gardened for 30 years and never let a carrot bloom. Go figure?!
Just a few carrots plants give us more than enough seed for all our needs next year! So we give away bags of carrot seeds! Note in the far left of photo that carrots for seed are in a mixed with leeks for seed. This allows us 0 maintenance and hassle for that bed in the growing season and the two plants don't compete with each other.
We plant plenty of sunflowers each year so there's enough seeds for the birds, as well as ourselves. Best eaten raw and fresh off the flower - and that's not just my opinion
Those little precious gems are the seed of Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored Popcorn. We almost lost those a few years ago by accidentally popping most of our seeds - ooops! They are so good though, I regret nothing :D Thanks to the abundance of nature, a small handful was more than enough to replenish our stock and have enough for an year's worth of popcorn.
Even the tiniest of watermelons gets honored by collecting each and every seed it holds and then sharing them with the community. This little golden globe was a taste and flavor explosion! We forgot it in the trunk of the car and on the next day the whole interior carried the fragrance of a fruit salad.
Do you recognize those seeds, also known for being a great help with digestion problems? Coriander (cilantro) seeds are a nice addition to any herbal tea, can be used as a spice for cooking and of course, you can grow more coriander out of them :)
Аnise hyssop, another amazing and super helpful herb, flowers prolifically to all the bees' delight! We managed to gather plenty of seeds, which we then used for wild-seeding - scattering the seeds in the fields and meadows to enrich the diversity.
I'm going to stop here, as this has become a long post even by my standards. Rest assured I have plenty more to share on the topic! Let me know in the comments if anyone enjoyed this humble collection!
More of my gardening posts
- Why are we growing chickpeas
- A garden is a school of life
- Slow and lazy compost
- Fruit tree herbal guilds
- Propagating currants
- Growing asparagus
To learn a bit more about my backstory, see my intro post. Also check out the blog of my wife and better half - Gerry.