Seed-a-lee-doo...

This season, I learned a lot about sowing and caring for a garden. I've also come to realize that while it is indeed a lot of work, it is not necessary, unlike what I was led to believe, to be absolutely perfect in the art of gardening in order to enjoy a decent harvest. There are weeds in my garden. Yep... But there are also perfectly fine vegetables which I was able to add to many meals and happily savour. It certainly was successful enough in the end to make me already look forward to next year and a new garden season.

In preparations to that, the next thing I wanted to explore was seed harvesting. How fun would it be if I could eventually harvest all my seeds from my own garden and use them in the following years! Not only would I save a lot of money over time, but I would also ensure the quality of my seeds. I decided to start with the obvious: Everything that grows in pods.

So I am intentionally leaving some peas, green beans and yellow beans on the plants to mature and dry,  whereafter I will be able to crack the dried pods open and save the seeds for next year.

In the meantime, I looked around the yard and garden to find seeds that I could already harvest, and here is the result of my mini-quest.

Zucchini
(Same process for pumpkins)

1- Allow one of the zucchinis to grow and mature on the plant. I learned that they can become really quite huge!

42 x 12 cm (around 16.5" x  4,5") 

2- Cut the zucchini open and scrape the middle out.

Cut and scrape...

3- Find the healthy looking seeds. They look pretty much like pumpkin seeds. Discard the rest of the gooey stuff. The flesh can be eaten, of course! Lay the seeds on paper towels or on a screen net tray. Set somewhere warm and dry and leave them for a couple of weeks. When the seeds are completely dry, store for next year!

It's not only vegetable seeds that can be harvested. Flowers are fun too, and some of them are quite easy to deal with.

Iris

I spotted my blue irises earlier this year. When the flowers were done, the plant started forming pods in their place. I didn't touch anything and waited through the season for the pods to mature and dry.

1- Wait for the pods to dry and turn brown. They will start opening at the top and they will sound like mini maracas when you shake them.

Dried iris seed pods (featuring a blurry Kashew  in the background)

2- Pick the best looking ones, and crack them open.

3 - Clear residues out and store the seeds away. 

Lavender

Harvesting lavender seeds is a bit of a different process. 

1- Wait until the flowers are done and dry. They will have holes all over.

Dried lavender flower. (Featuring a blurry Tiana in the background)

2- Cut out some of the dried flowers and place them in a container with lid.

Lavender flowers, even at this stage, have such a nice fragrance! 

3- Close and shake the container. The little seeds contained in the flowers will fall out. 

4- Take the flowers out and set the seeds aside. Repeat the process with the same flowers until no more seeds are obtained. 

5 - Clear the residues out and store the small seeds. 

Tiny lavender seeds

I don't actually have any intention of sowing lavender directly in soil. I have a lot of it and one of its way to propagate is to run roots out under the soil in and pop baby plants everywhere. So as nice looking and as beautiful a fragrance it can have, it can be quite a pest at times! However, lavender in pots can also have its charm. :)

That's it for the time being. If any of you also harvest seeds and have tricks to share, please feel free to comment! I would love to hear from you. :)

Oh, the zucchinis... and the other green things

I can safely say that my very first vegetable garden is successful, if not as varied as I had planned at Spring. I've had so much fun harvesting zucchinis, sweet peas, lettuce and yellow and green beans, as well as various fresh herbs. I must say, though, that we have zucchinis coming out of our ears, as even giving some away is not enough to keep our stack down. I have already decided on only 1, maaaybe 2 zucchini plants next year, in stead of 4. (What was I thinking growing 4 of them, right?)

There's also the issue of mildew on zucchini plants. This is the white'ish layer you see on the leaves on the following image. The fruit is still very safe to eat,  but the plant is less healthy. I am trying to remove / control this powdery mildew with a homemade all-natural remedy (2 teaspoon potassium bicarbonate, 2 teaspoon vegetable oil and 2,5 L water), but it has not been an easy task! The only real solution is to remove all affected plants so it doesn't spread. :( I am still reluctant to revert to that solution at this point!

Garden in August

As it is now, the rest of the vegetable patch does not seem to get affected by the mildew. However, the tomatoes seem to have a hard time turning red. I have a lot of them, but they're all green, even though we are nearly at the end of August. I can't figure out why! 

The pumpkins, on the other hand, have grown quite a bit bigger and in the last couple of weeks, have taken a very lovely pumpkin color! Even though the plant itself is huge, and comes up with tiny baby pumpkins all the time, I only have 3 pumpkins that seem to be developing properly, and here's a picture of the biggest of them, at 2 different times this month. 

pumpkins - August 10, 2012

pumpkins - August 24, 2012

Meanwhile, on the terrace by the shed, my chili in pots are producing cute little chili peppers. Like the tomatoes, they are still green, and I don't know if they'll have time to turn red before the colder season, but it's still fun to see! 

Will they turn red before winter, you think?

I think that's it for the garden update!

I will end this post by saying that there soon will be a new exciting development in our garden, and I CAN'T WAIT to share the whole thing with you guys! So stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Oooh my oh my. :) :) :)

Veggie Garden After All

Apparently, vacation is not only good for people, it's also good for gardens! Remember my earlier poor attempt at growing lovely vegetables from seeds?  After this first near total fail, I had decided to sow again, but in pots this time, to keep a closer eye on the development. In my last update, I was getting ready to transfer that second round of baby plants onto the garden patch.

I had not set my hopes too high, as it was getting quite late in the season (almost July!) for starting a garden anew! But to my delight, everything survived the transfer and started growing... and producing!

Second attempt at a garden patch, nearly 3 weeks after transfer - July 18, 2012

Tiny little baby pumpkins! They look like small elves. heehee :) - July 18, 2012

My parents and grandmother visited us from Canada in July (hence the lack of entries in that period of time, by the way), and when they arrived, I got a few tricks from the experienced! The tomato plants were the only thing remaining from my original garden attempt, but I couldn't understand why they were growing so big and nicely, yet had so few flower buds. So I learned that it was better to prune the plant, so it could concentrate its energy on producing nice tomatoes. As the plant develops, shoots, commonly called "suckers", form in the axils, and these shoots need to be removed.

The shoots at the axils need to be removed for better development of tomatoes

Within a few days after pruning / cleaning up the plants, I started seeing an increase in the amount of buds, and in the speed in which everything was progressing. By now, about 3 weeks later, my tomato plants are full of buds, flowers and green tomatoes growing by the day!

Fresh tomatoes in the making - July 31st, 2012

I have already made several salads with fresh zucchinis, fresh lettuce and fresh basil and chives. I can't wait to replace store bought tomatoes with fresh tomatoes to go with the rest. No vegetable taste better than the homegrown ones!

Second attempt at a garden patch - July 31st, 2012

This project may not have worked exactly as I expected from the start, but in the end, some of it worked out and I come out of it with a little more experience than I had when the season started. Hands on trial and errors... and some good advice from experience gardeners. There is no best way to learn. :) I'm afraid I've been stung by the gardening bug. I wonder if the symptoms are contagious? ;)