Saved seed verses bought

It's interesting to note how my own saved strain of sunflower seeds compared to a packet of bought seed of the same variety. I've been saving my strain for about 6 years. This year I only had quite a small amount of saved seed to plant because I didn't do enough collecting in Autumn, so I bought a packet. I sowed one tray from the bought seed and one tray of my own seed on the same day in the same potting mix and raised them under identical conditions.

So there they are sitting next to each other, my seed on the right is growing bigger and healthier looking plants. I am very encouraged.

Just wanted to show this good recycling idea too. We buy old ironing boards from the recycling centre for $2 each. Because they fold down flat they are ideal as market tables in summer, with a cloth over them you'd never know. Then when they get to tatty for that I use them as potting tables around the garden and in the glasshouse.

My plant tags are cut up icecream containers or venetian blinds.

Midwinter at our place

The sound of winter coughs has been echoing around and around our house all week. The teen, who loves school has had to take a week off and the red head is miserable but won't take anything that's offered to make him feel better. I wake up in the night to the noise of sleepless coughing or am kicked in the back by a wee boy needing comfort and a tepid flannel to cool him down.
Exhausting being a Mum sometimes, not having any time to my own thoughts is tiring too.

I looked back at last years garden pics and was a bit depressed at how much better the garden was progressing this time last year. I let too many weeds go to seed in late summer and Autumn this year. On the plus side alot of red mustard, silver beet and lettuces went to seed so there are alot of fresh greens.

To coincide with the week of coughing, we've had some pretty heavy rain which has stimulated a bit of growth, (I'm glad I got that garlic in) and look what I noticed on my nursery table:

BABY PINE NUTS! Collected back in February . Looks like I'm going to get a fairly good strike, it will probably take three years to get them to a size to give away and likely 15 -25 years before they produce but here they are beginning life in 2009.

Saving tomato seed

A beautiful Autumn weekend here, good for getting lots of washing dry, eating fresh peaches straight from the tree and doing a little seed saving.

I'm an amateur seed saver with only about 6 or 7 seasons practice. So far I've only done easy vegetables that don't cross pollinate easily such as peas, tomatoes, beans, parsnips and beneficial plants like buckwheat and phacelia. I've also had success with silver beet and beetroot by not having them flowering at the same time. If you want a comprehensive guide this book is great, I think the author is American so some of the information doesn't apply to NZ gardeners but the techniques described are great. Even better for Kiwi Gardeners is this one. I've borrowed it a couple of times from friends but they're understandably not keen to part with it for long as it is a great year round gardening reference.

So anyway here's how I save tomato seed. Pick a nice ripe tomato from a bush that displayed all the characteristics you like. For example: flavour, big fruit, disease resistant, early cropper, etc. You won't be able to save from F1 Hybrid tomatoes because they won't be true to seed. Instead choose good old heirlooms, they have more flavour anyway. My best performer this year has been "purple Cherokee"

Cut in half and squeeze out the pulp into a container, add water and swish it around. I have a feeling that if some float those ones will not be viable. I don't let the seed sit in the water as some books describe.
Then just strain them out picking out any pulp,

Then spread them on kitchen paper to dry out. You can pick them off the paper once dry and save in an envelope

but I just save them and plant them paper and all in spring. Save more than you need just in case you get a bad strike rate, then if you do get a great strike rate you can share or swap the seedlings in spring. Oh and don't forget to label and date them.

Foraging

When L and I met we lived in a house bus for several years so didn't have a garden of our own. I grew herbs in planter boxes of course but we over came the lack of a garden by doing alot of foraging for food and firewood. There are still several spots I visit where I know good fruit and nut trees are growing wild. I usually say to L at this time of year "better go and check if my peach tree is ripe" and he knows exactly where I mean. I also have several walnuts to call on, along with mushroom circles, rose hip bushes, elderberries, wilding plums, apples and pears as well. A couple of years ago I found, with a little help of a friend where some hazel nuts are. The jewel in the crown though is the pine nut tree I think. My brother and I visited there last week filling our pockets with the little treasures.The kids will have to do some cracking for me so I can make a fresh batch of pesto with local ingredients. Both my brother and I have saved some seed to try and germinate as well. Our property is not big enough for one of these massive trees but I've had plenty of people offer to let me plant them on their land. I looked to see if the seeds need any kind of stratification but haven't found anything to suggest they do. Has anyone got any tips? I seem to have trouble raising trees from seed in pots but get plenty of walnuts, peaches and apricots coming up if I just throw the stones in the garden and ignore them til the following spring. I'd love it if people would come and dig them out of my garden and give them new homes, I have even thought I should go on a fruit tree planting mission in public places so others may benefit from the fruit.
If you like the idea of foraging, Johanna over at star-cooked has some good posts about it. The native flax seeds are one I'm keen to try.

Harvesting and planning

As the school term gets going I've enjoyed catching up and hearing what every one's been doing during the summer holidays. It' seems 3 out of 4 people I talk to have been camping, enjoying the top of the South Island's beautiful sites; Golden Bay, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson/Tasman and the West Coast. I sort of envy the "idea" of camping but actually hate packing up, getting bitten, sunburned, and doing all the Mum stuff away from the conveniences of home. Also 3 years living in a house bus and hand washing nappies, I think has put me off entirely. Admittedly I'm becoming a bit of a Nana in my middle age. It sounds like my friends all enjoyed their adventures even the hiccups. Lucky for L and I we have a "village" to raise our children so they haven't missed out on adventures, they've been away with good friends and family. We must be doing something right cos they get invited to go back again and again.

Back here in the garden, locals and blog readers have asked about the cannelini beans. They have been a super crop here, the first lot I harvested early as I grew them in the glasshouse but it seems there was no need because the outdoor ones which I planted around the fence lines have produced beautifully with no extra water after they got established. The little bit of rain we got a few days ago wasn't even enough to wet the soil underneath the corn and pumpkins. So to answer about the cannelinis; I leave them to dry off on the vine then once picked leave them in their shells for several weeks longer to dry right out. I learnt this is the hard way after harvesting some dryish pea pods and shelling them straight away, popping them into a paper bag only to find some of them went mouldy. Plants going to seed all over the garden make it look pretty messy and disorganised but I reckon it's a sign of a good productive garden. Mine is looking pretty wild but I know where to find the tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce, pumpkins, melons and beans. The kumara are putting on alot of top growth so I'm hoping too that there is something going on beneath the soil. They say when you're planning your garden to check out what's growing well in other local gardens, so I have to share that the Nashi pear is my best productive tree aside from my citrus. It's laden with fruit, grows beautifully organically and is just about ready! Highly recommended.

The glasshouse is producing really well though an aphid infestation will probably get the better of it soon. I'm watering, feeding and using pyrethrum to try and stay on top of it.
I haven't quite kept up with sowing all my own seed, recently I've sowed lettuces, leeks, brassicas, peas, coriander and parsley in my messy little nursery/shady spot. I've also bought extra brassicas from a good little plant stall in town.

The brassica's I've put in where the garlic came out. I've mulched them heavily and hope my little paper wasps can keep up with all the caterpillars. I sprinkled round a bit of blood and bone too as the soil was looking a bit depleted.Finally somewhere in the middle ground of this picture is a patch of horrible seedy paspalum grass overtaking the onions. I weeded it out twice but it got away on me over Christmas so my poor onions look like pickling onions! I must get onto pulling it all out before the seeds spread everywhere. "1 year seeding 7 years weeding" So that is how I'll spend New Zealand's national day "Waitangi Day" before I head over to the airport to see my bro.

Seed saving

I ended up with a house full of teenage boys today, I decided to look busy so I could keep an eye on them. Though I don't know what I was worried about, have you seen "the big bang theory"? Well it's like that here except 15 year olds.

It was a flaming hot day so the superhero and I collected some seeds while trying to ignore how many STINK BUGS are ravaging my garden.

The red couldn't keep his fingers out so instead of fight it I embraced it. We counted pea seeds and described what they felt like, discussed bigger and smaller and then put them all into packets.

The rest of the time he drove the big boys nuts. I cannot imagine what life will be like when he is 15, I wonder if I'll still feel like having house fulls of noisy teens!

The other day I found some old video of when the teen was 4, we had a georgous new baby in the house ( Cluck, cluck) and for teen life revolved around a Thomas the tank Engine train set while the only technology in the house was a TV for which we had to pay a licence fee for and an old ATARI game. How quickly times change! And I only looked 21 or so, My God!