A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

Prairie Garden seed packet finally showed up. Completely emptied by customs, as I feared.

Ordered a few things from the OSSI to try out next year, diploid American Groundnut breeders mix (norther most diploid population, so best for trying to get the seed bearing one further North*, Siberian watermelon landrace, new kind of Holy Basil from the Maldives, another source of Atlai wild onion, and a new mottled mung bean from Madagascar (looks bigger seeded than mine).

Oh, that reminds me, harvested the VERY last seed off of my mung bean plants the day before yesterday. It is a mottled, but it's much bigger than the others, and the mottling is a lot more subtle (so probably from the African rather than the Indian stuff).

 

[heirloomgal]

Prairie Garden seed packet finally showed up. Completely emptied by customs, as I feared.

You mean you placed an order with them and it was destroyed by customs, and they still forwarded the empty package to you?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

You mean you placed an order with them and it was destroyed by customs, and they still forwarded the empty package to you?

Yeah, that's what ALWAYS happens when customs destroys the seeds. I assume they do it to 1. Honor the post offices commitment to deliver (if it just disappeared, people would assume it got lost in the mail and try to get the PO to refund them). and 2. Try to scare people into not trying to order anything again.

 

[Blue-Jay]

You mean you placed an order with them and it was destroyed by customs, and they still forwarded the empty package to you?

I think the USDA wants everyone who wants to get seeds from outside the country to have a small seed lots account. This has happened to me when someone in Australia sent me a bunch of beans. I think 14 varieties. The box came I opened it and inside was empty except for a form place in the box by the USDA that said basically you can't just get seeds from overseas without this account approval. This was still while I had a small seed lots account. The thing is with or without the small seed lots account the seeds and the amount are still the same. Nothing has changed. It's possible that the USDA wants to check seed packages to see if there are also any insects among the seeds and maybe invasive species. I got a notice last spring from the USDA that customs stopped a shipment of seeds addressed to me that was of some invasive spieces. They turned it over to the USDA and they destroyed the seeds. I hadn't ordered the seed. It was just being mailed to me. It didn't comply with the Small Seed lots rules so customs stopped it from going through the postal system. Since it wasn't beans and came from I think China I would have thrown it the garbage. Maybe it would have grown in a landfill and spread it's seed from there.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I suppose I simply have to bite the bullet and get one. I just hope the whole thing isn't like the trick Iowa played to make drug enforcement easier (they passed a law making profits from illegal drug purchases taxable to force dealers to report them to the tax department, then went and raided/arrested anyone who filed.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I suppose I simply have to bite the bullet and get one. I just hope the whole thing isn't like the trick Iowa played to make drug enforcement easier (they passed a law making profits from illegal drug purchases taxable to force dealers to report them to the tax department, then went and raided/arrested anyone who filed.)

I think if this was the case @Bluejay77 would have been raided awhile ago, and I don't think they've bothered him. But that was certainly an interesting strategy employed by law enforcement in Iowa! 🤣 Reminds me of when the former Yugoslavia was in conflict and one of the rebuplics announced a huge return for a year of putting your money in the bank (everyone was keeping their cash in thier mattress because of the instability). Those who trusted the offer made a HUGE profit that first year. This led to somewhat of stampede the 2nd year of cash into bank accounts, and no surprise what happened. No one saw a penny after that deposit!

I finally took the plunge with Richter's. I added Balkan Mint to the list, Palmarosa, Scarlet Pimpernel, Winter Lemon Savory (apparently this is super citrusy for a herb such as savory) and Iberian White thyme. I loaded up on the basils I mentioned too. I'm quite curious to see what palmarosa really smells like, hard to imagine a grass that smells like roses, but I'm hoping it's true. All I can say is, I hope it's gonna be a hot and dry summer because most everything I'm growing needs that!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I think the USDA wants everyone who wants to get seeds from outside the country to have a small seed lots account. This has happened to me when someone in Australia sent me a bunch of beans. I think 14 varieties. The box came I opened it and inside was empty except for a form place in the box by the USDA that said basically you can't just get seeds from overseas without this account approval. This was still while I had a small seed lots account. The thing is with or without the small seed lots account the seeds and the amount are still the same. Nothing has changed. It's possible that the USDA wants to check seed packages to see if there are also any insects among the seeds and maybe invasive species. I got a notice last spring from the USDA that customs stopped a shipment of seeds addressed to me that was of some invasive spieces. They turned it over to the USDA and they destroyed the seeds. I hadn't ordered the seed. It was just being mailed to me. It didn't comply with the Small Seed lots rules so customs stopped it from going through the postal system. Since it wasn't beans and came from I think China I would have thrown it the garbage. Maybe it would have grown in a landfill and spread it's seed from there.

I think if this was the case @Bluejay77 would have been raided awhile ago, and I don't think they've bothered him. But that was certainly an interesting strategy employed by law enforcement in Iowa! 🤣

I am just waiting for some municipality who relies on fines for revenue to try and pass a local law that makes it a finable offence to NOT break the law (while keeping the one that makes it a finable offense to do so) so they can collect fines no matter WHAT you do. Or to get rid of the "grace period" needed to speed up or slow down to adjust to the new speed limit (in otherwards, make it so you car has to drop from 60mp to 20mp INSTANTLY (which is physically impossible) In this day and age of computerized cars, I've wondered why they haven't long ago mandated that cars have an interface linked to the GPS that knows the speed limit and road conditions and KEEPS you from speeding/underspeeding. If the idea was safety, it would seem a good idea (even if it failed every now and then, the number of traffic accidents would STILL drop a lot). Or even something that broadcast your speed and position to local law enforcement (so they wouldn't NEED cops and traffic cams to catch speeders.) I assume they actually WANT people to try and screw up so they can catch them and fine them.

 

[heirloomgal]

I am just waiting for some municipality who relies on fines for revenue to try and pass a local law that makes it a finable offence to NOT break the law (while keeping the one that makes it a finable offense to do so) so they can collect fines no matter WHAT you do. Or to get rid of the "grace period" needed to speed up or slow down to adjust to the new speed limit (in otherwards, make it so you car has to drop from 60mp to 20mp INSTANTLY (which is physically impossible) In this day and age of computerized cars, I've wondered why they haven't long ago mandated that cars have an interface linked to the GPS that knows the speed limit and road conditions and KEEPS you from speeding/underspeeding. If the idea was safety, it would seem a good idea (even if it failed every now and then, the number of traffic accidents would STILL drop a lot). Or even something that broadcast your speed and position to local law enforcement (so they wouldn't NEED cops and traffic cams to catch speeders.) I assume they actually WANT people to try and screw up so they can catch them and fine them.

I've often wondered, and my kids have asked this too, why is my spedometer rated to go up to 200km/hr but I've never seen a speedlimit posting above 100km/hr?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've often wondered, and my kids have asked this too, why is my spedometer rated to go up to 200km/hr but I've never seen a speedlimit posting above 100km/hr?

Well, for one thing, your car was made by a company that makes cars for people all around the world, and there ARE places where you can go that fast (the Autobahn, famously.)

Plus, there are conditions where being able to speed up may be necessary for safety, same as when slowing down is needed. Going back to my limiter idea, what would happen if you were driving the speed limit, and the person BEHIND YOU started to speed? If you can't speed up yourself and either keep up with him or get enough of a lead you can move over and let him by, you're going to be rear ended. No matter what the official max is, the cars have to be able to go above it, at least by a little.

 

[heirloomgal]

One small bag of Pro-Mix organic starter mix soil for the early seed starts and I've got gnats again.
As soon as I cut the bag open and poured out the mix I remembered how terrible the quality of these small bags are, not near enough peat and too much sand. Shoot! The XL bales are where the quality is, and those are not easy to find right now. So, I wound up with bugs after being totally bug free all this time. So far, the chiltepin is where they seem to have migrated too. I keep spraying with neem & castille, but it looks like this might be a challenge. We'll see.

Need to replant about 4 of the 15 or so peppers I planted a little while ago. A few didn't germinate or the seedling that came up was genetically a dud. I'll need to look for some new soil somewhere I guess. The flexuosum pepper is actually flowering, which is a really positive development (will post a pic when I get to taking one). I keep flicking the blossoms just in case they need a little help. It would be SUPER great if I got some peppers (and therefore seeds) from those plants; I paid $10 for the original 10 seeds, and only one germinated. I had no intention of trying again if they all failed. I might even keep the plant as a perennial, it seems to overwinter exceptionally well. Very curious to see how they taste, they certainly don't look like peppers in photos, they look more like berries really. A taste review I read said they have the texture of a tiny grape & have fruity sweet papaya notes.

I think my seed acquisitions are complete for this year. Lots of exciting new beans, peppers & tomatoes to try. If my last order goes through I'll get a bunch of neat new pea varieties that don't exist in the Canadian seed marketplace. I'm considering also growing Prince Albert, Large Manitoba, Serpette Guillotteaux, Charlevoix and a few others I have only a few handfuls left of. I also want to grow Vikotria Rimpaus in 2024. It'll be enjoyable to firm up my grow out lists for the upcoming year. Me, a cup of tea and some garden dreams. ✨