A Seed Saver's Garden

[Beanmad Nanna]

I knew nothing of Japanese knotweed until a few years ago, but since then it has become a source of nightmares for me. Scary plant. I shudder to think that it was imported intentionally. Almost no one around here knows about this 'ornamental' Little Shop of Horrors cultivar. 😱

Invasives - especially non indigenous ones.
Japanese knotweed ( luckily , Ive never had to deal with it )
Rhodedendron
Himalayan Balsam - that is an evil one ( I get involved in local river/riparian conservation projects )
Bamboos

things on road margins that get spread by tractor - the alfalfa, mustard/oilseed
fodder clovers


Much more difficult when say garden escapes encroach on the margins of genuinely wild habitats ( there are few in Uk that have not been farmed and altered in someway )

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm pretty sure that somewhere on the Hudson (or, at least, somewhere that flows into the Hudson), there must be a big patch of European Water Caltrop/Chestnut (Trapa natans) since I have seen the pods wash up on the beach there sometimes. Not that they don't look pretty interesting, but they are called "caltrops" for a reason, and I am sure there are many along the river who's private beach excursions have been made much less pleasant by the presence of those pods vis a vis the bottoms of their feet.

I just had to google this Water Caltrop, I had no idea what this is. Oh. My. Goodness. If a seed could look evil, this is it! Strange!!

 

[jbrobin09]

Beware of Atlantic Pepper Seeds! It's like a GIANT hole and you can fall in and get lost down there! 🤣

Oh brother, that site is amazing! I hadn’t come across it before. Any other hidden gems in Canada (or ships to Canada)?

 

[heirloomgal]

Oh brother, that site is amazing! I hadn’t come across it before. Any other hidden gems in Canada (or ships to Canada)?

Yes! The developers of many of these websites didn't seem to pay much attention to the google scoring system and so they never seem to get snagged, ever, on searches for Canadian heirloom seeds. It actually makes me sort of sad that so many nice little companies get buried under the algorithms.

Quebec seems to really have a lot of seed savers, but I've never had a problem getting seeds from the vendors there even if their correspondence is in French.

• PEI Seed Alliance
• La Societe de Plantes, not lots of stuff but some gems in there
• Carrick Seeds
• AgroHaitai
• Seed to Seed, corn is awesome
• Pepper Merchant
• Potager Ornamental de Catherine, love this company and they dry grow everything which is sorta wild
• Small Island Seed Company (this is a great little company who specializes mostly in rare varieties)
• The Secret Garden
• Seeds of IMBOLC, so-so
• Terre Promise, some gems in here too
• Sunshine Farm, lots of maters
• Nouveau Paysan
• Semences Nouveau Monde
• Gaia Organic
• Solana Seeds
• Revival Seeds
• Les Semences de Batteux
• Jardins de Gaillarde
• Les Jardins de L'Ecoumene
• Grower's Blend/Moonglow Farms, not my fave company for sure but does have some nice tomatoes and beans

 

[jbrobin09]

Yes! The developers of many of these websites didn't seem to pay much attention to the google scoring system and so they never seem to get snagged, ever, on searches for Canadian heirloom seeds. It actually makes me sort of sad that so many nice little companies get buried under the algorithms.

Quebec seems to really have a lot of seed savers, but I've never had a problem getting seeds from the vendors there even if their correspondence is in French.

• PEI Seed Alliance
• La Societe de Plantes, not lots of stuff but some gems in there
• Carrick Seeds
• AgroHaitai
• Seed to Seed, corn is awesome
• Pepper Merchant
• Potager Ornamental de Catherine, love this company and they dry grow everything which is sorta wild
• Small Island Seed Company (this is a great little company who specializes mostly in rare varieties)
• The Secret Garden
• Seeds of IMBOLC, so-so
• Terre Promise, some gems in here too
• Sunshine Farm, lots of maters
• Nouveau Paysan
• Semences Nouveau Monde
• Gaia Organic
• Solana Seeds
• Revival Seeds
• Les Semences de Batteux
• Jardins de Gaillarde
• Les Jardins de L'Ecoumene
• Grower's Blend/Moonglow Farms, not my fave company for sure but does have some nice tomatoes and beans

Wow that’s amazing, thank you for taking the time to post that list!

 

[heirloomgal]

DD and I went picking American High Bush cranberries aka Newfoundland Squash berries today, it was gorgeous out and we had to hike to get to them. We found a patch that was huge and the clusters were gigantic. We filled a backpack and a few plastic tubs. Shared some with my parents who have made the preserve for years. Now we’re going to try to make some refrigerater jelly. She destemmed all the berries without me. Thank goodness. Much more fun to pick them.

 

[Zeedman]

The description:
"The plant spreads by the rosettes and fruits detaching from the stem and floating to another area on currents or by fruits clinging to objects, and animals."
Sounds just like burdock!

Or Martynia (Tiger Claw, Devil's Claw) which has proven to be remarkably tolerant of my Wisconsin winters. I got it from a seed saver in Utah, to trial it as an okra substitute (there are videos of preparing the young pods). Even thus year, after 5-6 years of not growing it, a single plant volunteered in the rural garden. There was nothing around it but weeds (which it out-weeded) so I let it grow. I'll post a photo when I go out to gather the pods. Which I'll have to do, unless I want hundreds of them popping up next Spring (like I need MORE weeds out there.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I just had to google this Water Caltrop, I had no idea what this is. Oh. My. Goodness. If a seed could look evil, this is it! Strange!!
View attachment 62365View attachment 62366

Except that's ASIAN water caltrop, Trapa bicornis. THIS is European. Smaller, but FOUR spikes, at least one of which is always pointed up.

Ironically, both are edible as "water chestnuts" though neither is the "official" water chestnut, Eleocharis dulcis.) In fact, natans is the one the Italians would use in tetrazzini. It was also popular with some monastic sects, hence the alternate name "Jesuit nut"

Moving on.
Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone, and what few hemp seeds I had are now in the hands of my cousin who can actually legally grow them (I could grow SOME, but I think he lives somewhere where the number of allowable plants is much higher, so a better choice when one doesn't know what one has.) Guess I'll find out next year if any of them grew (or maybe this summer, if we have a get, together then.)

On the receiving side, my hosting cousin gave me (FORCED ON me, actually) the result of a spontaneous cross between his Waltham Butternut squash, and his Trombocino. God knows what I'll do with that! (I usually don't grow ANY squash, it takes up a lot of room and its sort of squash or watermelons.)

This also means I was FINALLY free to take apart my corn ears (which were already falling apart) and get them ready for the next test (if they pop, since they aren't dent anymore).

Dad wants me to start a pot of cat grass for Juniper, which means that I'm actually going to have to go and GET some small grain seeds, as I only have been able to find maybe ten going through my room* (the irony is, the reason I have so little now is that I threw most of mine out when I stopped growing small grain, and the reason I stopped growing small grain WAS Juniper (since he starts chewing on any heads I bring in for floral displays). Does anyone know if einkorn is safe to use as cat grass? I've still got a decent amount of that. I can't think of any reason it WOULDN'T be (I mean it's basically primitive wheat) but I want to double check it isn't like super full of extra silica in the leaves and stems that could cut up his tongue and insides. Luckily I think I saw a packet of cat grass in the local nursery's clear out basket when I was there looking for the Jiffy Pots.

I also have at least one rice grain lying around but, while I am aware you can grow rice "upland style" (in dry ground) after the incident with the mystery grass a few years ago, I am reluctant to give plants descended from rice I have found until I have confirmed it actually IS rice.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Or Martynia (Tiger Claw, Devil's Claw) which has proven to be remarkably tolerant of my Wisconsin winters. I got it from a seed saver in Utah, to trial it as an okra substitute (there are videos of preparing the young pods). Even thus year, after 5-6 years of not growing it, a single plant volunteered in the rural garden. There was nothing around it but weeds (which it out-weeded) so I let it grow. I'll post a photo when I go out to gather the pods. Which I'll have to do, unless I want hundreds of them popping up next Spring (like I need MORE weeds out there.)

This is a plant on my 'grow someday' list. I suspect it will be more of a novelty than anything, because so few people seem to grow it, but it does have such neat seed pods. Maybe we should do another seed trade @Zeedman 😁

 

[heirloomgal]

Except that's ASIAN water caltrop, Trapa bicornis. THIS is European. Smaller, but FOUR spikes, at least one of which is always pointed up.

Ironically, both are edible as "water chestnuts" though neither is the "official" water chestnut, Eleocharis dulcis.) In fact, natans is the one the Italians would use in tetrazzini. It was also popular with some monastic sects, hence the alternate name "Jesuit nut"

Moving on.
Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone, and what few hemp seeds I had are now in the hands of my cousin who can actually legally grow them (I could grow SOME, but I think he lives somewhere where the number of allowable plants is much higher, so a better choice when one doesn't know what one has.) Guess I'll find out next year if any of them grew (or maybe this summer, if we have a get, together then.)

On the receiving side, my hosting cousin gave me (FORCED ON me, actually) the result of a spontaneous cross between his Waltham Butternut squash, and his Trombocino. God knows what I'll do with that! (I usually don't grow ANY squash, it takes up a lot of room and its sort of squash or watermelons.)

This also means I was FINALLY free to take apart my corn ears (which were already falling apart) and get them ready for the next test (if they pop, since they aren't dent anymore).

Dad wants me to start a pot of cat grass for Juniper, which means that I'm actually going to have to go and GET some small grain seeds, as I only have been able to find maybe ten going through my room* (the irony is, the reason I have so little now is that I threw most of mine out when I stopped growing small grain, and the reason I stopped growing small grain WAS Juniper (since he starts chewing on any heads I bring in for floral displays). Does anyone know if einkorn is safe to use as cat grass? I've still got a decent amount of that. I can't think of any reason it WOULDN'T be (I mean it's basically primitive wheat) but I want to double check it isn't like super full of extra silica in the leaves and stems that could cut up his tongue and insides. Luckily I think I saw a packet of cat grass in the local nursery's clear out basket when I was there looking for the Jiffy Pots.

I also have at least one rice grain lying around but, while I am aware you can grow rice "upland style" (in dry ground) after the incident with the mystery grass a few years ago, I am reluctant to give plants descended from rice I have found until I have confirmed it actually IS rice.)

I have always wondered what 'cat grass' really is. I've been told it's usually oats, but I guess the green sprouts can be a lot of different things. Funny how much the kitties do seem to like it.