A Seed Saver's Garden

[digitS']

I underplanted my roses with pansies, periwinkle and lemon balm

I enjoy having our periwinkle and have moved it twice with absolutely no problems in it's new, shady locations. (I painted a previous home in 2 shades of periwinkle blue .)

Our lemon balm has become a very vigorous plant that requires periodic cutting back as it squeezes the sage beside it. Honestly, except that it is a rather attractive plant, I have no idea why we have it — making no use of it. I can imagine that lemon balm would be quite difficult to remove if less than aggressive measures would be required.

Seed-saving. I had an advantage for many years by having gardens in more than one location. Seed viability can last for several years so peppers, especially, could be grown in one location but a single variety, for saving seed, could be grown by itself here at home.

Seed companies require their growers to commit to isolation of several miles, not feet, from the same crops. I have no idea how the farmers can be confident of those commitments but, apparently, it works out okay. Of course, a following year grow-out could test purity.

Steve

 

[Anniekay]

@digitS' I had lemon balm that someone planted by the steps on our back deck. Since it's in the mint family ...you know how mint spreads. I finally gave up and let it grow under those wooden steps. At least you could sit on the steps, rub a leaf and not get bit by mosquitoes !!

 

[heirloomgal]

Frost risk tonight. That was unexpected as yesterday there was no sign of that in the forecast; so, I didn't plant the tomatoes as I thought I would. Only a minimum amount of stuff is out there, and I covered most of it minus corn and sunchokes. I suspect the sunchokes can handle a bit of frost too.

Trapped the groundhog under my shed today and set a trap at the only exit. He never went in all day. A bit worried he'll dig his way out through the night, but if so hopefully he's traumatized enough to rethink going back under there. I think we're going to put wire mesh all around the shed base now, as he's using it as a cover to get from here to there.

My first and only duck egg.

Got almost every single one of these in today. We got lucky with a cool spell the last gathering day to get these, very little mosquitoes thankfully. Ecstatic to have the pole bean supports in, that is probably the biggest pressure I feel in getting the gardens set up, even though we have many trellis set ups. Probably because there are just so many individuals to get in, this year I think just over 100 whereas the other supports fit dozens of plants each. I guess I have to face the fact that I truly am a vertical gardener.

DD made this new path edging for me. I really like it. I would edge the whole of the front yard garden with this but I think the cost might be prohibitive, and I've also got to see how it goes with weeding first. Generally I don't like rocks or other such things in the garden or even any edging because it's difficult to pry the weeds out. For now I like the bit of texture it gives.

DH made MEGA tall electroculture poles this year, some over 12 feet. We should be able to hail martians with poles this tall, let alone fix nitrogen.

 

[flowerbug]

yes, my groundhog control greatly improved when i finally was able to get rid of all the pallets that allowed it to easily hide if i saw it and went after it. now with fences up and the easy hiding spot removed if they are back there eating things in the grassy area and i see them i'm usually able to hunt them.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

1. First bean plant has first pods.

2. Local bodega got in Ice Cream Beans (Inga edulis) Don't really taste like ice cream to me (more like mangosteen,) but not bad.

 

[heirloomgal]

1. First bean plant has first pods.

2. Local bodega got in Ice Cream Beans (Inga edulis) Don't really taste like ice cream to me (more like mangosteen,) but not bad.

I watched a video on these beans @Pulsegleaner, interesting. That white stuff looks like pith to me, sort of wild that is has such a sweet taste. Never had mangosteen yet. Someday. The plants are nitrogen fixers, maybe that's part of why 'bean' is in the name.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The plants are nitrogen fixers, maybe that's part of why 'bean' is in the name.

Bean is in the name because they ARE beans, in the sense of being in the Fabaceae family. And they come in pods. What else would they be called.

 

[heirloomgal]

A miracle happened today. Well, at least, what is a miracle to me. For years I've hoped that a peony exists somewhere that is a true, deep red red. I've bought peonies once or twice that claimed it was this red, and was only - disappointingly - standard dark pink. Which I already have. Took a few years to see the bloom color too. I had actually given up the search for it in garden shops because I just find with flowers you can't trust many of the images on selling containers, (even worse with tulips and daffodils, which I also no longer trust seller images of).

This time I happened upon the peony section in a garden place by accident, because I noticed these gorgeous deep red, barely opened blooms with yellow centers. I could not believe it. It was actually a peony, and it was no lie because the flowers were the proof. And on top of that miraculous good luck, this peony was actually fairly well established unlike so many nursery peony plants, I think there were 4 blooms. So, I am kinda thrilled with this find. Name is 'Buckeye Belle'. I'll post my own picture when I take one, but for tonight this is an online image which is exactly right. Cost me thirty bucks though.

 

[heirloomgal]

Bean is in the name because they ARE beans, in the sense of being in the Fabaceae family. And they come in pods. What else would they be called.

Furry Ice Cream Wads? I mean we don't call peas beans, but they're in a pod too...

 

[flowerbug]

@heirloomgal i was also fed up with the tulip marketers that just kept changing the name but giving me pretty much the same tulips (or they were slightly different but not enough for me to care). also the fact that my location is not great for them so it was better in the end for me to stop my plans and move on to something else. i didn't have nearly the same issues with the daffodils, but now we have so many of them that i need to remove them.