A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

It's been a year of sunflowers!

2 different species, 3 varieties of one and about a half dozen of the other. I don't recall ever making an effort to eat the seeds of sunflowers I've grown, so it came as quite a surprise when I tried one yesterday and realized how utterly delicious they are fresh. Very intense and aromatic, the moist shells colored my fingers a shade of blueberry. The birds had started to help themselves, and it was now or never to collect the heads. I hadn't realized until I picked out one of the seeds how close they were to mature. Probably even close enough that they'll finish drying properly in the sun room. I can't get enough of that fresh sunflower seed smell, just wonderful.

The 'Taiyo' is still out there drying up as is little 'Sonja', but 'Lemon Sorbet' will be ready to be fully de-seeded in a week or so. Pretty early really for such large heads. And there are still bees working the quickly fading flowers.

Only 2 sunchokes are flowering right now, 'Corlis Bolton Haynes' and what I think is 'Clearwater'. My goodness they are large plants with tons and tons of flowers! Not all sunchoke varieties will necessarily flower, so I'm curious to see who will do what and if some will remain green by the time their ready to be dug. I am quite excited to see what is going on under the plants...

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm loving the 'Elephant's Head' amaranth! The color isn't quite as bright and poppy as last year's 'Ruby parfait', but the heads are certainly more dramatic!

Personally I think 'Elephant's Trunk' would be more precise..

 

[heirloomgal]

I learned how to use a hedge trimmer today, and can only say that I'm utterly grateful that I've been able to spend this much of my life up to this point having never used one. It was a huge hedge too, very long and in spots about 9 feet tall (after trimming). Kids & I went to help my parents, and I'm staggered that they ever planted that thing. What a nightmare to trim, and we had to go back and forth between hedge tool and cutters because it has been let go a little too long and many branches had to be individually cut. My body is aching after 4 hours of holding that tool at various angles unnatural for bearing weight on a rickety ladder.

Note to self, NEVER plant a cedar hedge.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Note to self, NEVER plant a cedar hedge.

the deer have repeatedly trimmed our cedar trees up as high as they can reach. we've only trimmed a few otherwise as they were blocking some signals i needed to get. but i overall agree with you that planting them can be quite the wrong thing to do for some people or in our case they were planted in the wrong place and i'd like them to be someplace else.

 

[heirloomgal]

the deer have repeatedly trimmed our cedar trees up as high as they can reach. we've only trimmed a few otherwise as they were blocking some signals i needed to get. but i overall agree with you that planting them can be quite the wrong thing to do for some people or in our case they were planted in the wrong place and i'd like them to be someplace else.

Perfect! I'll buy my parents some deer!

 

[flowerbug]

Perfect! I'll buy my parents some deer!

tall deer like giraffes? our deer only trim up 5-6ft - makes them all look like funny green mushrooms.

 

[heirloomgal]

tall deer like giraffes? our deer only trim up 5-6ft - makes them all look like funny green mushrooms.

Might be some hybrids on the market, I think they're called deeraffes.

 

[heirloomgal]

Bit of a garden mystery. So...the kale in the front yard very early on turned a very dark purple, darker even than this photo suggest. On an overcast day, it looks a bit blackish even. Yet in one of the bean gardens I have a double row of the same kale, and none of them developed that color. They all stayed a lighter purple and retained some green as well. They don't look like the same variety at all, even though they 100% are.

I know soil quality/minerals/fertility etc accounts for alot, but this is extreme. It is a bit more exposed in the front and possibly somewhat hotter. Could it be that? It's such an odd thing to see. I can't find a photo of the paler kale out there, but this is the dark one.

Not my photo, but the other looks like this.

Oddly, I grew a few scarlet kale in the same bean garden last year as the now greenish purple row and it was paler too last year. The front yard I would think is less nutrient dense, since only perennials ever grew in that spot before. I wonder if the less nutrient dense soil is making them more purple?

ETA: It occurred to me after writing this post that purple is also a stress response in plants...