A Seed Saver's Garden

[Dahlia]

In mid-July my local mom & pop grocery store put out a couple tables and offered up all their remaining greenhouse plants for free. Most of them were dead and beyond hope, but they were free, so I said what the heck they might be good for a fall planter. I brought them home and then proceeded to also neglect them in the tray, so neglect compiled on more neglect. Eventually I did get to them in their advanced stage of expiration, quickly slapped them all in a pot, added some food and water and went on with other things. And not much happened really. But last week I took a second look at the pot, and wow, stuff has come to life! Even the little Black Eyed Susan vine in there which I chopped right down might have a few teeny flowers by October!
View attachment 77793

This reminds me of a brilliant red mum I bought once. It was so full of blooms for many months. Then winter came and all the flowers withered and it dried up into some brown stems. I thought it was dead. Well, I left it in its pot until spring came along. Around March I saw some little green shoots among the old brown stems. A month later it was full and bushy - all green and lush stems and leaves! Not too long after that it bloomed like never before!
Moral of the story: plants that look dead often are not!

 

[flowerbug]

This reminds me of a brilliant red mum I bought once. It was so full of blooms for many months. Then winter came and all the flowers withered and it dried up into some brown stems. I thought it was dead. Well, I left it in its pot until spring came along. Around March I saw some little green shoots among the old brown stems. A month later it was full and bushy - all green and lush stems and leaves! Not too long after that it bloomed like never before!
Moral of the story: plants that look dead often are not!

yes, and you can often divide those up into parts and plant those to get a larger patch if you need to...

 

[heirloomgal]

Had a wonderful evening doing nothing but collect drying bean pods from the vines.

It's been an almost dizzyingly busy summer, and there have been quite a few day trips recently for paddleboarding before the season is up that it's actually gotten difficult to keep up with the seed harvest. Tomorrow I plan to go full speed ahead and catch up. It has definitely been the case that my main garden suffered under vole attack this year. As the leaves fall from the vines I'm better able to see some of these little holes. Regardless though my harvest is still plentiful and for that I'm grateful. There is no question that I beyond overdid it this year with too many varieties of too many things! (I exclude the beans though really, as those are so easy to save seed for.) My tomato seed planting mania in spring is wearing me out beyond belief right now. lol

The most interesting seed pod I'm yet to see that isn't a bean - Devil's Claw. My vines were an utter fail, I think the plants have delicious roots and the voles spent the summer eating them. By August the vines remained alive but permanently wilted even when well watered. When I yanked them up there was almost no roots attached to the stems. Still, they made a few pods. I may try these again, I'm not sure. They are certainly fascinating. It is shockingly difficult to break open the seed halves. And the inside compartments where the seeds are hidden have what seems like a hard polymer surface. It's beyond rock hard, almost as though it's synthetic.

There is a big buzz on the internet right now about a guy in Panama that claims a small meteorite hit his backyard. Apparently he collected a piece, and slowly the bit he collected oozed fluid & sprouted tiny black tentacle like appendages, and for a week now he says it keeps growing. That thing sorta looks like these seed pods. It's bizarrely entertaining, and I'm curious how it will get debunked. lol

 

[heirloomgal]

Treading water to keep my head above the tomatoes. It has been a good nightshade year, that's for sure. It didn't seem like it would be but I'm surrounded by box flats of tomatoes at this point. I tried a lot of new kinds, and it has been a lucky year of winners. Some especially pretty tomatoes too. I've been taking pictures for a week.
Some of the highlights..

'Groovy Tunes' has totally chartreuse foliage on a dwarf plant, very unique look. I like the gold stripes!

'Korleva' (which I think means 'Northern Queen') has put out a ton of truly huge tomatoes. Such an impressive tomato, and strangely early too. This was one of the first ripe beefsteaks this year. Tons of fruit on the vines too. Excellent breeding in this one, minus a bit of cracking on the tops of the fruits. Full size dinner plate.

'Green Krim Cherry', delicious little morsels. I just wish the plant made more of them!

'Alenka', a rare variety. Really lovely fruits, survived the vole attack on the bed well.

'Rose de L'etern' from Spain. One of my favorites for 2025. I had good luck with pink tomatoes this year, and I'm not a super big fan of pinks generally. But this years pinks were all top notch, solid, meaty tomatoes. Was a bit worried being from Spain that they wouldn't mature, and while they're not early, they're still thankfully compatible with my location.

 

[heirloomgal]

One of the later maturing long keeper tomatoes has finally turned red, well 2 of the fruits turned red, the rest are still pretty green. They are ROCK hard. I'm finding the little long keepers mature pretty quickly compared to the bigger ones, both on and off the vine. 'Ruby Treasure' is my first LK that is actually true red at the picking phase and when it goes into storage. This will be interesting...I've read it doesn't last quite as long as most of them but the taste is superior.

 

[digitS']

@heirloomgal have you tried Thessaloniki tomatoes?

I considered it my long keeper while I had larger gardens. It was just fine as a fresh slicer during the growing season, here is a picture of Thessaloniki in an early August post LINK.

There is also a TEG post in early December 2010 where I am using a couple of them for tomato soup. I did note that there had been a late frost and they had been picked green. They were grown in a distant garden so a "late frost" would have been after October 1st. That garden was at the same elevation as here at home but it was more exposed to the elements.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@digit, tomato soup recipe, pls.

 

[ducks4you]

Had a wonderful evening doing nothing but collect drying bean pods from the vines.

It's been an almost dizzyingly busy summer, and there have been quite a few day trips recently for paddleboarding before the season is up that it's actually gotten difficult to keep up with the seed harvest. Tomorrow I plan to go full speed ahead and catch up. It has definitely been the case that my main garden suffered under vole attack this year. As the leaves fall from the vines I'm better able to see some of these little holes. Regardless though my harvest is still plentiful and for that I'm grateful. There is no question that I beyond overdid it this year with too many varieties of too many things! (I exclude the beans though really, as those are so easy to save seed for.) My tomato seed planting mania in spring is wearing me out beyond belief right now. lol

The most interesting seed pod I'm yet to see that isn't a bean - Devil's Claw. My vines were an utter fail, I think the plants have delicious roots and the voles spent the summer eating them. By August the vines remained alive but permanently wilted even when well watered. When I yanked them up there was almost no roots attached to the stems. Still, they made a few pods. I may try these again, I'm not sure. They are certainly fascinating. It is shockingly difficult to break open the seed halves. And the inside compartments where the seeds are hidden have what seems like a hard polymer surface. It's beyond rock hard, almost as though it's synthetic.

There is a big buzz on the internet right now about a guy in Panama that claims a small meteorite hit his backyard. Apparently he collected a piece, and slowly the bit he collected oozed fluid & sprouted tiny black tentacle like appendages, and for a week now he says it keeps growing. That thing sorta looks like these seed pods. It's bizarrely entertaining, and I'm curious how it will get debunked. lol
View attachment 77866View attachment 77867View attachment 77868View attachment 77869View attachment 77870

WHAT.KIND.OF.BEANS.ARE THOSE?!?!?
They look like aliens or prehistoric undersea creatures!!!

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal have you tried Thessaloniki tomatoes?

I considered it my long keeper while I had larger gardens. It was just fine as a fresh slicer during the growing season, here is a picture of Thessaloniki in an early August post LINK.

There is also a TEG post in early December 2010 where I am using a couple of them for tomato soup. I did note that there had been a late frost and they had been picked green. They were grown in a distant garden so a "late frost" would have been after October 1st. That garden was at the same elevation as here at home but it was more exposed to the elements.

Steve

Yes, I grew those just a year or two ago and quite liked them. A real classic type of tomato.

I've never had the habit to pick tomatoes green, but this year because of critters chewing some of the fruit I started removing them from the vine at what I believe is called the 'breaker' stage. But I've always wondered how far that can be pushed? Were the Thessaloniki tomatoes able to turn fully red from a fully green state?

 

[heirloomgal]

WHAT.KIND.OF.BEANS.ARE THOSE?!?!?
They look like aliens or prehistoric undersea creatures!!!

Hahaha, they do! It's a plant that bears a veggie much like an okra pod! My vines didn't do very good so I didn't get many pods, but I might try again. Insectoid seeds!