A Seed Saver's Garden

[Decoy1]

They can probably grow for another month or so out there, but the 'Chantenay Red' carrots are living up to their true form today - short, fat, blunt. (I could make a joke right there but won't. ) I think these can get quite a bit bigger than this really, but for my garden they're already big and clunky. Excellent flavor too. A seed trading friend in Spain tells me that this is the carrot of choice for her because summers are so hot, and she has really clayish soil. What a funny turn of fate that my row of 'Kyoto Red' and this one are side by side in the hottest spot of the carrot garden. The least tolerant next to the most when it comes to heat.

I enjoy this carrot enough that I'd grow it again! I didn't realize in terms of form it was this distinctive. I bought all the seeds in a flurry and did no research really on them, until now. In fact when I pulled these up my first thought was - are they supposed to look like this? Turns out they are!

Ah, I love garden surprises. Even silly ones like this. You know you must be a garden nut when the shape & size of the new carrots exhilarates your soul.
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I’ve grown Chantenay Red Cored quite frequently. It’s always stump-nosed like yours but often somewhat longer. It’s a friendly carrot and I love your particularly short fat ones!

 

[flowerbug]

I’ve grown Chantenay Red Cored quite frequently. It’s always stump-nosed like yours but often somewhat longer. It’s a friendly carrot and I love your particularly short fat ones!

cheerful and rotund.

 

[heirloomgal]

It was a frustrating evening.

I did a big round of tomato seed processing a few days ago and finished rinsing the last bowl tonight, a huge glass Pyrex mixing bowl of tomato innards. All the fruits the plant made went in there. And in my first pour I saw that I let it go too long. Sprouted seeds. Wow, that really smarted. I've been looking after that plant for over 6 months and I blew the whole endeavour just like that. My only consolation is that it was the Italian tomato 'Siccagno De Valledolmo', and I wasn't amazed by it really. It was okay, but not mind blowing. Somehow that makes the loss less severe...I guess.

We had a major deluge yesterday night, and at 10 o'clock I went running out with an umbrella to my Elephant's Head amaranth to cut the tops. More than once this year the weather has caught me off guard. I don't know how sensitive amaranth is to the seeds getting wet, so I chopped only the best ones and brought them in, leaving the rest. They look so pretty out there in the fall landscape, such an intense cheery color, I would like to leave them as long as I can. Terrible pics given the light, but I put one of them against my cupboard door, a standard size. They got quite large really. I'm really happy with this new plant!

The leaves and stems all developed that bright coloring. I've enjoyed this so much I may even grow it again next year. Always so many new and interesting things to try, but in the front yard edible project I really am enjoying the things that last deep into fall. Kales, carrots, Hamburg parsley, celeriac, collards, cosmos, 4 o'clocks, even the runner beans - these all seem to survive the ravages of light frosts very well.

The capsicum flexuosum journey continues...for now. I did get fruit this year! However I'm more & more inclined to try and find a home for the plants as well as my fig tree. Just not feeling it to keep going, too much work, not enough outcome. Interestingly, for a wild species the peppers have only a single seed per fruit. And a black one at that.

Spent a good chunk of time today cleaning up the front garden, pulling out bean plants, spent flowers and doing a tiny bit of hoeing. There was very little weeds that grew really between the plants, but it felt great to just tidy up back to zero weeds. I am so impressed by the effect of the beans on the soil, in 2 years there has really been a significant improvement. I've also added a fair bit of fine straw, which also helped. Working with rich fluffy soil is a pleasure.

And last but not least, the beans that I emptied from the front yard today - 'Malawi Mix'. This is only a small sample and I imagine that there will be other kinds of beans in the mix. One of them looks a little like 'Van Gogh's Olive', which I grew a couple years ago and really liked. A grey bean with no speckles, just hints of other shades in there. I'm quite looking forward to seeing what else might be in this mix! The blackish grey little beans remind me of Fort Portal Jade. I recall none of these colors in the seeds I planted!

Tomorrow's project, complete this last little leg of the tomato journey. I'm using the food processor for the rest, no more darn cutting of tomatoes in half. I want speed and closure. SO close to being DONE. Thank heavens!!!!!! Right now I feel like I never want to see another tomato!!!

 

[ducks4you]

I spouted 5 amaranth in my wildflower garden, accidentally pulled out 2 of them while weeding, but the other 3 are doing great. I don't intend to save seeds, but let them reseed there.

 

[heirloomgal]

Garden clean up has mostly come and gone, though tilling is left to be done. There was a lot of pots and tomato cages this year, which was a days work to empty, stack and put away, considering I had to unfasten all the full sized mesh cages. I wound up making a massive round bale of all them, a plus since the wire bends less that way. Even for the smaller determinate tomatoes I did not find those smaller $2 tomato cages adequate, most of the plants outgrew them significantly. Going to try and stick to my guns for next year - no potted tomatoes, except for the cherries!

We had our first really hard freeze last night, the grass was still white by 10 a.m. The marigolds finally succumbed, though the Gem marigolds really were able to handle all the light freezes. It's odd now that I've cut down all the bean vines & poles to actually see the marigolds, most of the summer they were basically invisible! Interplanting was something I've not done before, and won't repeat. I realize now I prefer bare feet around the pole beans.

The kale diversity is getting enhanced by freezing temperatures, there are nearly 4 distinct shades of purple going on.

This one in the flesh is nearly black, the blackest kale I've ever seen let alone grown. Puts 'Cavolo Nero' to shame, lol.

The little Osaka's are getting rings of color now. I haven't grown these in so many years I forgot that they do that.

I don't know what's going on with the celeriac; I did buy transplants, so it's possible they double seeded the cells. Too bad! I was hoping for some nice round roots! I'm really looking forward to using these.

I finally got the 'Zulu' peppers to mature, and it seems in hindsight this is probably as red as they were supped to get. Northern Ontario is not considered appropriate territory for in ground pepper growing, and many years have been failures, but this year was a success - minus the many green bells. I gave a bunch to my neighbour again, who eats them. I kept a couple thinking I should try them again. I harvested some ripe peppers for pizza and omelettes thru summer, but never harvested a full plant. I picked gently from each. Once the frost threatened yesterday I stripped everything. Gonna make lasagna tomorrow!

The only 3 paste tomatoes I grew this year, 'Marzano Fire', 'Auria' and 'A's Mini Mouse'. All were wildly productive, though Mini Mouse was stupendous. I got lucky with them all being so good. Funny though, earlier in the season MM was more red, it's almost like the older the plant got the more brownish the fruits became.