A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Attended my first agility class tonight (for dogs, not humans!) Wow, 2 hours long and it was a GREAT class! I learned so much. Watching how the different dogs react to each scary obstacle and the proper way to respond. The whole thing really is reinforcement + deterrence. Of course, communicating in those 2 gears with a dog is a science; its a marvel to see how well these people understand the minds of dogs.

Oh how I wish I had known some of this 8 years ago! But better late than never. One super frightened dog had to walk the long raised platform only a foot wide and 3 feet high, for maybe 20 feet. It was a good sized dog too. The owner managed to get her to the end of the ramp and off - and immediately began praising her for a job well done. And thereby convinced the dog that indeed this is a terrible thing to be on and getting off of it is the best thing you can do!

I wouldn't have caught that, but the trainer did. It reminded me of a time walking with my dog and the section of trail we were on was alongside a railway track. A very loud train was approaching and let its shrieking whistle go, a truly unpleasant experience for me, and so I started to jog a bit with the dog to build some distance between us and that train. 5 seconds into my sprint I realized in horror what I was doing, conditioning my dog to think trains are something to be afraid of! I stopped immediately, but my heart swelled with fear at what damage lay beneath that mistake. Sure enough the next time we were there a train came whistling up and he was, for the first time ever, nervous of the train. I fixed that over the course of the next few walks, but it was a sobering lesson for me in how easy it is to influence a dog the wrong way!

 

[ducks4you]

It is SOOOOO much easier to train a puppy when you have a trained dog already in the house.
This time around I don't, and I run into weird issues. Tegan (8mo) hasn't had any accidents in almost a full month, but she cues with her paws now to go outside but doesn't do anything. Today alone, 6 trips, pottied twice.
I don't want to say no, but I am doing important phone business today, so I put her in her crate. This is the 2nd time in 4 weeks she's been put in the crate, since she is now my sleeping buddy.
I am awaiting an important call back in 55 minutes, so I guess I'll try to change to horse feeding clothes and take her out. I have a cotton web horse lunge with a handle which is affixed to a short wooden post on the front of the barn, and I take her out on a leash and hook her to This. She gets some running and fresh air, and I don't have to drag her around, which works bc she often spins around me and I don't want to get tripped.

 

[heirloomgal]

It is SOOOOO much easier to train a puppy when you have a trained dog already in the house.
This time around I don't, and I run into weird issues. Tegan (8mo) hasn't had any accidents in almost a full month, but she cues with her paws now to go outside but doesn't do anything. Today alone, 6 trips, pottied twice.
I don't want to say no, but I am doing important phone business today, so I put her in her crate. This is the 2nd time in 4 weeks she's been put in the crate, since she is now my sleeping buddy.
I am awaiting an important call back in 55 minutes, so I guess I'll try to change to horse feeding clothes and take her out. I have a cotton web horse lunge with a handle which is affixed to a short wooden post on the front of the barn, and I take her out on a leash and hook her to This. She gets some running and fresh air, and I don't have to drag her around, which works bc she often spins around me and I don't want to get tripped.

SO true ducks. Dogs really do learn so well from another dog showing them the ropes!

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm pretty excited about the 2026 carrot line up! I ordered quite a lot of packets all of which came in this week, exciting stuff! I have quite a color selection, some repeats from last year that I loved and some all new ones. I read a really great review of 'Gniff' carrots by a seed saving friend of mine so those will be fun and I've never tried them before. I got some Kuttinger (white carrot variety) from another seed saving friend, they're her favorite carrot so I can't wait to try that one too.... and also...

• Kuroda
• Gigante Flakkee
• Danvers 126
• Manpukuji
• Chantenay Red
• Red Elephant
• Shin Kuroda
• Kintoki
• Red Cored Chantenay
• Nantes/Nantes Touchon
• Purple Dragon
• Yellowstone
• Rouge Sang Violette
• Lunga San Valerio
• Dutch Golden
• Oxheart

Kinda thrilling!

 

[heirloomgal]

This week is the last one for ordering seeds! 2026 is gonna be some fun. I have gotten enough packs of sweet pea flower seeds to last me for a few years! But I was on a kick with them, and there seemed a bunch of new ones out and I felt like it was now or never. Small seeds shops seem to come and go with the night around here. Through instagram I connected with a gardener who connected me with 2 great sites that, while the seeds were expensive ($7 - $12 a pack), they were mostly generous packets which is really uncommon for sweet pea flowers.

I'm not as crazy about the super light, somewhat 'airy' colored varieties, I lean toward the more 'substantial' colors - but in a bouquet I'm giddy for any sweet pea color. I do deeply adore the species and it's fragrance. The question of course is where to put them all. I have lots of green peas of the vegetable sort I want to grow too! I'm going to have to juggle. And then of course I'll probably have to be careful with not placing them too close together, I doubt they'll cross, but given how rare they are I am not going to take chances. 3 - 10 feet is recommended, though the cross rate is 1-2% even when grown closely together.

I'm finding the flowers with 2 colors of petals especially intriguing, like 'Erewhon' (left) and 'North Shore'

And the mottled/striped blooms have been a favorite of mine since I started growing sweet peas years ago.
I got one called 'Saltwater Taffy' though I'm not sure it's a legit variety. They may have renamed it for marketing, and it could just be 'Streamers Mix'. (Which I also bought separately.) I bought a few others, which I do think are legit separate striped varieties, like 'Chocolate Flake'.

'Zinfandel' - because I love the rich, dark, moody color.

'Blue Shift' is all the rage because it has notable color progression. I'm curious to see this one in the flesh.

'Turquoise Lagoon' is equally popular right now it seems. Quite mesmerizing really, even though these mermaid colors are not really my bag.

Last of the list:
Streamers
High Scent
Sugar & Spice (a dwarf to 7 inches)
Little Sweetheart Mix (a dwarf to 24 inches)
Sweet Dreams
Early Grey
Knee High (to only 30 inches)
Wiltshire Ripple
Mars Ripple
Nimbus
Blue Shift
Chocolate Flake
Mollie Rilstone
Bix
Enchante
Turquoise Lagoon
Spring Sunshine Champagne
Watermelon
Elegance Blue

I thought 'Watermelon' was a great name for this one -

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, yesterday life presented this wannabe shelter dog trainer with an unpleasant reality. I've been so focused on acquiring dog skills the last 5 years, thinking I'd gain enough knowledge and skills. And I crashed headlong into a major limitation I have.

Yesterday on a walk with the kids & dog we encountered an off leash dog as we rounded the end of a very long 10 foot tall snow bank. I gauged everything wrong. I don't think I could have done much worse, and I'm beyond disappointed. It is seriously disheartening to realize that my own hard wired biology of response to dog violence will always work against me. I thought with all the exposure I've had with nasty stuff going down between dogs, I'd be able to grow past that initial shock reaction when the teeth fly but it just isn't happening. My reflexes sucked and I pegged that dog all wrong.

So, my dog got attacked despite our best efforts. He basically saved his own rear, being stronger and tougher, and willing to respond with more dominating force. Thank heavens I never castrated him, because I'm certain that was his superpower yesterday. The only good thing I can hang onto is that in the final moments it was me that finally backed the dog right off us by summoning up the darkest luciferian sounds a human can make. I was able to make him fear me. So, my dog did get to witness me advocate for him, but we both know it was too little too late.

At least I learned a few important lessons about making assumptions.