Adventures in seed saving and other fun fall activities

*lukewarm* Yea, sustainability.

Erm, AHEM, I mean, woohoo! ;)

This bit of cold water on the happiness that is my garden stems slightly from seed saving, a bit of a messy time consuming process for some seeds (like Malabar spinach), but still a very important and cost saving process.

(red stem Malabar Spinach)

My slight gripe is that I forget teeny tiny little spiders really enjoy chillin' and making a home on the tiny flowered racemes of plants such as basils, lemon balms and perilla.

Whilst gathering perilla seed for the giveaway (still up and going if anyone wants it or the malabar spinach!) I was cutting a bunch of the perilla recemes to trying to get just enough seed for one packet and avoiding any spider webby looking bits as well as possible.

Despite my efforts when I started seed extracting, little spiders started scurrying around EVERYWHERE.

I'm not nervous about spiders themselves; I'm just nervous about getting bit because I have unfortunately pretty bad reactions to mosquito and spider bites (serious burning, itching and swelling to grapefruit size bites sometimes).

And I really hate Benadryl, so bites (as I probably have ranted before) are a problem and I really DIS-like squishing spiders, even if there are million of them running around me because hey, spiders are pretty good.

Needless to say, I thought to myself as I was being nibbled on, "Ouch. ouch. ouch. They're. tiny. little. things. They'll probably---OW, produce tiny little bites?"

So yes, the bites were little.

Until 2 minutes later, where they were about 10x what they were before and I headed for the neem oil, which doesn't relieve itchiness immediately, but when it starts working, it really works.

Seed saving tomatoes are a snap at least, every time you eat one you can eat the fruit and squish out the gelly inside to add to water and let it ferment. Then clean, dry, and save.

Okra and beans are easy too, sweet "let 'em dry on the vine/stalk!" and then bust 'em open to get to the seeds AND save.

(Scarlet Runner bean)

It's just those herbs, those darn, darn herbs with their leeeetle flowers that attract leeeeeeeetle bugs, which THUS attract leeeeeeeetle predators (aka spiders) that get to me. *shiver* I can still feel tiny spiders crawling all over me!

(Purple Perilla, AMAZING no tiny spiders made a cameo here. Anneliese, I SWEAR I got all the spiders off before I mailed you your packet of seed!)

Anyways, fall is a stupid busy time, more than spring is I often forget.

Gotta (1) seed save, (2) re-pot outdoor things for inside, (3) plant perennials in the coolness of fall, (4) plant fall/winter vegetable garden, (5) take cuttings for propagation, (6)  Divide any spring flowering perennials, (7) Offer to rake people's leaves for composting!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH! *runs around collapses*

Happy Autumn to you and don't die of overwork!

I've bean runnin' around, this fence, for so long...

After waiting what seemed forever (I lie: these things were harvest-able earlier in the season as I plant these suckers first thing in the spring, I've just finally got around to really harvesting them), I am going to be in Scarlet Runner Bean heaven!

Scarlet Runners need a long warm season to develop their ginormous pods and seeds and as I want to make room for other things, I felt it was time to start harvesting/ cut some down.


I plant these for quick fence cover/their great hummingbird attractors/nitrogen fixer/food purposes.

The beans themselves can be cooked and eaten fresh (meaning, cooked right after picking) or dried, and their pods are quite palatable too I find, though can get stringy and the outside rough if left too long on the vine.

I love how colorful the beans and pods are! Bright beautiful green and shocking pink and purple inside! If that's not healthy for you, I don't know what is, it's like eating the 80s! (wait, *shiver* there)


Last year I unfortunately allowed the beans to get too long and stringy and eating the pods was not so pleasant of an experience, so as I gave the beans a few quick shellings, I noticed how thick and succulent the pods were (probably from the recent monsoon-like rain we've all recently) and the thick walls had swollen up so much they actually were squishing the beans themselves into a bit of a square-like shape!

So, in the name of tasty and testing for quality control, I frenched (sounds funny) a few, tossed them in with butter and cooked them for a while until they seemed done, but tender-crisp enough to retain it's nutritional value (other than lectin ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectin) and sprinkled just a little sea salt.

Delish!

Runner bean are annual, or so I thought here in zone 7b, but in warmer climates they are perennial and form tubers that are edible as well. I thought I noticed some runner bean shoots earlier in the year before I had planted my seeds, so perhaps with good composting/mulching, you can perennialize them in your garden. I have yet to eat any of the tubers that may have developed in my garden bed by the wall... they're planted with cannas and I am afraid they're all a bit crowded in together to figure out which tuber is which!

IMPORTANT!
As mentioned via link above, lectin is dangerous and many are unaware of the dangers of undercooked beans (thanks processed/canned foods) it's very important to remember to cook all beans thoroughly to avoid these nasty complications.

It only takes 5 raw kidney beans for example to cause potential symptoms of lectin poisoning!

LINKS OF INTEREST:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/681/
http://www.scienceyear.com/outthere/index.html?page=/outthere/diner/fatalfoods/index.html
http://home.howstuffworks.com/scarlet-runner-bean.htm

Drinks on me! Mimosas!

My rules/exceptions to growing non-edible plants are that they must be:

1) interesting/unusual flowers to attract pollinators/beneficial insects
2) landscaping plants that survive my lack of watering and care
3) low groundcovers that can act like living mulch
4) FUN plants for my amusement

The last category applying to this plant, Mimosa Pudica:


Though I like the drink (orange juice+champagne/prosecco) and find it super groovy, I enjoy mimosa plants more so (unless it's a really bad day). Mimosas are great amusement and called the sensitive plant because of this:



The first time I saw this I think I was very very young and was very very impressed by a plant that seemed to move/play dead.

It was literally probably a decade later before I encountered it again in college in a greenhouse that was left open on the Ag campus and then some 5 years later before I was very lucky to have actually acquired it from a semi-local nursery a few hours north of Memphis where they were giving them away to the children for free.

So... I'm not a child, but my "SQUEE"-ing probably convinced them that I was one at heart and they let me take 3 little mimosa plants home with me because I knew a couple other little children at heart :)

Why would they give away such a cool plant for free you might ask?

Because it freakin' self-seeds like mad! (Um, so note potential invasiveness...)

(seed pod casings... the actual seeds are planted/sprouted--->)

Some months ago I noticed my now not so tiny plant had bloomed tiny pink puffballs and formed flat bean-like seed pods, making sense as they are in the legume (nitrogen fixing bean-like) family Fabaceae. When they became brown and dry enough that the pod fell off the stem easily I opened the pods out of curiosity and decided to plant the seeds with the pessimism that it probably wouldn't work... BUT THE SEEDS SPROUTED!

Oh. My. Joy.

Mimosas are cathartic. When you are annoyed or are in need of amusement, just poke at it and it's droopy sadness (really just water loss, the plant has no feelings! That I know of at least...) makes an annoyed person feel a whole lot better!

I like to touch the leaflets little at a time, getting the closing up/plant drooping to occur slowly, or see if I am delicate enough to get only one leaf to droop at a time. My husband thinks its fun to just go "RAAH!" on it and smack the entire thing all at once, making the main stem as well as all the leaves and tiny branches go sad. (I kind of glare at him when he does that because then I have to wait a good while before the plant recovers enough to be poked again).

What do I plan to do with little mimosa seedlings? I sort of imagine a lot of little pots of the mimosas , maybe 7 of them, that I can label them singly with the days of the week Mon-Tues-Wed-Fri-Sat-Sun, and pick one each day to torment (and then recover for a week) thus not OVERLY stressing one plant out too much.

Ok, that's a little disturbing... I really won't do that, scout's honor!

Instead I'll probably just give extra away so that I can share the joy.

I found out too that mimosa plants are actually edible! Hoohah! This fills my ultimate standard of a perfect plant! Edible and Fun! Unfortunately I probably won't be using mine as food, but the fact I can SAY I can eat it is comforting.

Interesting Mimosa links:
http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/plantoftheweek/articles/Mimosa.htm
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week147.shtml

A Dynasty is Over: Great Wall of Spinach cut down

The weather being colder and I, in anticipation of sweet, sweet sugar snap peas and snow peas decided it was time for the malabar spinach to go.


(Well, most of it)

I am experimenting (aka 'being lazy') and seeing what will happen to the spinach after the frost/during the winter and on (if it doesn't get too gross as the plant is almost succulent-like).

I am curious if the spinach will self seed itself for next year as I dropped plenty of berries/seeds on my first seed collecting harvest.

My malabar spinach, the red stem, "Rubra" variety, was quite lovely to behold much of the summer and once it started to seed and the weather become not so pretty, its color change was akin to those "love it or hate it" situations where you enjoy a plethora of yellow-pink-orange-ish colors with the fading green leaves and hot pink stems, or you think it sort of look like vomit.

Either way, it didn't look too palatable.

The twine trellised vines were pretty easy to take off all together, and while I'll go through and save some more seeds from the piles of malabar spinach vines, I am trying to figure out a good way to potentially compost them or if I probably ought to solarize the lot because I am nervous about utterly self seeding my compost pile with it.

The seeds shouldn't survive the winter, but in a compost pile, things do surprisingly well, and we know how warm it can get in there...

Ugh, now I need to re-string the fence again for peas, luckily it'll be a while yet before they need the support much if at all!

So, goodbye sweet faux-spinach! Next year, if things work out, I may try to see if you are freezeable!

Carving hopes will NOT be squashed this year!

Bah. Humbug. And it's not even Christmas yet.

But it's October, the Halloween season and I got no pumpkins.

I'm bitter because I REALLY wanted to grow my own pumpkins this year for pie, for seeds and most of all to make JACK-O-LANTERNS, but the squash borers decided to sink those plans, grrr.

Pumpkins can get expensive, especially the really big ones I can extravagant on and though I noted some moderately good size ones for $4/apiece I had been so intent from the start of spring/early summer to have grown my own pumpkins, even wishing to get some of those GINORMOUS pumpkin seeds and attempt to make myself a little pumpkin house in the backyard.

Husband wasn't too keen on that one.

Two years ago I bought pumpkins and I was quite pleased with my efforts:


Last year, due to finances, I skipped out on the pumpkins and made crummy brown paper bag lantern cutouts with tea candles illuminating them and they were BLAH as well as wonderfully dangerous I found.

(I realized midway that the cheap polyester costumes that kids get nowadays and in addition to clumsiness on everyone's part were not a good combo. I would like to assure everyone reading that NO ONE caught on fire that night!)

So... I want to do pumpkins again.

Granted I saw these "craft pumpkin" things on sale at craft stores, where it appears you can cut and shape and save for every year, and though I am sure it is cost effective in the long run, I like the whole Native American feeling of using the whole thing when I have a real pumpkin.

Because with a "faux-kin" I'd be constantly channeling my Jack Sparrow and thinking, "But, where's the pumpkin pie?!" (don't you dare tell me to use the stuff in the can!)

Plus there's nothing like cumin and sea salt dusted roasted pumpkin seeds, mmmm, that's autumn for ya.

Crazy self seeded vine "topiary"

A long, long time ago I got a cheap green metal pole to hang my hummingbird feeder on.

I was peeved at the boring-ness of the pole and decided I would grow things up it. I found this great seed from Botanical Interests called Cardinal Climber (pretty basic) that said it would attract hummingbirds and so I sowed it.

Nothing happened and I went, "Blah." So I sowed some reliable Grandpa Ott seed I had saved for a while and it came up merrily... and then some time soon afterward Cardinal Climber decided it wanted to join in on the action (maybe it's like a competitive younger sibling).

And now I have this:
(pardon the pics sort of suck because I was too lazy and took them through my dirty kitchen window)

It's self seeded (and crossed with itself as you can tell by the random pink and white cardinal flowers). Of course the morning glory re-seeded too and now they've taken over the pole and the hummingbird feeder a bit too.

Lat year, to the chagrin of my husband, I attached a twine to the pole and to the nearest gutter so the vines could climb up it, which they did, and then decided to make a roof attack upon us.

It was kind of neat seeing the vines take over and nearly eat the house while framing our window, but the reality was it that was beginning to clog the gutters above... which is no good, so by autumn's end we had to tear it down and no twine attachment to the roof this year on my part.

(click on the pic to see more detail)

The nifty part is though that these vines want to EXTEND and do so at nearly a 90 degree angle as it's trying to reach out and find something to grab. When the wind blows, the vines look like they're fingers of some sort of scary green Cousin It trying to get a hold of you!

Oh, there's a hyacinth bean vine too somewhere in there, but he's sort of shy and we don't talk about him much :) (Hyacinth beans are edible too :)

But I don't even like pink!

I've never liked pink, too prissy for my tastes. It always reminded me of princesses and I never was the princess type (usually wanted to be Robin Hood, the Prince, or Super Mario---- maybe it was the weapons...?)

ANYWAYS, I've brought a little pink in my life finally, but only if it's combined with some sort of purple-burgundy-black on the plant.

It all started with the Haight-Ashbury Hibiscus:


Striking me with its interesting splashes of hot pink here and there (and NOT the MJ looking leaves...)

...and then I found Pink Fountains Gaura, with it's burgundy-black foliage and pink flowers... (the foliage is blacker with heat, and as it's been cool, so yeah, pretty blah green now). I thought it would go well with Haight-Ashbury... and now Park seed has this lovely.

*girly squeee* pink flowers with purple-black foliage AND edible fruit eventually?!? WANT SO BAD. Geez, when did I start accessorizing my garden more than myself?

BUT... it's a tree/shrub... and I have noooooooooo room. *le sigh*

Someday that farm will happen...

Just got hit in the head by a forecasted temperature drop!

Oy! It's almost October! So, why am I surprised by the upcoming temperature drop that's BELOW 50 degrees?

Because I am dumb and have acclimated myself to the idea of an endless summer!

How is it that we so easily forget that things get cold again? (shut up you guys in the deep south/California :)

That temperature changes gradually, but one day/night just hits us and we notice, "whoa, the weather really is changing!"

I mean, dude, I've been planting/planting for my cold-weather gardening, why am I so weirded out about this?

Aiiee! I just saw some geese flying south! It's like they're carrying the warm weather with them! Come back you warm weather thieves! Maybe if I lasso a few and house them in my yard the warm weather will stay there ;)

To the market, to the market, jiggity gi

So happy that our area has a farmer's market!

Unfortunately I have a tendency to talk shop and my husband begins rolling his eyes because despite liking to talk shop with the other growers, I typically don't purchase most of their generic vegetable wares because, well I grow it already...

Here and there though there are the people who have more time/patience/experience/land than I do to grow special items like these:


When I first saw them I thought they were little plums/prunes, but that would be weird to have this season.

They had a pungent, sweet, even a bit spicy aroma and some were splitting a little so I could see their pale green-white flesh. Flies were landing all over the place on them, most likely attracted to their sweet scent and the vendor had to wave them off.

Inquiring further I was told by the Asian vendor that they were Muscadine grapes, and while waving off another swarm of flies landing on them, she told me to go ahead and sample one.

Hmmm, these grapes were quite possibly not washed and flies have been landing on them. It felt like some sort of Asian person challenge because really, being steeped in Chinese culture, you HAVE to sample the wares if you're REALLY Chinese, and make sure the fruit is gooood.

So, I got my Chinese ON, daintily waved away a few more flies (trying not to remember that I recently read a fly carries 100,000 bacteria on their back alone), fogged up a grape with my breath and wiped it off before popping it in my mouth.

OMIGOSH. The flesh slips right off the thick skin and you get the whole grape in your mouth before even chewing on the actual skin. Flavor Tsunami. It was sweet and a little tangy, but rich and PEPPERY. I was blown away.

It feels like I'm eating something truly wild, like an exotic animal--- except this is legal :P

Muscadines had always been in my mind this Southern old-timey fruit I had heard of and simply poo-poohed as "just a grape." Boy, am I dumb. I bought a little basket of them despite their expensiveness, I had to share with my husband (and gobble more later myself if he didn't like them :)
(as it turns out, his thoughts about the grapes: "I'm not sure, kind of tangy," whatever that means).

Aren't they beautiful? They look like a bunch of little starry bubble galaxies touching.

This is what a garnet would taste like if you could eat it!
I may need to "accidently" toss these somewhere in the garden...
Sadly muscadines are dioecious, meaning that they have separate male and female plants, so it just adds to the toughness of growing these :/

Also at the farmer's market were CHESTNUTS!

(Makes me feel like zombie when eating them, brains! BRAINS!)

If the whole roasted chestnuts thing is only recognizable to you in song, then go out and buy yourself some FRESH ones, because the ones at the grocery store are dry, shriveled, moldy things compared to these babies, and for $3/basket it was a good deal.

Here is a good link to learn how to cook chestnuts.



Just a note, make sure you cut through the shell deeply enough because a 'sploded chestnut is not only not pretty and a mess to clean up, but it's embarrassing to be caught licking roasted chestnut bits and powder off the stove and counter.

Lambs ears- Useful and a good pet substitute

I have a soft spot for this easy, potentially invasive generic plant:


It's so FUZZY!

and xeri-scaperific!

As a little kid I had read that it was used as bandages during wars and would often play doctor/medic on the little boy neighbors I played He-man/She-ra with, dressing their wounds with lambs ears (so we stick fought a little hard :/)

I learned recently too that it makes an apple-y fruity flavored tea and along with bandages, can be used like the ultimate biodegradable wash towel (albeit small, but still useable).

More likely this would be a great cotton ball substitute and I wouldn't have to worry about the oddness of a bleached cosmetic product.

Maybe, maybe... though I have always wanted to grow my own cotton for fun...