It's Time to Start Seed Saving

Now is the time to start saving seeds, when your garden is in full, beautiful bloom. I save zinnia, marigold, and green beans for seed swapping and growing next year. This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds.

(Clockwise) Tomatoes, sunflower, zinnias, nasturtium

Saving Flower Seeds

I posted previously about this process. I am a voracious dead-header and I always have cut flowers in my house so I identify a few flowers that I am going to leave on the plant to completely dry up so I can collect the seeds. The larger the seed, the easier it is to save. If you have a favorite flower in the garden this year, consider saving seeds for next year. 

Saving Vegetable Seeds

I grow green and wax beans every year so I save seeds from the varieties I really like and/or grow well in my climate. If you want to save green beans, leave a few beans on the plant. You will see the pod dry up and the seeds will get very hard. That's when you can harvest the seeds for next year. Be sure to mark the container with the information you need for next spring. Side note: leave your green bean plants in the ground because they will add nitrogen to your soil.

This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds from some of the heirloom varieties I am growing. I start all of my tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid, from seed. This year I have Abraham Lincoln, Thessaloniki, Brandywine Pink, Tula Black, Parks Whopper, Big Rainbow, Black Cherry, Large Red Cherry, and Red Pear. My source is seed swapping (watch for Seed Swap Day in your area, it's usually at the end of January) primarily. 

Apart from the Black Cherry, I have not gotten any ripe tomatoes yet this summer, but all of my plants have a lot of fruits and very few dead leaves that would indicate disease. Once they ripen they will be ready for seed saving - and eating! I did some research and there a couple of ways to save seeds from your tomatoes and I will share in a later post.

Note that saving hybrid seeds won't replicate the plant you have this year. According to The Spruce, "Seeds from hybrid tomatoes, while they may sprout and grow, often produce tomato plants that revert to one of the genetic parent plants, which can produce much different fruit than you're expecting."

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What winter means when you are a gardener

If you are new to gardening, winter might not seem like a very active time for your hobby. But that is not true. Gardening is a year round activity.

1. Winter is the time for planning for the next growing seasons. I find it is exciting to think about what is possible. Have some fun flipping through seed catalogs and library books. The sky is the limit, nothing fails, you have all the time and money you need! Capture your ideas in a notebook or other method, no matter how big or small, because you probably won’t be able to do everything this year, but you will capture your ideas for the future.
   
   
2. Planning is really important, too, because you want to be ready to start planting in the spring. You need the dirt to be ready, you need some plants to stick in the ground or your containers, you need some seeds to plant, you might need a new tool or a new pot. Nothing is more frustrating when you pick a Saturday morning to start planting and you realize you can’t find your trowel or your container is cracked.
   
   
3. Finally, planning is easier on your budget, because you can spread your spending out over many months rather than having a weekend-long spending spree. It will limit impulse buying when you are standing at the garden center, completely overwhelmed.

 #gardengoals

I am not a trained farmer, I don’t have any education in horticulture or botany. I simply have an interest in growing things. I work full-time and have a family that takes a lot of my attention so I do not have unlimited time. And it is just me doing most of the work. (My honey loves the flowers that I grow every summer, but he is not interested in helping me with projects and I have accepted that.) I also have a limited budget for plants, tools, amendments, and labor. But I do have beautiful gardens every year and I have a lot of fun and get a lot of pride and satisfaction growing flowers, vegetables, and herbs.

Setting #gardengoals keeps me focused because I am one person and I can only do so much in 12 months. If I am puttering around week after week without focus, the things that need attention don’t get done. Concentrating on a small number of things ensures that least a few things are actually completed every year. 

Take a few minutes this week and write down the things you really want to accomplish this year. Maybe it’s grow a tomato or create a rose bush hedge or start composting. Here's my list:

1. Clear another bed near the dahlia bed 
2. Replace the rotted raised vegetable bed
3. Keep the new crepe myrtle alive
4. Figure out the bed near the shed – is it shady? part shade? full shade? Why do I hate that section of the yard so much even though it is so central to the backyard?
5. Try growing two new summer vegetables
6. Dress up the patio with larger rectangular planters to hide the utilities

Back in 2019, I made my garden goals public by posting them here in my blog. Looking back recently at this post, I recognized that I actually met most of the goals I set! I am proud of myself. Maybe I am better at keeping goals than I thought?

Start here

Over the next few blog posts, I am going to share some simple steps to get you started growing flowers and vegetables. I am excited to help you get started on your gardening journey no matter where you are growing. It could be your windowsill or some pots on your patio or stoop. Maybe you have a plot in your community garden or have some space in your backyard. All of those places are excellent places to grow some plants. Starting something new can be overwhelming. Start small, be realistic, and have fun with your successes and failures. So start with writing down a few goals for this year and check back through the spring and summer to see how you are progressing.

Now Is the Time to Plant Tulips and Daffodils

Don’t you love early spring when the outdoors starts to come back to life? You are slogging through the worse part of winter and then all of sudden you see an early flowering tree, the Cherry Blossom forecast is part of the nightly news (here in D.C. anyway), and the first electric-yellow daffodils in your neighbor’s yard appear. These are the first indications that spring is really coming.

Tulips and phlox in April.

Adding those early daffodils, tulips, and hyacinth to your home’s landscape is easy and affordable. I can’t tell you how cheerful those bobbing flower-heads can be!

Cut daffodils.

BULBS ARE EASY TO FIND

This time of year, along with the Christmas-themed inflatables, you can find a small but very nice selection of hardy bulbs at your neighborhood big box or hardware store. I even saw them in the grocery store today. Hardy bulbs are planted once in the fall and then left in the ground, and are the source of daffodils, tulips, and other early spring flowers.

START SMALL

Start small because planting bulbs on a cold fall day is not that fun. But but but – the pay off!! And you can probably get 15 bulbs for about $10.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LOCATION

I am big proponent of enjoying your garden from the inside of the house. If you are working from home a lot more these days, choose a spot from your “office” window so you can enjoy them all day long.

Bulbs should be planted is a well-drained area of the your yard. The amount of sunlight does not really matter that much because the leaves are not on the trees when bulbs are popping up.

They don’t even have to be put in a prepared bed. I have a bunch of daffodils under the lawn. By the time the grass is ready to mowed for the first time, the flowers are long gone. Think of succession planting! (Note that there will green leaves that should stay attached to the bulbs until they naturally die and can be easily pulled off.) 

Bare bulbs, roots on the bottom.
Photo credit Univ. of Minnesota Extension

PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Like I mentioned above, bulbs should be planted in late fall in well-drained area of the your yard.
2. Dig a hole about 6 inches deep and plop one bulb, facing the right side up, in the hole.
3. Plant your bulbs about 6 inches apart.
4. I would recommend digging the holes and placing all the bulbs before covering them back over with dirt. That way you can see where they are and check the spacing.
5. I have heard stories of squirrels digging up bulbs, but I think if you dig them deep enough – truly 6 inches, no cheating – you should not have a problem.

Seed Swap Haul

The seed swap I attended last weekend was really fun. There were tons of flowers, vegetables and herb seeds to choose from and the variety was overwhelming. That’s the best part of seed swaps for me, seeing so many varieties all in one place. My haul included kale, dill, sunflowers, heirloom tomatoes and mini pumpkins.

A few of my highlights

Clockwise: False indigo, suyo cucumber, Barry's crazy cherry tomotoes, Cosmic purple carrot

• How could I pass up something called “Barry’s Crazy Cherry Tomatoes”? The package did not have a picture, but the name caught me in a way I don’t think a picture would  have. They are the yellow tomatoes in the photos.

• Pea King Tut Purple were in the goody bag that I received when I registered. I have not grown peas in a few years, but I love the color of these peas! We were given the idea to grow these in a container using a tomato cage as a support. Great idea!

• I love growing carrots; how could I not try Cosmic Purple Carrot? And what’s with my purple vegetable theme?

• The curly Suyo cucumber are something new for me. They look fun and will be perfect in the community garden plot I hope to score this spring (fingers crossed).

• False indigo is a native plant that will keep coming back – I love easy plants. I have a new sunny bed in my year because my neighbor recently cut down a very tall tree (it was 50% dead and dangerous) that shaded part of my yard.

Know Where You're Sun and Shade Is

Welcome to Part 2 of my garden-planning-for-regular-people series. Planning ahead can really improve your gardening success and winter is the perfect time to start. I will share my experience and insights for planning ahead so you have a successful growing season.

In order for flowers, herbs and vegetables to grow successfully, they need have the right conditions. They is essentially sunlight, water levels, types of soil, health of soil, and climate.

Sunny container with pentas, lobelia.

Sun & Shade

From my perspective, the amount of sunlight hitting your beds daily is the number one factor that will determine your success. My small yard has tremendous variation in sun and shade because of the trees in my yard and in my neighbors yards, and also the trees out along the curb, the house, the shed, the fence and the surrounding buildings. 

For example, this spring I will be moving a little bed of shade-loving hosta that now get almost full sun because of a tree in my neighbor’s yard. The flower beds in the front of the house are almost full-shade now, but they were not that way four years ago then they were installed. This is really bumming me out because I never wanted to be a shade gardener. I love the flowers all summer and fall! Alas, I can still grow them, I just have to change where I grow them in my urban yard. And I am educating myself about growing in the shade.

How to Document Shade and Sun

Six years ago when I first moved to my house, in the early summer I spent a (sunny) day taking photos of the yard every hour to see where the sun and shade landed. I marked a few spots all around the house and every hour or so I took a photo from those same locations. At the end of the day I had a good idea where the sunniest and shadiest locations were and how many hours the sun was hitting sections of the yard. I think I need to do that again this May because of the changes in the height and density of the trees that cast shadow in my yard.

Have Fun with What You Have Available

Shade containers including begonias, creeping jenny

The container garden on the porch step is an example of the extremes in my yard. The cement step is about 10 feet wide and 3 feet deep and this very small space has opposite conditions--one half is full-sun and the other half is full shade. Once I finally figured this out for myself a few years ago, I am excited playing around with what types of plants I put in the containers each year. On the shady side (see photo at left), I usually grow frilly begonias because they need shade and they are so gorgeous to look at when I come in and out of the house.  A few feet away, I fill the pots with sun-loving flowers and herbs (photo above), tying everything together using color.

Set Yourself Up to Succeed

If you are trying to grow plants in the wrong kind of light, they will fail to put it plainly. So be prepared, know where you have the most and least sun and choose plants that will be happy in those conditions.

You can read Part 1 here where I explain all of the places  I find my garden inspiration. 

Plant those mums in the spring

One aspect of the fall garden that I have grown to love is chrysanthemums. I say “grown to love” because I could never figure out why you would buy this beautiful plant, enjoy it for a few weeks and then get rid of it. After all, they are easy to find in the big-box and grocery stores starting in late summer and it’s tempting to buy a few plants to dress up the patio. Alas, it’s still pretty hot here in the mid-Atlantic in September so the flowers don’t last long – it either gets dried up really quick or the heat fries the flowers.

But then I discovered that you can plant mums in the ground, and with a little bit of attention over the summer, have beautiful flowers year after year in the cool fall when everything else has been zapped by frost. They bloom for a long time in the cooler weather and the colors say “Autumn.” (Annecdotally I have heard that yellow plants do not live well in the ground.)

Hold on to those mums that you are enjoying this fall. You can plant them in the spring and have beautiful flowers for years to come.

I have collected a few plants over the years and planted them in the spring with great success. Once the flowers have died, cut back the plant to about 3 inches and keep alive over the winter. They do need a little water now and again, but they survive just fine outside on my back steps. Then in a cool spring day, I plant them in the flower beds.

I get them to bloom again in the fall by cutting them back to about 2 ½ to 3 inches right around Independence Day. This allows the plants to continue growing and to form flowers at the right time-when I am wearing a sweater and admiring the fall leaf color- and not in the heat of August.

There are borers that can infest the plants, but I have not had this problem to date.

So if your Thanksgiving guests bring a mum, rejoice because you will enjoy that plant for years to come.

Other Resources for Mums

Chrysanthemum Festival at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania runs through November 24, 2018.

National Chrysanthemum Society, USA

Seed Saving Season

It’s fall in the Mid-Atlantic zone 7a, the temperature has dropped about 20 degrees in the past week, and for me this is the time to start saving seeds for my garden next year and for sharing with other gardeners and friends.

What to save

When I grow flowers that I really like, saving the seeds allows me to grow the plants again next year without spending money buying seeds over the winter. One flower I love growing are zinnias. They are really colorful in the yard, come in so many varieties, attract butterflies and make beautiful bouquets throughout the summer and early fall. They are really easy to direct sow in the spring. If you have a sunny spot in your yard, give zinnias a try!

This year I tried four new varieties-Button box, Green Envy, State Fair and Benary’s giant purple.

Clockwise: Green Envy zinnia, Benary's giant purple zinnia, state fair zinnia, marigold 

I keep it simple. Zinnia and marigold seeds are really easy to harvest because the seeds are so large. If you have a flower in your yard that you love, do some research to learn the best way to harvest the seeds for next season. Some flowers have really tiny seeds that take a little more care to harvest, but it’s worth trying if it’s a plant you really like.

How to harvest seeds

In order to harvest flower seeds, you have to let the flower die on the plant. I know, it’s kind of ugly, especially in the middle of the summer then the zinnias and marigold are looking their best, bursting with new flowers. That is why I wait until this time of year, when the plants are starting to get leggy and are starting to die. Let the flowers die on the plant until they are completely dried out and crunchy. It has been really rainy here so I have left the flowers on the plants for them to completely dry out. You don’t want mold growing on the seeds.

Here is a short video I made with the basics of saving zinnia and marigold seeds.

Sometimes the birds will eat the flower petals, see the photos, but I am okay with that. I am happy to be a food source for the goldfinches – they LOVE zinnia flower petals. I see them all summer flitting in and out of the beds.

A warning, though; if you have an unexpected hard frost that kills the plants, your seed-saving will be impacted. This happened to me last year. The flowers were zapped overnight by frost so they did not have a chance to die naturally and develop seeds. This spring I only had a handful of zinnia seeds available.

Storing and sharing

Be careful to mark the seeds you are saving and keep them separated. I have many varieties of zinnias this year. When the flowers are dead, it can be hard to tell what is what. And the seeds all look exactly the same! One year, I left the some trays holding the seeds out on the patio and stiff wind came up and blow they all over the place. Second lesson learned – bring the dead flower pods inside.

Color in the garden - Yellow

Yellow is everywhere in my garden this year - florals and edibles. In the past I have been known to really over-do the yellows so I am much more aware of bringing other colors into the beds to create visual interest. Purple and yellow next to each other in the beds create tension because they are contrasting colors, or complimentary colors, meaning they are opposite each other on the color wheel. This creates tension to the eye and makes you want to look at it. My watercolor painting background comes in handy in the garden, too!

On the left: Pumpkin that appeared out of nowhere. Top left to right: Lantana, mouse melon, sunflower, blackeyed susan, State Fair zinnia, tomato.

Planning for the Fall Landscape

It has been extremely and unseasonably hot in the Mid-Atlantic where I live in USDA zone 7a. It’s hard to imagine wearing a sweater and admiring the fall foliage. But those days are coming and fall garden planning is on my mind. I have learned over the years that a successful flower bed or vegetable garden requires planning. Otherwise, I always feel like I am racing to catch up. And I never seem to catch up! 

Mum before pruning.

Mum after pruning.

One aspect of the fall garden that I love is chrysanthemums. I have collected a few plants over the years that I have kept alive over the winter and planted in the ground in spring. I get them to bloom in the fall by cutting them back about half-way around Independence Day. This allows the plants to continue growing, and forming flowers at the right time-when I am wearing a sweater and admiring the fall leaf color- and not in the heat of August. Aster is another plant that can be cut back now in order to have blooms in the fall.

How are you planning for your fall gardens?

#Bloomday April 2018

It's #Bloomday and I am so glad there are things blooming in the yard now. Below is Veronica-Georgia Blue, and lush purple-flowered ground cover that is green all summer and fall, wild violets that started appearing in my yard a couple of years ago and forsythia which has been loving the cool spring here in Washington, D.C.

Top: Veronica-Georgia Blue; Left: violet; Right: forsythia

What's blooming in your garden today?

Trimming Flowers on Coleus

Many of the coleus plants I have around the yard are growing flower spikes. Not so attractive, but this bee was hanging out the other day.

Do you trim back the flowers? I guessed that the flowers created the leaves, but I think I am wrong. According to this short piece in SF Gate:

Cut or pinch flower spikes back to a leaf node as they appear. Coleus flowers are light purple or blue and develop at the ends of shoots. Pinching off flowers before they bloom and go to seed saves the plant energy and encourages vegetative growth.

I won't be saving seeds from these plants so I am going to cut them off.

June 15 is #BloomDay

June 15 is Garden Blogger' Bloom Day. What's blooming in your garden today?

Not much here, near Washington, DC! I feel like the flowers are in transition - spring blooms are long gone and the summer plants are just maturing. But I have a couple of bits of color.

Purple yarrow is looking good. I planted this for the first time last year. It likes the hot dry front yard.

One of my favorites, purple coneflowers. I started these plants from seed last year and it's doing great. Almost 5 1/2 feet tall and still growing! This will bloom all summer. That's catmint and coreopsis fading in the background.