HOME GARDEN DESIGN

I love nasturtiums and this summer I had a real cascade of them tumbling over the deck boxes in their bright colors and peppery scents. I went to weed them the other day and noticed that many had gone to seed and still many others had dropped their seeds on the deck. I gathered the seeds excitedly, figuring that since they were intact and recognizable as the nasturtium seeds I’d planted before, I should be able to save these for planting in the future.

I since found a couple of wonderful resources about seed saving.

Mr. Brown Thumb has a lot of great information about collecting nasturtium seeds, complete with a video. He says that larger seeds are best, and that it doesn’t matter if the seeds are brown or green. This is good news because I found plenty of both.

About.com has a lot of great information about seed saving in general, including which other seeds are good candidates for saving:

Methods and Timing for Saving Seeds

Always choose the best quality plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables from which to save seeds. Look for disease resistance, vigor, great flavor and productivity. Next year’s plants will only be as good as this year’s seed. Harvest seeds either:

• When the seed pods have dried on the plant (flowers, beans, broccoli, lettuce…)Keep an eye on the pods as they start to brown. Most seed pods will open and disperse on their own. You can catch seed by placing small bags over the seed heads when they look ready to pop or by pulling the plant just before completely dry and storing upside down in a paper bag.

Storing Saved Seed

• Make sure the seed is completely dry, or it will rot or mold in storage
• Remove as much of the chaff as possible
• Store in a paper envelope, labeled with the variety and year
• Place the envelopes into an air tight container, such as a canning jar
• Store in a cool, dark, dry place
• Stored seed is best used the following year

What Seeds Can Be Saved?

Open Pollinated or heirloom, self-pollinated plants are the only varieties that will grow true from seed, meaning the seedlings will be exactly like the parents. These are the seeds worth saving.

Self-pollinated plants are the easiest to save and include: Beans, Chicory, Endive, Lettuce, Peas, Tomatoes. You can also save many heirloom flower seeds such as: cleome, foxgloves, hollyhock, nasturtium, sweet pea, and zinnia.

I dried my seeds on this old bulb storage crate from the Netherlands. It’s come in handy for all kinds of drying projects.

I stored my seeds according to the above guidelines. I’ll plant them next year and will let you know how they do.

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

Everyone seems to be inspired by Fall and by Halloween, which comes at the exact height of the season. There is no shortage of wonderful blog posts and ideas about play, creativity, and celebration of this pivotal and lovely time of the year. I’ve gathered a few:

Fall’s bounty and beauty are explored by Mom in Madison

A roundup of Fall outdoor activities comes from Your Wild Child

Backyard Mama brings us ten ways to enjoy Fall

Make shrunken apple heads with Active Kids Club

Create a Sugar Sprite tradition for Halloween candy with Stephinie on Rhythm of the Home

A wonderful compendium of Halloween herb and food history and lore comes from The Herb Companion

From The Squirrelbasket: Halloween traditions, superstitions, and pumpkin carving

DIYLife weighs in on composting Fall leaves

Shivaya Mama describes experiencing peace and joy through watching children’s delight at jumping in Fall leaves

Have a glorious Halloween and Fall!

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

On Saturday, April 4, Green Corn Project volunteers refurbished our demonstration garden bed at Lady Bird Lake. Located on the north side of the lake just west of the Pfluger pedestrian bridge, our bed is part of The Trail Foundation‘s Adopt-a-Garden program.

Here's how the bed looked before we replanted it with spring vegetables

Last year to celebrate GCP’s 10th anniversary, we adopted this bed and planted the first (and only) vegetable garden in the program. The bed is a great opportunity to show what we do to the 1.5 million people who visit the trail every year. Because so many of our gardens are at private homes and schools, this very public space allows us to demonstrate how everyone can grow their own organic vegetables.

Check out photos from last year’s initial dig-in in March and fall refurbishment here.

We decided to keep the bed this year because of the phenomenal response we received. Austinites love this garden!

This season Robby Lee of Austin Green Art helped with the refurbishment. He also brought what is surely going to be the star of this garden: a sculpture by Aaron Harrington that we’ve repurposed into a tomato trellis. Be sure to check it out!

We planted four varieties of tomatoes: yellow pear, Juliet, Stupice, and two Sweet 100s; eggplant, basil, and serrano and jalapeno peppers to add to the existing Swiss chard, oregano, and ornamental peppers.
Thanks to Robby (on the far right), as well as volunteers Michael and Andrea Olivier, Catherine Sewell, and Jesse Bowden who dug and planted with me on Saturday morning.
–Suzanne, GCP volunteer and board member