Saving Seed Begins in Spring!

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz

If you are one of the millions of gardeners who want to try their hand at saving their own garden seeds this year, spring is the perfect time to begin.  And the best way to have a successful seed harvest is by selecting the right plants, spacing them properly and maintaining control of the pollination process.  For the beginning seed saver this is sometimes a bit confusing, which is why I’ve put together a tidy list of the easiest seeds to save and exactly how to save them in your garden starting right now!

Winter Sowing: Get a Jump on Spring

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz –

Many gardeners know the benefits of planting crops, such as garlic, in the early fall and winter months, but did you know that many common herb, flower and vegetable seeds can be treated this way, too? Winter sowing is the age-old practice of planting seeds directly in the garden sometime between late fall and mid-winter. Because they are living organisms, seeds have the ability to sense the environment around them, which allows them to determine when weather conditions are just right for germination. As a result, winter sown seeds often germinate earlier, have higher rates of germination and have less problems with seedling diseases such as damping off. They also tend to grow faster and stronger than their indoor-sown counterparts, which allows gardeners to get a jump on the growing season.

GMO’s: A Modern Disaster

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz –

There’s a lot of talk these days about being prepared for all kinds of natural and man-made disasters.  It is not uncommon to find classes, lectures, videos and books that teach eager “preppers” how to be wholly self-sufficient should our modern-day systems fail.  After all, life without electricity and modern modes of transportation would change everything about the way we live.  But whether or not you believe that some type of large-scale disaster will occur sometime in the future, there is a man-made disaster of epic proportions occurring right now!

Got Seeds? Get Local!

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz –

Ah, winter. At last it’s time to kick back in your big easy chair with your garden-weary feet all wrapped up in those new fuzzy slippers you got for Christmas. I can just see you now, gazing contentedly at the flickering flames of a glowing fire in the hearth, more than content with a summer’s worth of jobs well done and not a single garden chore on your “to do” list… Yeah, right. I mean, you’re a gardener, aren’t you? When did gardener’s ever get a day off? I mean, seriously – spring will be here before you know it and you don’t have a single moment to waste lying around gazing at fires if you want to have an incredible garden next year! Gosh.

Avoid GMO’s – Save Your Own Seed

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz -

George Washington once said, “Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.”   Of course, he was speaking of buying seed from someone who didn’t know how to save and store it properly and hence, an entire season of growing had been wasted waiting for a good crop that never came.   Back then (and for thousands of years before the founding of our country) anyone who farmed or grew their own food understood a thing or two about what good seed was. 

Seed Saving: Beans & Peas

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
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If you are planning on saving some of your own seeds this coming summer, the very best time to start is before a single seed goes in the ground.  In fact, saving seed should begin with that catalog you’ve been perusing all winter.  Seed catalogs are often filled to the brim with valuable information on the crops you want to grow, including germination times, growth characteristics, suggested planting dates and so on.  But the best part is that many catalogs now list each vegetable’s Latin botanical name, as well.  For the seed saver, those two little words written in italics and perched between parenthesis can mean the difference between seed saving success or seed saving failure.

Seeds of Significance: Sources for the Rare and Unusual

By Jill Henderson

Today is one of those cold blustery winter days that give me a good reason not to go outside.  Instead, I’m cuddled up to the  wood stove  dreaming about gardening.   More specifically, I’m dreaming about seeds – wonderful, open-pollinated seeds devoid of genetic modification and over-hybridization.  My seed dreams consist entirely of varieties that are either tried-and-true open-pollinated heirlooms, or rare and unusual varieties of open-pollinated fruits and vegetables.  Thankfully, those kinds of seeds don’t have to live only in my dreams, because thousands of varieties of unique open-pollinated seeds are readily available to the home gardener – if you know where to look.

Winter Seed Saving: Pumpkins and Squash

By Jill Henderson

With Christmas just around the corner, the last thing people might be thinking of is gardening, but the two go together like pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  In fact, if you grew your own pumpkins or squash this year and plan on using the sweet flesh to make delectable holiday treats with, now is the perfect time for saving their seeds.   Extracting and drying seeds from hard-shelled squash and pumpkins is fairly straightforward, however, you must first be sure that the seeds you save now will come true to type next year.

Gorgeous Green Tomatoes

By Jill Henderson

Fall is in full swing and November is just around the bend.  Time to say goodbye to the fresh bounty of the summer garden and tuck everything in for the winter to come.   After the particularly tough growing season we just had, you won’t want to waste a single edible thing from the garden – and that includes green tomatoes!  With a little creativity, those crispy green orbs can be turned into an amazing array of sumptuous edibles.

Seed Saving Time: Tomatoes

By Jill Henderson

If you’re like most people in the Midwest, your garden got a slow start this year. With the colder than usual temperatures and excessive moisture this spring, many gardeners were late in getting their seeds in the ground. If you were among those who didn’t give up entirely this year, you’re probably just getting around to processing the bounty of your labor. And while you’ve probably got a ton of things to do, don’t forget to save some seed.

GMO’s Threaten Seed Savers

By Jill Henderson

There’s a wonderful feeling that comes over me when the garden I have planned and tended and nurtured finally begins to pay off.   Of course, I’m pleased with the success of producing food for my family and I’m excited about the nutritious fruits and veggies that will grace my table for the entire year to come.  But more importantly, I feel secure in knowing that I have the knowledge and skill to save seeds.  Because above all else, the best feeling of all is knowing what is, and isn’t, in the food I eat.  And by this, I’m referring to Genetically Modified Organisms in food crops, better known as GMO’s.

Saving Seeds: Open Pollinated vs. Hybrid

By Jill Henderson

Ever wonder what the difference is between open pollinated, hybrid, heirloom and GMO seeds, and which one is right for you? Well, in today’s post I hope to shed a little light on the situation, but first, you might want to send the kids out of the room for this studious look at how seeds are born and why you should care what happens in your garden when you’re not looking.

Garden Time: Do You Know Where Your Seeds Come From?

 By Jill Henderson

Ah, winter.  At last it’s time to kick back in your big easy chair with your garden-weary feet all wrapped up in those new fuzzy slippers you got for Christmas.  I can just see you now, gazing contentedly at the flickering flames of a glowing fire in the hearth, more than content with a summer’s worth of jobs well done and not a single garden chore on your “to do” list…  Yeah, right.  I mean, you’re a gardener, aren’t you?  When did gardener’s ever get a day off?  I mean, seriously – spring will be here before you know it and you don’t have a single moment to waste lying around gazing at fires if you want to have an incredible garden next year!  Gosh.