My seed bank progress

I am in the process of drying out a bunch of seeds to add to my growing seed bank.



I have a bunch of seed packets left over from my container garden I plan to utilize next year. Mostly herb seeds with a few exceptions.


A few pages I have printed out for my garden book. Both pages are double sided. My seed bank page is filled halfway on the other side. I am quite happy with how my little seed bank is growing with both garden variety and wild seeds.


I decided to get a new binder for my Garden Gate book. (The art is not my own, though certainly my style. I thought it fit the theme of the book quite nicely.)


I took some time outside in my garden.
The tree is a spruce as I learned today. I had not looked at it very closely until now. I shall be harvesting the sap, spruce tips, pollen, and needles for various things.



I decided to harvest some more lambs quarters. The last small batch I picked I dried for soups later. This batch I decided to rinse and blanch for freezing.

I only selected the good leaves from each plant and left any that had been chewed on by bugs.


I left the blanched leaves to cool before freezing. It is not much, and it takes a lot of leaves, but they are more abundant than spinach, and more nutrient dense.



This is the left over water from blanching bok choy and lambs quarters. I am allowing it to cool and then I will use the nutrient dense broth to water my garden.




My strawberries seem to ripen in fives. I of course find this really amusing. I have been picking them and adding them to a Tupperware container to freeze for later use in smoothies, pies, muffins, and more. Yes, I am not picking more than 5 or so at a time, but since I am freezing them, they will not rot while waiting for the rest to ripen. Did I mention how amazing these are? So very flavorful.

Other than the strawberries I also got a few more tomatoes. We got to try the sweet 100, which were delicious. So far all the tomatoes in the garden have been a win.

On my last foraging adventure where I got a lot of the wild seeds I am drying out, I also got a bunch of wild golden plums. Both perfectly sweet with a bit of tart to them.

I am loving connecting with the land, with my land. It is very nice to be able to call a piece of land your own. I enjoy exploring my land, all .18 of an acre of it. Size doesn’t matter when you can find so many different groups of life growing all around. Seeing how the connect with each other, where they grow best. I like learning about my land. It helps me understand the best ways to aid in its care.

That of course is not to say I do not exploring my friends yards as well. I love teaching and learning as I explore. I usually end up coming home with some tasty finds as well which is always exciting.

I had plans to go out and explore another loved location for wild living things, or dead, I like bones too, but for understandable reasons those plans fell through. The hunt for wild maturing seeds and plants goes on!
I am making the most of this year even with the late start. I will have a wonderful garden filled with lots of garden variety and wild plants. Not only that but I will be able to enjoy the fruit of my harvest all winter if I plan things the right way.
I will be adding wild native plants to my meals. You can’t always find these things in fruit stands, even if they are tasty. They are either too time consuming to harvest, or there are just so many varieties, it is easier to keep to the known basics.
With so many amazing foods nature has to offer it is baffling how much we limit ourselves. As an example, look at how many varieties of amazing tomatoes there are… Almost all the tomatoes in my garden I have never had the pleasure of even hearing of yet alone taste. With how amazing they are, you would be surprised they are not also in the stores. It is just too costly to have such a variety for the stores to carry.

Because of this, a lot of varieties are gone. Without people planting them, the seeds eventually go bad, and that particular variety dies off. At some point I plan on putting some vintage variety fruits and veggies into the garden to help preserve some of our history.