Moxie Gardener

Some of my collection of garden seeds, including many empty packages.

I’m a frugal gardener.  I don’t throw away seeds. I don’t even throw away the empty seed packages.  I keep seeds and plant them every year until they’re all gone.  Eventually, no seeds germinate.

At one point I had all of my seeds labeled and filed in a large index-card box (remember before PCs?).  I’ve slacked off in recent years and now my seeds are piled in a wicker basket and the index-card box is full of old seeds.

I admit it.  I’ve been lazy.

After documenting part of my disarray of seeds in the accompanying photo, I’m committed to organizing my collection of seeds and purging any that are no longer viable.

Here’s my plan.

First, I’ll sort through all the packages and separate those that are empty from those that contain seeds.

Next, I’ll determine which seeds are relatively new and likely to germinate.  I will conduct germination tests on seeds which I believe are too old to germinate.  (More about that below.)

Finally, I’ll re-file my seeds in my large index-card box.  I have stiff cardboard dividers and have divided my seeds into seven areas:

1. Annual flowers.
2. Perennial flowers.
3. Annual herbs.
4. Perennial herbs.
5. Cool weather vegetables.  (Plant primarily in Spring.)
6. Hot weather vegetables.  (Plant primarily in late Spring to early Summer.)
7. Other.

I find this division helps whether I’m planting seeds outside in the garden or starting them indoors.

To conduct a germination test, count out ten seeds.  Fold a plain white paper towel in half and then in half again.  Open up the last fold.  Dampen the towel slightly using a spray bottle.  Sprinkle the ten seeds onto one side of the folded paper towel and cover with the other side.  Insert into a plastic zip sandwich bag.

Don’t forget to label with variety, days to expected germination, and the current date.  Check daily and spray lightly with water if the towel starts to dry out before the seeds are expected to germinate.

I usually give seeds three to four days past the time they are expected to sprout, just in case.  At this time, open up the folded paper towel and count the number of seeds that have sprouted.  Multiply by ten, and this is your expected germination rate for the entire package of seeds.  If only 50% of the seeds have germinated, you’ll know to plant more seeds.

The growing season is too short to waste time and garden space waiting for seeds that will never germinate.  Test them and you’ll know what to expect.

I’m off to organize and test my seeds.

Dill seeds ripening

If I had the room and authority in the yard (I’m a renter) I would make an entire garden just for growing seeds.  The whole business of seed saving is fascinating to me.

It all started with dill.  The seed heads can be majestic, the umbels radiating like mini umbrellas without the fabric.  When I was a new gardener these were the first seeds I noticed.  The following spring when at least a dozen dill plants came up where the lone dill plant had grown the year before, something clicked in my brain.  I realized I could grow “free seeds.”

In the flower category it was calendulas.  They popped up all over my gardens for several years after planting gift-with-purchase seeds.  Eventually I gathered some to save and planted them on purpose.  They are quite prolific seed makers.

Cosmos seeds ready to harvest

Another flower that hooked me on seed saving was Bright Lights Cosmos.  I gathered seeds from a stranger’s yard in a mini flower bed growing next to a public sidewalk.  I filed them away for about four years until I got around to planting them.  When I finally did, only five plants came up.  From these five I gathered seeds and replanted the following year.  Germination skyrocketed, thanks to the freshness of the seeds, and the full spectrum of the mix grew—yellow, orange, red-orange and red.

We had a very dry spring and summer, with precipitation about three inches below average.  Consequently most of the radishes never developed.  I left several in the ground to go to seed.  They’ve produced seed quite well and I’m looking forward to a bumper crop next spring.

Several varieties of lettuce also sent up seed stalks which are now in the process of growing seeds.  Hopefully there’ll be enough frost-free weather before winter sets in for the seeds to form and mature.

Arugula in flower with seed pods in foreground

I purposely left an arugula plant to go to seed.  Wow!  The plant rivals my tarragon in size and spread.  Seed pods have already formed and again, I hope the weather cooperates this fall long enough for seeds to mature.

Savings seeds is satisfying as well as economical.  There’s something about eating vegetables from seeds I originally purchased years ago that is uber satisfying.  If you buy non-hybrid seeds and practice saving them, there’s no need to purchase new ones every year.  With the money I save I take the opportunity to try new varieties.  After all, variety is the spice of life.

Over 7 feet tall!

Nothing says summer like sunflowers.  Their cheery yellowness brightens up any room.  In the garden they stand like sentinals guarding over the shorter plants.

It was getting into June by that time but I planted all four packets in a new garden at my new house.  I was rewarded with a dozen or so varieties of varying heights and colors ranging from yellow to gold to orange-rust, and even a cream colored one.

"Volunteers"

They looked specatular!

Unfortunately, the squirrels were as thrilled with the sunflowers as I was.  They used them as their squirrel-workout area and of course they ate the seeds.  I even found a severed flower head—as large as a salad plate—on the back porch one afternoon.  My hopes of saving the seeds vanished with the squirrel olympics.  The cats enjoyed watching them from the confinement of the kitchen window sills.  (Note to cat lovers:  my cats go outside but in a new house it’s best to keep them inside for a couple months after the move otherwise they try to find their old neighborhood and sometimes can’t find their way back to the new house.)

Over the winter I painstakenly chose four varieties of sunflowers in four varying heights to plant in rows stair-step fashion.  I planted them in early May (normal for Minnesota).  To my surprise, before the cultivated sunflowers came up, “volunteers” from last year came up all over the garden.  I resisted the urge to pull them out, and I’m glad I did.

The cultivated sunflowers are struggling and only a couple of them have bloomed.  On the other hand, the plants the squirrels re-seeded for me have been blooming for weeks!  Unfortunately not all of the original varieties survived, but about half a dozen different heights, shades of yellow, and flower-size did. 

The cats are too old and scared of the traffic (the new house is on a semi-busy street) to go out during the day, but come sunset they demand to be let out.  The effect this had on the squirrels did not become apparent until the sunflowers reached “squirrel-climbing” size and started to bloom.  Because of the feline presence, even though it’s during the squirrels’ normal sleeping time, the squirrels have stayed away from the sunflower garden.  They still live in the tree on the boulevard, indeed, they have built a nest there, but they stay away from my yard.

A supply of paper lunch bags has been purchased and will cover one of each type of sunflower at the end of August.  This year I’ll get some seeds to save.  The cultivated sunflowers?  If they ever bloom I’ll collect some seeds.  Stay tuned.

It always pays to defer to Mother Nature.  If I had pulled those sunflower “volunteers” (some people would call them weeds), I wouldn’t have the beautiful blooms gracing my back yard right now.

Anybody wanna trade for some sunflower seeds?