Saturday, February 26, 2011

Sharing our Home-Saved Seeds (February)

I always forget what type of seeds I have collected each month so I decided to post about our home-saved seeds this month. I thought that we will only be able to collect less than 3 variety of plants vegetable in this month. However, I was very surprised and happy that we managed to collect a lot of seeds. Since we don’t need that many I have pack the seeds in small packets to share with our weekly local community fruit and veggie swap and next Adelaide seed-savers group meeting.

My boys will also randomly pick one blogger from this post comment to share our home-saved seeds. He or she can pick 5 type of seeds from this month collectionWinking smile.

Sunflower-Mammoth

It was easier to collect Mammoth Sunflower seeds rather than the Evening Sun Sunflower. Finally I got to eat my own organic kuaci (the seeds). We also have sowed a new batch of mammoth sunflower seeds from the seeds that we have collected.

Mammoth Sunflower

Sunflower-Evening Sun

Colourful thousands seeds of Evening Sun Sunflower have been collected this month. I still have no idea where I am going to keep them. The birds at the moment are so well fed they don’t even bother the seeds, where I leave the seeds under the shed.

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Okra-Clemson Spineless

I did not plan to collect any okra seeds this month yet. I forgot to harvest them until the seeds were already popping out from the seed pods. Lucky! I hope the okra plant don’t stop producing.

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Marigold (Crackerjack-African)

This marigold can grow very tall about ~60cm tall.

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Calendula –Sunshine

They self-sowed easily and I found many calendula seedlings in our veggie patch.

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Portulaca~Sundial Mango

Heat and drought tolerant flower plant.

Sundial Mango portulaca seeds

Lettuce seeds

I am not sure which lettuce variety it is and not sure if the bees has cross-pollinate it with other different lettuce.

Lettuce Mix Salad

Basil~Lemon

The process of taking the seeds out from the capsule cause a very lemony fragrant in the room.

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Have you started collecting seeds this year gardeners in Southern Hemisphere and tropical region? Northern hemisphere gardeners will be busy sowing seeds I reckon and can’t wait for spring.

17 comments:

cikmanggis said...

banyaknya biji benih yang telah Diana kumpul.....Seronoknya jika Cm dapat kumpul biji benih seperti ini.Oh ya daun sayuran menjadi kekuningan jika Cm guna baja tahi kambing.adakah kerana ianya terlalu strong?bagaimana kesannya baja tahi kuda yang Diana guna?

Mark Willis said...

I just love that Portaluca - such a beautiful colour, and you wouldn't expect something that looks so delicate to be very heat and drought-tolerant. This is not a plant I know, but I think I will have to see if I can get one!

KenMAHD said...

wahhhh...i love those kuaci!! Pnya syok tanam sendiri and dpt makan sendiri :)

btw, I'm tweeting this post! :)

@KenMAHD - my twitter ID :)

rainfield61 said...

I ate a lot of kuaci during last CNY celebration, but I had to pay for that.

Sue Garrett said...

Calendula seeds look like dead woodlice. To let someone else have a chance don't pop me in the draw Diana as I already have had lots of seed from you which I will be sowing shortly!

Unknown said...

I love seeds, I love to see them grow, to be a flower, a vegetable, a tree.

~TastyTravels~ said...

Beautiful examples of seeds saved! I usually get so caught up in getting my plants to grow & fruit that I forget about the seed making. Maybe this year, I'll be able to save a few!

Isabel said...

I love the sunflower mammoth and the portulaca. Klo ble tanam d Sabah (bukan d kundasang) ni kn bgus. Hehe...just found your blog and now I'm following=)

Kat said...

I have giant russian sunflowers growing, but they're only a few inches tall so a long way off till I can harvest the seeds! :p

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

CikManggis~ Tahi kambing tu masih baru lagi ke? Kalau masih belum decompost lagi mungkin sebab tu jadi kuning. Tahi kuda tu saya biar dia compost sikit atau letak bahagian bawah sekali supaya tak terkena anak benih yang baru disemai.

Mark~ Portulaca like sunflower really like the sun, Does not open its petal sometimes on gloomy days.

KenMAHD~ Seronok makan kuaci sendiri ni manis. Pastu sihat sikit kut tak de letak garam ke apa:). Makan Banyak pun lidah tak sakit macam yang beli kat kedai.

One~ Don't have to fry them just eat like that already very sweet:). Congrats to you too of harvesting many seeds as well. What is sugar apple?

Rainfield61~ Very meriah eating kuaci with family and relatives!

Sue~ Good Luck with the seeds. I don't have proper storage with seeds at the moment not really organise.

Ellada~ It is a wonder how small seeds are and capable to grow very tall and fast.

Holly~ Hope you will be able to save some seeds this year.

Isabelle~ Rasanya boleh ditanam di Sabah cuacanya lagi nyaman dari semenanjung. Thank you for following.

Kat~Do post your giant russian sunflower when they are blooming, I am interested to see it.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Look at sunflower seeds, it probably be millions!... We dont have many seeds to collect, except for basil. Roselle is drying up, and got to separate the good and bad ones.

Lrong Lim said...

Calendula does not seem to grow well here for me... don't know why...

Sue Catmint said...

it's amazing how many seeds you can collect - it's great to share them with others. i am just leaving mine to drop at the moment to see what will happen.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Bangchik~ I actually have another evening sun sunflower seeds in a medium size carton box drying under the shed. Can't wait to see how many roselle seeds you be able to collect.

Lrong~I found calendula grown in summer has smaller bloom where in winter the bloom are double the size grown here in Adelaide.

Catmint~Hope you have many self-sowed seedlings.

Sue Catmint said...

Hi MKZ, what a wonderful lot of seeds you have - I am so looking forward to sharing ... cheers, cm

samsina saharudin said...

hi, saya tertarik dengan blog anda

boleh tak kalu saya nak beli biji benih Sunflower-Mammoth daripada anda. saya berminat untuk mencuba menanamnya. kalau ada stok beritahu saya yea. terima kasih.
samsinasaharudin@yahoo.com.my

samsina saharudin said...

hi, saya berminat dengan sunflower -mammoth anda...ada tak stok biji benih tersebut.saya berminat nak beli dan menanamnya. kalu ada stok bagitau yea...samsinasaharudin@yahoo.com.my