It’s that time of year when we start thinking about next year’s garden. This year’s is still producing, we’re eating and preserving tons of fresh stuff from the garden on a daily basis but we’re also keeping an eye towards next year. It started a few weeks ago when we noticed all the strawberry runners.
We wanted to take advantage of those runners and expand the strawberry patch in a more orderly fashion. So we took a few nursery pots and pinned the runners down using brads into the pots. A few weeks later roots have set and the plants are ready for transplanting. The patch has been expanded with a good layer of straw and cedar shavings from a neighbor who’s also a cabinet maker.
Beyond the berries there is also seed saving going on. I’ve been picking off the seed heads of marigolds and calendula and putting all those seeds into envelopes. We’re still getting fresh snow peas off the vine but we had purposely left more than a few pods on the vines to save for next year’s seed. Recently, I’ve started plucking those from the vine and putting them into bowls to make sure they’re completely dry before storing.
We’re going on our 8th or so year of saving snow pea and shelling pea seed. It’s a feeling of pure garden satisfaction to eat from seed we’ve saved for that long. There will be more seed saving as the season wears on, of course. I’m also saving extras this year as a plan to share with lots of friends and as part of a charity project (I’ll be sharing more about that soon).
It’s a simple thing, I don’t mind admitting, but I find as much joy from watching the seed stash get rebuilt as I do the pantry. It’s this amazing cycle, as my friend Risa recently said, and a cycle so I’m very humbled and honored to be a part of. Are you saving any seed for next year’s garden?
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I too get very excited about saving seeds. This year we’re saving lettuce, spinach, chard and tomato seeds.
In addition to saving seeds, I’m starting seeds for the fall/spring cold frame garden. Crazy! I’m looking at these baby lettuces and thinking: these are going to be my salads next spring!
I would love to be saving seed. So far, the only seeds that have successfully worked for me have been my basil seeds. I haven’t much planting room so if I have a larger garden in the future it will be easier. But I’m with you in spirit.
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