#seed saving

[tomorrowsgardennc]

seed saving scares big companies so much that even a government deemed it "illegal" - from 2012 until today:

Kenyan court declares law banning seed sharing unconstitutional

A high court in Kenya has declared unconstitutional sections of a seed law that prevented farmers from sharing and selling indigenous seeds

if it's important enough to scare law makers and their close constituents, then it's an important skill to learn.

[jensownzoo]

Okay, after over a year of being mentally stuck on working on this garden construction project, I at least have two out of four sections of this raised bed fully enclosed and protected against squirrels/opossums/raccoons/rats/birds with working doors on hinges and bars across them to lock them in place. Woo-hoo!

It looks a bit janky, but it's functional. In fact a critter tore up the section of bed next to these just last night (grrrr), but the leeks and peppers and tomatoes in these beds were absolutely unharmed. So happy.

The next section of bed (the torn up one) just needs a door, but will have to be done as a removable panel instead of doors on hinges because there's a cross-bed in front of it. Swinging doors would mow down everything growing in that bed.

The third bed section (prior to being dug in).

The cross-bed that links the two long parallel beds. Full of orange-fleshed sweet potato slips. And passion vine roots that are just starting to send up sprouts.

The central part is a sweet potato closely surrounded by passion sprouts. The passion vines will be encouraged to grow into the non-enclosed long bed where there's a fence panel trellis.

And where I've got the potatoes and sunchokes. I had already buried the potato plants in 6" of old straw but I found two more bales of straw in a green waste dumpster and hauled them home. And remembered the decorative wire fencing I had also scavenged this fall. So I added it to the bed edges and piled on another 6" of straw. The plants have already grown another 6" to compensate since I took this pic. I can see now why people grow these in feed sacks and contractor trashbags, rolled down at first, because I could keep going up and up...

Speaking of going up and up, the peas have grown over the tops of the pvc trellis on the porch, so 5' tall. The Snowbird variety in the first container is a short-vining snowpea and has completed its climb to flower and set pods:

So I'll have fresh peas for the stir fry next week.

Harvested another bunch of bok choy from my two plants. The leaves are starting to get pest-holes and I searched around and found a small slug, so that issue seems to have returned with the rain. I have a few replacements growing that are about 6" tall right now so I'm planning on just going ahead and doing a final harvest by removing the whole plant in a day or so. I need to open up that spot for either the zucchini or honeynut squash transplants anyway.

I've asked around to all the experienced gardeners and the only thing they've found that works reliably for squash-borers is exclusion. So I'm going to sacrifice one of my insect net bags that I bought for the porch trellised containers and cut it up to use the fabric over hoops since I can't afford a roll of insect netting. You have to hand-pollinate, but it will exclude the moth and leave you with live plants (unless something else gets them).

The Bloomsdale Long-Standing spinach that overwintered in the cold frame in its Tidy Cats litter bucket planter has bolted and is currently flowering, as desired. I need it to produce enough spinach seed for the fall at least.

I was, however, able to get my first harvest of the spring-sown spinach. A variety called 'Matador' that's also open-pollinated and that I hope to save seed from when it bolts (the BLS should be done at that point so no cross-pollination). Ironically, I also sowed a planter with the variety 'America' but it's not doing very well right now (low germ, slow growth) so I probably won't be saving it.

[joy-haver]

What’re yalls thoughts on seed bombing?

For me, the idea of it is one of the reasons I started my native plant garden. It felt wonderful to imagine that I could bike around the city and spread plants that would help the world and feed my neighbors. I saw videos of people going around and spreading wildflowers and food crops, and felt like a better world was possible. As I learned more about native plants, and realized how important local ecotype seed is, it became harder and harder to imagine a clear path to seed bombing that was better than the other opportunities for that seed which lay before me. I planted a garden with the seeds I collected, hoping to have enough to share in the future.

Local ecotype native seed isn’t easy to come by, at least for the plants we really want to be spreading. It’s sort of a cyclical thing. The common native plants are common, and seedbombing with them probably won’t make a big difference - they were probably going to come up on their own anywhere that it’s possible for them to thrive. The uncommon plants are uncommon. Gathering seed from them is a fraught process, one to be undertaken with care. Broadcasting those seeds to plots where you don’t know if they will survive feels like a waste, a breach of trust to the promises we make when seed saving.

Beyond that, there are just so many people eager to plant these plants in their yard, care for them, grow them, and then help share more seed in the future. It’s hard to imagine a reason to plant an area that we know will get poisoned or mowed when there are so many people and places begging to caretake those plants.

I also worry about our ability to collect and discern what seeds are truly local if people are guerrilla planting and seed bombing. If someone orders Asclepius tuberosa from prairie moon nursery and plants it here, those seeds come from a thousand miles away. If we find the big patch of milkweed they planted, gather the seeds, and distribute them thinking they are local, we are contributing to a genetic bottlenecking without even knowing it. I’ve seen people buy native cultivars, non local ecotype natives, and even native-non native hybrids at the local plant sale and then go plant them in conservation areas, potentially causing crossbreeding with wild populations already there, and certainly disrupting future ability to collect local native seed for distribution.

I am still hopeful for the future. It is amazing that so many people want to grow native plants. I think what seedbombers and guerrilla gardeners find so enticing about those projects is that it gives them access to land that they never would have had otherwise. I’m glad groups like ours help give them different outlets by helping them find people to garden with, and places to caretake.

Mostly, I am hopeful, because I have never had native seed and not known what to do with it. I could have a thousand times more local ecotype native seed and still would have people to give it to. The willingness to work towards a better world is so present - we just need to build the infrastructure to make it happen. So much of that infrastructure is just seed saving, and learning the nuances of growing things.

That’s why I’m so happy that gardens like mine and like many of yours are seed bank gardens, and that so many of us are learning to cultivate native plants. I’m so happy for how much we have learned as a group over the past three years.

(Image: Sida Rhombifolia seed, collected locally. Listed as “probably native to the old world tropics” and “non native” by the Flora of The South Eastern United States. Listed as “Native” on the Flora of Alabama, but also described as “introduced” in a description on that site. Farmers tend to hate this plant, as it can be hard on their equipment, and things considered impediments to agriculture are sometimes biased against when people decide what is native or not. The plant is also medicinal and culturally used, which sometimes biases people to want something to be native even when it is not. Brian Keener, manager of the Flora of Alabama, told me it is native, and I don’t think he holds that bias. I don’t know the opinions of many other local botanists. Seems like the jury is still out on this one - and on many other plants. Further adding to the nuance of what plants we should spread, and how.)

[growingwildgardens]

2/3/26

Have a community rights and defense class later around trans and immigrant rights - preparing to be stressed but take good notes to relay within my community

Meanwhile, its seed sorting day - where I go through the 1 million reused pill containers to combine seeds that are almost identical but were harvested a month or two apart, grab what I need to start seeding in the greenhouse and testing my new mini indoor setup, and sort things out by planting time and direct sow vs container planting.

Dogs are napping in the sun close by and waiting impatiently to go outside and take advantage of the unseasonably sunny, warm day

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - January 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Homes built with clay, grass, plastic and glass: How a Caribbean island is shying away from concrete

“[… Clay] traps moisture which then evaporates and pulls heat from the surface as it goes. […] The roof is covered in old recycled advertising banners and piece of a water tank, the other half of which is used to house some of Rahaman-Noronha's fish [… and] multi-coloured glass bottles inset into walls provide an avenue for streams of light and colour.”

2. To Combat Phoenix’s Extreme Heat, a New Program Provides Sustainable Shade

“The neighborhood workshops allow residents to get a shade plan tailored to their community’s needs and identify the locations where officials can plant trees. Meanwhile, the workforce-development side of the program creates the jobs needed to keep the trees alive for generations[….]”

3. Conservation corridors provide hope for Latin America’s felines

“[… S]cience has shown that to maintain healthy populations there needs to be connection between individuals. [… A] protected area that is close to another has more species and more potential for their survival.”

4. Social program cuts tuberculosis cases among Brazil's poorest by more than half

“The decrease [“in TB cases and deaths”] was over 50% in extremely poor people and more than 60% among the Indigenous populations. […] "We know that the program improves access to food [… and healthcare…] and strengthens people's immune defenses as a result.””

5. Geothermal has vast potential to meet the world’s power needs

“New geothermal systems could technically provide as much as 600 terawatts of carbon-free power capacity by 2050[…. C]ountries could cost-effectively deploy over 800 GW of geothermal power capacity using technology that’s in development today[….]”

6. New D.C. Catholic archbishop is pro-LGBTQ+ and anti-Trump

“In 2018, he objected to the blaming of gay priests for the clergy sexual abuse crisis, “saying that such abuse was a matter of power, not sexual orientation[….]” “We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies [… and] seek to rob our medical care, especially from the poor.””

7. Chesapeake Bay Will Gain New Wildlife Refuge

“The Chesapeake Bay area will have a new wildlife refuge for the first time in a quarter century. […] “This new refuge offers an opportunity to halt and even reverse biodiversity loss in this important place, and in a way that fully integrates and respects the leadership and rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.””

8. Inside Svalbard seed vault’s critical mission to stop our favourite fruit and veg from going extinct

“[… T]he world’s largest secure seed storage […] sits proudly in a massive former coal mine[….] Right now, there are over 1,331,458 samples of 6,297 crop species. […] “During 2024, 61 seed genebanks deposited 64,331 seed samples, including 21 from institutes that deposited seeds for the first time this year[….]””

9. Medical debt will be erased from credit reports for all Americans under new federal rule

“The rule will affect more than 15 million Americans, raising their credit scores by an estimated average of 20 points. [… S]tates and localities have already utilized American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to support the elimination of over $1 billion in medical debt for more than 700,000 Americans[….]”

10. 'Forgotten' water harvesting system transforms 'barren wasteland' into thriving farmland

“"The process started with the community-based participatory planning[….]” 10% to 15% of the water will actually soak into the ground to replenish the water table, creating a more sustainable agricultural process.”

December 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[nolaplantdaddy]

dried okra pod & seed for next season 🤟🏿

[petula-xx]

The first propagation station of the season is ready to begin!

Some more damp paper towel on top, close the lid and let the growing begin.

I like to pre-sprout my seeds. That way I know that I'm only planting 100% fertile seeds.

Everything except the cucumber is my own saved seed stocks.

[bolaneno]

art by Rosanna Morris / IG @ rosannaprints