a year in my garden :: seeds, my new love

 

I can not tell you how excited I am right now about seeds! It’s not that I haven’t dabbled in seeds before. I have. But I wasn’t a big seed planter because pre-40 I think my patience was a lot less than it is now. I was a seedlings and potted plants kind of girl.

Now I’m sprinkling seeds here, there and everywhere and I’m watching and waiting and waiting and watching. When I see a hint of lime green breaking through the soil I’m jumping all about {on the inside, at least} with joy. Those teeny, tiny storage cases of life are so amazing. How they go from being a shrivelled up little pin head to life within a matter of days is beyond me. Though creation always comes to mind.

Here are some newly planted seeds – lettuce and tatsoi. The lettuce are seeds taken from the lettuce trees {you can’t see them here but they are on the right hand side of the picture and they are pretty much a hedge now}. Nothing.

 

But then all of a sudden ….

 

 

there’s life! {Actually, those ones are the tatsoi and spinach}.

Those seedlings {the hedgy lettuce plants in that first photo on the right – the ones you can’t see} came from my lovely neighbour who raised the seedlings from her own seed savers seeds. Talk about the cycle of life. That sort of thing really excites me these days. Big time. The abundance we have at our fingertips all because of a few little pin head seeds just astounds me.  I’m not sure why it’s all just hitting me now. It’s not like I haven’t gardened before. I think it’s my mind set that’s changed, though. Having a real focus on food production as well as having my vegie garden right outside my front door has raised the bar for me in terms of vegie gardening. Living out of town may have something to do with it too. Being surrounded by such loveliness really helps. Passing our local honesty stall, always filled with the most delicious corn, beans, potatoes and now pumpkins on our way home puts my mind straight to my own little foody patch. Driving past my neighbours place and seeing their overflowing-with-goodness vegie garden and orchard only gives me more determination to keep on planting and re-planting, collecting seed and turning over green manure.

And now when I see my herbs and vegies going to seed I don’t stooped my shoulders and sigh loudly like I used to. Instead I do a little jumping around with excitement {on the inside} because I know that those flowers are going to produce seed {and some prettiness for a vase or two} and I’ll be re-planting them again as soon as the season is right. It also means that I’m saving a stack of money as well.

Here’s my coriander that’s gone to flower already. Normally I’d be saying curse words at it because it always does this to me bla bla bla. Not this year. This year I say go forth and multiply my little precious:) And it listens.

Not only will I be able to plant more coriander next season with this seed but I’ll also be able to use it during the colder months, when the plant won’t grow, for using in curries and yummy slow-cooked meals.

 

And before I go I really wanted to show you this gorgeous little spade that my lovely uncle bought for me last year. He bought it for me when I sold the purple nest and bought our block of land. Such a lovely gesture and I’ve  been keeping it to use especially  in my vegie patch. It’s perfect. It’s big enough to dig out anything I need to dig out but it’s small enough not to do damage to tiny seedlings near by.

 

And it’s pretty, which makes it even more special.

How about you? do you have a vegie patch at your nest? Have you ever grown vegies from your own seed? If so, do you jump around all excited {on the inside}?

Kim x