Gone to seed

I've mentioned before that I am a seed junky.  I love seeds in all shapes and sizes - from tiny basil seeds to massive runner bean seeds to hard shelled chestnuts.  It is the patient promise of life, held still and quiet, yet ready to burst into growth given the right conditions.  I gleefully read stories about ancient seeds found in archeological sites or frozen in ice.  Like the date palm grown in Israel from 2000-year-old seed, or a flowering plant from Siberia grown from 32,000-year-old seed.

I have a few jars of vege seeds in my freezer.  I think the oldest are 20 years old.  I'm not a prepper, but I do play one on TV.

So I enjoy this time of year, when plants all around me are going to seed.  Fortunately I work in a park where I am surrounded by the seasons.

Yarrow

Exploding milkweed

Prairie going to seed, including Canada wild rye

At the park we spend a good amount of time harvesting seed.  Native seed can be expensive to purchase, so we collect by hand and by machine.  When using the flail vac to harvest, we have to spread it out in large tarps to dry.  We turn it every morning so it doesn't get a chance to rot.

I do a bit of seed saving myself, depending on the gardening year. Right now I've got several cups of tomato seeds fermenting on a shelf.  And I've got a few onion heads drying in a bowl.  Onions are biennial, which means they flower and set seed their second year.  These are onions I had let overwinter in the garden from last year.

Shaking the heads a bit, you can see the small black seeds loose in the bowl.

In a few weeks I'll pick the over-ripe zucchini and cukes that I've been growing out for seed, and I'll pick the dry runner and wax beans off the trellis.  I think I like saving seeds more than I like planting them.