the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

dried green seeded squash. two lots (left five containers) Lot 2021-02 and (two right containers) Lot 2021-04. each container was the seeds from an individual squash and they were all fairly small (as intended) as a bit bigger than softball size and one was about half as big again.

the lighter green seeds came from a squash that wasn't as fully developed, the seeds may or may not be viable (only one way to find out ).

 

[Mini Horses]

How's your gardening group going? I'd love to see new interest in growing one's own food, on a positive level. Do you all delve into food preservation methods at all?

 

[flowerbug]

How's your gardening group going? I'd love to see new interest in growing one's own food, on a positive level. Do you all delve into food preservation methods at all?

it is not growing at all. this past meeting was two of us. it is ok. i will keep doing it as long as i can. that is my own goal for it to keep showing up and being the community resource i am and to let others figure it out or not as their own wills are involved. i'm not a cheerleader type of person. i'm steady, dependable and available. that's all i'm going to be.

in the meantime i keep on doing the seed saving stuff i've always been doing. every time i go to a meeting i arrive early and check the seed library for things that i need to restock if i have them available and i work on my own stuff that i will bring with me so i'm not wasting time no matter what happens or who attends.

we did sit and talk for an hour and then she left to do other things and i stayed and did some quick skimming of a book and did a few other seed sorting tasks i brought with me for just such a time.

as winter gets going it will be harder for me to want to go out that day but i'll stick with it as long as i'm able.

i consider three people to be the core members and two of us are pretty regular.

there is the seed swap coming up next year so that will be the focus of a lot of my efforts for the next few months (getting ready for that), plus i have some seeds i need to get together to send back to the person i've grown them for in the next few weeks... perhaps we can do a more local seed swap but i'm not sure i'll have the time or energy for that right now.

 

[flowerbug]

there has been an owl outside hooting for the past hour or two (at least). i'm always glad to hear them because that means perhaps they're getting some mice.

 

[flowerbug]

all gardens inside the fenced area are now put up for winter so i'm left with half a garden outside the fence to finish up sometime before winter sets in for good if i can get to it. weather is mixed and rainy this week and chances of freezing and snow again. we'll see how it goes...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

all gardens inside the fenced area are now put up for winter

Woo Hoo - that's great

 

[flowerbug]

five of the Purple Dove out crosses from this season's harvest (the links are non-thumbnail versions). i should say they are potential out crosses. not definite yet... i have a few others too, but not as visually distinct as these are so i didn't try to get a picture of them.

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/DSC_20221210_110947-0500_1828_Purple_Dove_Odds_1_2.jpg

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/DSC_20221210_111251-0500_1830_Purple_Dove_Odds_3_4_5.jpg

these are significant to me because while i do like Purple Dove bean as it is, i also enjoy finding new beans in the patches so i can see if they are an improvement. there's not a huge amount of room for improvement to PD as far as i'm concerned but we'll see what comes of these when i regrow them next season.

so far PD has been pretty stable and not putting out many out crosses that i've seen. i culled one plant this past season because it was going longer than bush and the pods weren't the right color. nope, wasn't going to let that one go. out of several thousand plants grown over the past four years this is the first time i've seen this many potential out-crosses. so they've been a pretty stable bean up until now.

the number of seeds i've shelled out and looked at one by one to find these seeds is probably several hundred thousand...

 

[flowerbug]

Tinker's Fire. i see now that i missed at least one cut short bean in there that i won't replant ever. oops.

https://www.anthive.com/img/beans/DSC_20221212_101343-0500_1832_Tinkers_Fire.jpg

 

[flowerbug]

the last garden club meeting was today. all three of the regulars were there. we talked almost two hours and i got to talk about beans and show them the interesting out-crosses i've got to work with for the next few years.

one person brought some lufas and some soap (with parts of lufas in them). i could not take them as they had potential iffy scents in them that would bother me and/or Mom, but it was an interesting idea.

we also talked about the upcoming (hopefully!) seed swap in Feb. maybe one or both of them will be interested in attending that.

so a perfect meeting IMO.

 

[flowerbug]

not too much snow but plenty of wind. we needed to get the driveway cleared out and it really wasn't too bad considering because the wind tunnel of the driveway was mostly kept clear except for snow drift up near the garage. i cleared most of that yesterday. so today i just had to get rid of the present that the snow plow drivers left at the other end near the road. i didn't get all of it, but enough so we can drive in and out.

with mid-40sF coming later this week it will be a mess anyways but i will probably go out before then and move it back some more so when it melts it goes into the ditch instead making puddles at the side of the road.