Ok, I've not updated for a while. Far too busy sowing, growing, driving etc.
So I just wanted to type out a list of seeds that I am expecting to save this year.
Blue de Solaise Leeks
Tender and True Parsnips
Red Swiss Chard
Sheepnose Pepper
Lau Pointed Leaf Lettuce
For HSL as a Seed Guardian
Chinese Radish
Giant Crimson Radish
Buffalo Horn Tomato [Buffalo Tom - yay]
And loads of beans and Peas including
Parsley Pea
Victorian Purple Podded Pea
Goldensweet Mangetout
Crimson Flowered Broad Bean [thanks Janet for the seeds]
All the old faves such as Madeira Maroon, Dapple Grey, Canadian Wonder and many others
Most tomatoes will be saved from, and peppers will be glued to preserve purity and saved from, once I find the PVA glue.
I'll choose some of the cukes to save from - I have one called Luke which is apparently prolific and was called Dave and was a seed that was stopped by the 'MAN' from being distributed and so I'll see how that pans out.
I'll try to hand pollinate all the squashes so as at least one of each can be saved from.
I need to sow for saving:
Mountaineer's White Half Runner bean
And I need to put aside some Blue Azur Kohl Rabi for saving, if Mark doesn't pull them all up for eating! I can do this now that the Radishes are nearly done flowering.
Gonna be a busy summer by the looks of it!
The bag of peas was part of a batch that were ex HSL as the germination rate wasn't enough to give to members. So I nabbed a bag.
This is how I grow cucumbers I have a large old recycling container, sat on a large flat tray. I have 7 cukes in there, and all climb up twine to the roof. As the cukes grow, I trim off the lower leaves, and will hand pollinate 1 or 2 fruits from each once they are in full swing.....which means very careful bagging and poking as cuke flowers are very small and tricky to handle.
I also grow on 2 levels; so I have big trays on the floor with toms in big pots. These are trained up behind the staging and onto twine up to the roof. The staging has peppers at the front, and a few toms at the back in smaller pots, again trained up twine. All leaves are taken off as they grow so that I can fit more plants in.
These are my spare peppers and toms. The toms are all from armpits from my main toms, and will either go to schools/community growing areas that I am working in or will go under my main tom frame at the lottie - they can grow lower to the ground as they are armpits and as I have mulched the ground under my tom frame at the lottie with straw, the toms can just go wild under there and grow almost like strawberries. The peppers, will all go into spare pots around the garden or get given away.
