Seed Gathering

I am so excited!  I have been harvesting my seeds - that isn't exactly right - in the fall I cut all plants with  seeds and put them in boxes in the garage.  I finished in October - then it was the holidays - so now I am getting them all out of their pods etc and packaging them up.  I have alot of seeds!  I am so excited that I actually did it.  It is my first year. 
CARRONTS and BEETS take two years to get seeds from them.  I covered the plants with straw and let them grow back up last spring and it worked!  I have read a bunch of stuff about digging them up and replanting them.  I have tried that a few times and it NEVER worked.  So in 2010 I covered them with straw and in the spring they  popped right up and in the fall I had seeds - WOO HOO!
CUCUMBERS - Cucumbers are a little tricky.  You cut them out of the center and leave the junk stuff on them,  cover with water, let them fermint and then the seeds float.  Strain them out and then let them dry.  I haven't done tomatoes, but I have read they are the same process.
RADISHES, BROCCOLI, BEANS, PEAS are all easy, you just let them grow till they come to a seed head, let dry and then gather.
This next year I am going to try new plants and new seeds.  Planning all of that now....

Greenhouse and Gardening - January 26, 2011

It is the third week of January and I think all gardeners thoughts turn to gardening this time of year.  It is snowing outside today in Idaho.

I am excited to go through an entire growing season with our greenhouse and garden and learn how to make it all work together.  As I have been studying I am learning that I can plant cool weather crops in a couple of weeks in there.  A few days later, I need to plant my seedlings for warm weather crops that will go into the garden.  I am getting really excited about the entire process.

I went out and checked my flowers that are under a low tunnel with Christmas lights keeping them warm and I have a few little flowers blooming.  I will do things different next year but this year we did pretty good for not having any idea what we were doing!

I would like to make a record through the year weekly about what I am doing.  Hopefully it will help me next year and maybe someone else too.