Now is the time to consider what plants you will allow to go to seed for the next growing season.
The too-many cats and I are watching the rain through the front windows. The drops are dancing and splashing all over my thirsty plants. I was able to get in early to work this morning and I am smiling knowing that everything I transplanted is now getting a good drink. One thing I will need to watch is how my heritage tomatoes will react. Some tomatoes will split if they get too much water all at once. You can cut around the split and still eat the tomato.
My road lettuce and purple podded pole beans are continuing to grow. While the lettuce is too bitter to eat now, I have left it to form seeds. The center of the plants have shot up and yellow flowers are slowly turning into seeds. I hope to collect lettuce seeds in a couple of weeks. I will test the seeds by planting up a few to see if they are viable. The bean pods are slowly turning brown, and the beans inside will become drier as the pods dry. I can collect these bean seeds and have them for next year. As with the lettuce, I will test a couple of the seeds.
Road lettuce and beans
After fussing over the peppers all winter and losing some to the roving gangs of chipmunks, the beautiful sweet Cubanelle pepper from the species Capsicum annuum, is almost ready to pick. It has gone through some tough times with chipmunks digging in the pot; so much heat and one pepper getting eaten by some sort of bug. It is such a lovely looking vegetable. I will be using the Cubanelle pepper in a stir-fry. I continue to attempt to salvage the rest of my peppers. I still feed them regularly and because they live in pots, they need a lot of water. I have learned a lot about how I will grow my peppers next year. Next year when I put them outside, I will have small cages around them and surround them with marigolds or calendula to cover the earth that chipmunks want to dig.
Cubanelle Pepper
I have had a few salads using my red orach in place of spinach. Now that my spinach is finally starting to grow I can let the orach go to seed. I find the seeds of this plant to be absolutely beautiful. The tall stalks wave about in the breeze and the colour is stunning. The orach will seed itself all over the place and be a treat for me next spring. I will collect lots of the seeds and share them with my gardening friends.
Red Orach
The rain is starting to let up and the birds are singing. The goldfinches and chickadees are hopping about on the tree much to the enjoyment of the too-many cats. I like to offer seeds to my birds all year round to encourage them to keep coming in. I do love watching them eating all those bugs as well. Enjoy your week.
Judith (Email: sghorticultural@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or https://gardeningcalendar.ca/articles/veggie-bites/
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