These are a great way to use squash that got too big on the vine.  You can use either yellow summer squash, zucchini or a mixture of both.  I like that because it’s delicious and visually striking.  Even my kids like these pancakes.  Again, remember I am the Imprecise Cook so you may have to adjust your recipe for taste.

2 c grated squash

1 c bread crumbs

1/4 c  flour (white or whole wheat)

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 c parmesan (optional)

Mix all ingredients until it comes together into a batter-like consistency.  Depending on the moisture content of your squash you may have to play with how much binder (bread crumbs and flour) you add.  It should not get dry and crumbly, but needs to stay together enough it doesn’t lose it’s shape in the skillet.

Now you must decide….butter or olive oil? You could do half and half. Either way, coat the pan but you don’t need a pool, just enough to keep the cake from sticking.  Cook until brown and crispy.  Serve alone  or with applesauce.

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1. The gardener in the kitchen (or, what to do with all this stuff I just grew) Garden Her

with the Imprecise Cook

It happens to most of us I think.  In the Spring hopes are high and seeds upon seeds are nurtured into submission.  Then just when the weeds are under control (or not) this stuff is ripe and ready to be picked.  Ok, so what now?  Maybe you have planted something really exotic, like some type of asian green, or your squash did so well you are stuffing them into your neighbor’s mailboxes in the dead of night.  I love to grow herbs, and when I am [;ammomg and seeding them I am so inspired.  Then about the middle of August I realize then need to be actually USED.  So, here are a couple of easy recipes that really highlight the amazing flavor of something you grew yourself.

*disclaimer* I am a bit of an imprecise cook.  I like to cook by feel, not measure.  Because of this my recipes tend to leave room for creativity.  Taste as you go and follow your own instincts, using the recipe as a springboard.

Herb Sauce

I love to use this on grilled meat.  Steak, chicken or fish.  It is also delicious on vegetables and pasta.  It is so fresh and completely versatile.  Experiment with quantity and variety of herbs.  If you don’t have basil use something else.  You can customize it to whatever you are putting it on or make a more generic batch that you freeze in an ice cube tray for perfect portions in the middle of a snowstorm.

1 c olive oil (don’t skimp, use a good one)

1/2  melted butter

1-2 Tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper, or to taste

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 c fresh herbs chopped fine

Now just mix it all together in a bowl smashing it around a little to bruise the herbs even more.  You could also use a pestle, but that seems like overkill.  When everything is incorporated and smells amazing spread it on whatever and enjoy.

Some suggested combinations:

Dill, lemon thyme and chives (especially on fish)

Lavender, lemon verbena and thyme

Basil, lavender, chives and oregano

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1. Mixed Summer Squash Pancakes With the I

BEFORE...A MESS!

AFTER...A VEGGIE OASIS

The garden that began with a magazine article (see “A kitchen garden begins”) is finished. Well, only finished in the gardening sense which is the plants are in and the real is work is now beginning.   This has become the destination spot in our yard.  I find myself here first thing in the morning with my coffee to weed, deadhead and water.  When I get home at night I check the progress on my “crops”.  Like most gardening projects this one evolved during the creation.  I am calling this my “building year” for this garden.  We have experimented and will have to see how it works.  In my experience gardening is all about tweaking anyways.

Kitchen gardens, or at least the kind I was trying to emulate, take more thought and planning than other beds I have built.  The idea of a productive and beautiful plot seems slightly contradictory to the rectangular rows of lettuce typically considered a proper vegetable garden.  There is a framework that can be built on to create a kitchen garden that is individually yours and functional too.  These are: bed structures, pathways, fill, plants.

Bed Structures

There are lots of ways to build raised beds.  You can see how I did these in the article “Building Raised Beds cheap!”  but there is more to think about.  What is the size and shape of the area you are using?  I had a rectangular space so I created beds that were symetrical and added a diamond shaped bed in the middle.  The great thing about kitchen gardens is that they can be anywhere! When you mix flowers in, it’s not always obvious that that beautiful ferny plant is actually asparagus gone to seed.  So maybe you have a long strip by a patio or garage, you can build the bed and treat it like a border garden.  This garden is just giving you zinnias and zucchini.  Consider size carefully.  In Spring we all want to plow up 40 acres and grow grow grow, but most of the time we should plant a little less than we think we can handle.  When building these beds, smaller is better.  I love that I can put my foot up on the edge of the bed and reach into the center of it while standing up.  It has been much easier to maintain this way.  I would suggest you get out some graph paper and measuring tape and do some planning.  Measure out the site you want to use then play on paper until you find the bed size and shape you want to use.  Just don’t do this until you also consider…

Pathways

I love my paths! They are another way to add structure  and they have been great.  When designing I had a couple of goals: the paths should be wide enough for a wheelbarrow or for 2 people to walk though together.  Ours are a bit unusual in that this entire garden is built on a concrete pad so it was ugly and hard on the knees!  There are many ways to cover a path: bark, dirt, stone, brick, pavers…but we are on a budget.  Our town provides free compost at the dump so we (that means my husband thanks hon!) got a couple of truckloads and threw it down.  This was the unscreened stuff, so there is lots of texture in it. It is also essentially dirt, so I put the pavers in so it is accesible even if it’s a muddy day.  It looks great, but still considered experimental.  Who knows how many thousands of weeds could grow?!  Next year we may be putting bark on top of it, but for now we are keeping our costs down.

Fill

As mentioned our town offers free compost.  This was a huge cost, time and labor saving factor for us.  Depending on your beds, you could have a LOT of cubic feet to fill.  We went with an (experimental again) layering approach.  On the bottom, which was concrete, we put leaves.  Living in New England we would give leaves as Christmas presents if we could get away with it, so this was great.  It also helps with drainage and gives the soil above it nutrients.  You could also include glass clippings or hay.  On top of this we put the compost.  If using this method, remember the leaves will break down and lower the soil level, so mound the compost up a little higher than you think you should.

Plants

Now comes the fun.  This year we did a lot of our plants from seeds, which allowed me to fill up the beds earlier.  The inner portion of the garden is all herbs.  I really like this not only because I love herbs, but a lot of them are perennial!   They also flower and attract bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.  A lot of herbs can get out of control but in a raised bed they are restricted, so I spend less time weeding them.  They are also drought tolerant.

This was another way I added some design elements.  There are many plants that like to climb as they grow which gives a vertical element to the garden.  I created very simple teepees with bamboo poles and twine.  They look great and were about $1.00 a piece.  I have peas growing on them now and last week put in the seeds for green beans.  For the other bed I planted cucumbers.

In addition to the herbs which are edging a large part of the garden I have marigold, cosmos, zinnias and sunflowers in the beds.  As I have harvested things like radishes I have sown more marigold seed to cover the blank spots.  Marigold in particular has the added advantage of repelling bugs, especially ants.  Lettuces and other greens are also easy ones to grow from seed and come up quickly.

A lot of times my projects do not turn out as expected.  They run over in cost, or time or just fail to be as great as the picture in my head.  I am very pleased with this kitchen garden (or potager as they say in France) however and can’t believe how well it turned out.  Time will tell the elements that will need to change.  That is the great thing about gardening though, you can try again next year if it doesn’t work out.  For this year, I am going to thoroughly enjoy the intermingling of flower, veggie and herb in my backyard.

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Now to construction.  I use that term loosely as there are no real tools required.  Well, gardening tools, but no hammers or even nails.  I found my cinder blocks at Home Depot and they actually call them building blocks.  Mine are 8X8X16 and were $1.47 each.   It’s a good idea to do some drawing out of the shapes you want to make, (they don’t have to be rectangles!) because these blocks are HEAVY.   Clearing the space you intend to use is the most labor intensive part of this job and if you are clearing sod you really have your work cut out for you!

Basically you want your ground to be flat so your blocks can line up evenly.  You can use a level or string to be sure, but I am using the “that looks good” method.  Once you have lined up your blocks in the design you like fill both the bed you have created and the spaces in the block with soil/compost/mulch. (more on this later).  You are ready to plant!

A couple of things to consider.  When you are designing your beds, make sure you can easily reach inside to weed.  Typically 4 feet is considered the most manageable.  Also be sure to leave paths around the beds.  This not only makes them easier to work, it be a design element.   When you are considering what to use for a path material think about whether or not you want to spend anytime weeding it, mowing it, or replacing it.

Here is a list of possible bed fillers:

Compost is of course the gold standard for plants, however not everyone has access to 8-12 inches per bed of this brown gold.  Our city has compost available free to residents, and yours might too, check with your city hall to find out.  ( it’s a good idea to screen it when you didn’t make it yourself.)

The yellow pages is a great source for soil.  Lots of landscaping companies and some farms sell soil by the truckload.  Beg borrow or steal someone’s pickup and dedicate a Saturday to dirt.

While you are getting your soil ask if you can have/buy some hay or straw, which is also a good filler for your bed and really helps with an area that may not drain as quickly as you’d like.

If you are in an area that has a seasonal dispersal of leaves (called Fall in these parts) you can spread any that are still not broken down in a layer in your bed too.  This is also a great way to get rid of that leaf pile.

So now the best part….plant away!  Make sure you include something close to the edge that will drape over the side.  Also, when you are planting in this close of an area keep in mind that companion planting is important.  Companion planting is the art and science of placing plants that like each other close by.  This can help detur disease as well as pests.  Some sources even claim it makes things taste better.  See www.ghorganics.com/page2.html  for more information.  Happy Gardening!

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There are books written on the facets of butterfly gardens and bee keeping, so I won’t try to make this the definitive guide.  In fact, this is really just a quick list of what to add to your garden to attract the pollinators which will multiply the yield of your plants.  Ever see a picture of a tomato plant weighed down by so much fruit that you thought it must have been done in Photoshop?  Well, plants that produce well have to be pollinated well and that starts with the butterflies and the bees (maybe your version included birds.)

Even the most novice gardener tends to know that bees on the plants and flowers is a good thing.  The plant pops out a flower, the bees come wandering through and grab up some pollen, and then they move off to the next flower and do it all over again.  When they do, they move pollen between the  flower’s stamen and pistil and that helps the plant set fruit.  The more flowers are touched by these pollinators, the more fruit the plant will set and that means a bigger harvest.  I’m sure there is a more technical explanation, but really, does it matter?

So what do you plant to attract butterflies?

That depends a lot on your climate zone, but there are a few ways to look at growing for beneficial insects or pollinators like the butterflies and bees.  You could choose to simply plant flowers based on color.  This would be

NECTAR AND HOST PLANTS

Butterflies tend to hang out near one of two plants: ones that produce a tasty snack of nectar, and plants where they will lay eggs.  These are known best as  nectar and host plants.  And, since butterflies can tend to be picky eaters, they often use just a single plant family as a food source for the caterpillars. Prevailing wisdom is to plant both nectar and host plants to draw butterflies into their gardens.

FOOD FOR THE BUTTERFLIES & BEES

Maybe the hardest part of a butterfly garden is to allow the caterpillars to munch on your plants while they grow up.  With the exception of a handful of species, caterpillars don’t tend catastrophically damage to the plants. Take a deep breath and realize that’s why you planted the host plant to begin with.  Why else you have planted milk weed?

What about the Bees?

If you’ve ever been to a store that sells a good selection of honey, you realize that bees are much less selective than butterflies.  While clover and orange blossom honey seems to dominate the shelves of the supermarket, you can find honey made from just about any flowering plant or tree around.  In fact, one of mine and my wife’s favorites is the honey from the mesquite tree. Unlike clover honey that is light and thin, mesquite honey is dark and thick; perfect for simmering pecans in to drizzle over French toast  for a lazy weekend breakfast. I digress.  My point is that bees will make honey from just about any pollen producing flower, and that’s good for your garden.

Choosing Flower Colors for Bees?

Often times this is quite a riddle since bees see in Ultraviolet (UV) light.  Surprisingly, the color red is thought to be unseen by bees which means red flowers are pollinated by other means.  So if you hauled off and planted the most colorful garden you could imagine, the bees might fly right on by and miss it. What a shame.  Believe it or not, bees tend to be drawn to flowers that are good at reflecting UV light.  Flowers that are white or light in color are great bee attractors.  And, if you take the “violet” out of ultraviolet, you very well might have a bee’s favorite color. If the lavender in our front yard is any indication, I’d be planting rows of violet colored flowers if I needed the bees.

Okay, okay!  Shut up and tell me what Bees and Butterflies will like!

Plants for butterflies:

• Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) – The name kinda make you say duh, huh!
• Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
• Lantana (many varieties available, natives, hybrids, shrubs and creepers)
• Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), annual
• Milk Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans), perennial
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), perennial
• Red Pentas (Pentas lanceolata) Pentas come in a variety of colors, but the red ones seemed most popular with the butterflies I saw.
• Zinnias

Host Plants:

• • Citrus (lemon, orange, satsuma, etc.)
  • Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia spp.)
  • Fennel, Dill, Parsley, or Queen Anne’s Lace
  • Passion Vine (Passiflora incarnata and other species)

Plants for Bees:

• Anise hyssop
• Aster
• Basil
• Chives & Garlic Chives
• Clover
• Cucumber
• Coreopsis
• Lavender
• Marigold
• Melons
• Milkweed
• Oregano
• Sunflower
• thistle
• Thyme

Like I said, bees aren’t all that picky, so as long as you plant a few that they like, you should have a great harvest.

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focusing on this year.   The previous owner poured a concrete pad in the back yard that seems to have been intended as a basketball court.  This area gets some prime sun and it seems a waste to shoot hoops here.  After all, isn’t that what a driveway is for?  So we have been using it as a dumping ground for the grass killing detritus of our small-scale logging operation.

However, we still have a concrete pad in full view of our eating area that I have been agonizing over.  Last year we put some raised beds there, but only so we could grow tomatoes and peppers,  not to create an oasis as I hope to do.

When I opened up the April 2009 issue of Organic Gardening magazine I found my inspiration.  The idea is a “potager” which is French for kitchen garden.  However, this is no 10X20 rectangle with veggies all in a row.  This is someplace you want to sit and breathe deeply.   I know you would love to see a picture of this paradise, but unfortunately you either have to buy the issue or wait until May is on the newstands and check organicgardening.com because there isn’t a picture on the site.  However if you are interested in making food production pretty, it could be five bucks well spent.

If you have been gardening for any amount of time you know that raised beds are the buzz now.  They are great for lots of reasons: you can start earlier because the soil is warmer than that in the ground, you can really control the quality of soil which helps to eliminate some types of disease and control weeds, and if you size them well they are much easier to work.  As you can see from the pictures, we have given them a shot. Not a pretty sight.  Yes, they did all of the above, but MAN they are ugly!!!

The goal of a potager is to create a garden that is both edible and beautiful.  This is partially accomplished by structure.  The garden is very tidy and ordered.  It is saved from being uptight by curving shapes that soften it.  There are trellises with vines like peas and beans  growing up them for a vertical element and (edible) nastursiums spilling over the sides.  Herbs are sprinkled throughout, which are beautiful in their own right and will flower if you can resist snipping them off for pesto.   Flowers are  incorporated solely because they are beautiful, though did you know you can eat pansies or that marigolds are a great insect deterrent?

The wow factor of the potager in the magazine is the brick pathway throughout.  It really finishes it.   I don’t think concrete will have the same effect, so I am working on that.  Plants are getting moved around, varieties are changed, seeds are being tucked into pots of dirt as I try to decide  how to make it a place of beauty and veggies, and that will be revised over and over until planting day.   The reality is, here in Western Massachusetts we still have the possibility of snow even past the first day of Spring.  My hope lies in the fact that today I was able to finally get a trowel into the ground and plant my first seeds of Bright Lights Swiss Chard.  There is still plenty of  time to dream.

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1. Beauty and Bounty from a Kitchen Garden The garden

Yesterday I took the time to repot many of the seedlings that we started back in early February.  Of the varieties are: Cal Sweet Watermelon, Ice Box MickyLee watermelon, Straight 8 Cucumbers, Bunching White Libson Erect Onions, Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe, Early White Bush Scallop Squash, Waltham Butternut Squash, and several varieties of sunflowers including Mammoth, Lemon Queen, and Red Sun.

Most of the seedlings germinated, although not to the time tables on the package, and produced was seemed to be a great crop of seedlings.  We took extra care to cover on cold nights and really tried to water consistently.  We even kept the tops on the seed starting trays until the plants were hitting the top of the lid.  Then, within a week or so, several of the plants started to die off; starting with the cantaloupe, then the onions, Early White bush scallop squash and finally most of the Cal Sweet watermelon. I was able to salvage the Waltham squash, some of the Ice Box MickyLee Watermelon, a small amount of the onions, a single start o the Cal Sweet watermelon, and several the cucumbers.  Most of the sunflower starts are going nuts so those seem to be quite hardy and will take whatever bit these seedlings.

I thought it would be useful to post a couple pictures of one of the failed seedlings and let readers speculate on the cause.  I used bagged soil to start the seeds and did not sterilize the soil first which I have read will lead to some pretty major seed failures and disease.  It almost has the characteristics of damping off disease but I don’t know if that will strike such young plants.  Anyway, I’m going to pick up some more trays and start a new set — this time making sure to sterilize the soil first.  I also plan on moving the seed trays to an area where they receive more sun than the few hours they were receiving under the patio cover.

All in all, the good news is we have a ton to plant and there will always be some failure rate with seeds.  So a good rule of thumb is to plant 20% more than you think you will need.  If they all survive, you will have extra plants to give away to other Urban Gardeners or even those looking to Garden in Small Spaces.

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Living in a city lot, we don’t have all that much room to grow veggies.   Sure, we could rip out the lawns and plant

rows, but that would be a huge undertaking and upset Shasta, our dog.  So we have taken to planting where we can and have had some success growing in borders, containers, and in a spot designated for herbs.

Gardens Don’t Need to take up a lot of Space

While that’s contrary to my dream of a very large garden, it’s true that you can successfully garden just about anywhere.  Recently we installed what  I have termed the salad wall.  The new found space was the result of ripping out an old rotting wood fence covered in cat claw vines, and replacing with a block wall.

Once the vines were gone, we could see the potential of this new space.  Narrow and long, this 1.5 foot x 40 foot ribbon of dirt runs alongside the south side of our driveway that joins the street to our detached garage.    This space was originally wrapped in railroad ties, and while they are perfectly acceptable, they were in sad shape and I had designs on a brick border.  So after a weekend of slinging mortar and bricks, and popping Advil for my aching back, we had a nice raised bed to start the salad wall.

Now when you garden in a climate like Phoenix has, you learn that location is king and the directions on the plants are meant for somewhere else.  Full sun plants tend to get part shade, and if you are brave enough to try gardening all summer long, you had better learn how to plant in a manner that shelters your more sensitive plants.  Our bed will be on the north side of a 6 foot block wall which means it gets little to no sun in winter, and gets cooked in summer, so here’s what we did:

We started the bed with lots of great soil.  The base of the planter was very sandy from the installation of the floating paver driveway, so we had pretty good drainage.  The soil was mixed to a depth of about a foot using a trenching shovel and hoe.

(You will want a trenching shovel if you plant in narrow spaces as they are only 4 – 5 inches wide.)  We then planted two varieties of grape vines (Thompson Seedless and Flame Reds) which grow great here and will provide a canopy and some much needed shade for the peak of summer when the sun is directly overhead and will die back in winter when the sun is not so intense.

Then we planted a 6-pack of sweet 100s tomatoes, Spinach, Butter Crunch lettuce, and red snail lettuce.

The goal is to swap out plants all season long that will do well in the northern exposure and rotate the crops as needed. We then topped the whole bed in a unique mulch made of cocoa pod shells.  It’s amazingly light and looks a lot like gravel when down, but mad the whole yard smell like chocolate when we first installed it. The sent has since abated.  It appears to be wonderful mulch for water retention, but w e are afraid that it doesn’t let in enough air as the surface is getting moldy.  Since noticing this, we have cut back the water, turned the mulch, and are waiting for higher temps to kick in.  Today was 85 degrees, so I don’t expect the mold to hang out much longer.

What I forgot to do was run a length of tubing through the bet to irrigate.

So once the lettuce is done, I will pull drip irrigation through the bed before planting the next round.

More to come on gardening in small spaces…

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In no particular order:

Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer -Tim Stark

A very readable history of not only one man’s experience with nature’s whims and gifts, but a very interesting look at what an heirloom is and its journey to the mainstream. So if you are like me and want to know the difference between a better boy and and a brandywine, then you may want to take a look at this book.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) – by Barbara Kingsolver

I bought 8 copies of this book for Christmas gifts last year. While not a how-to, it is the true story of a novelist’s family that moves from Tucson AZ to West Virginia to farm. They pledge to only eat what they can grow or buy (very) locally. This book touches on so many issues in our time of Big Grocery and gently impresses the urgency of supporting local farms and eschewing homogenization of crops. If this book doesn’t inspire you to dig a hole and plant SOMETHING I don’t know what will.

Don’t Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps – by Deborah Peterson

Growing up we always had an avocado pit suspended over a glass of water and a sprout farm under the sink. This isn’t that. Well it is, but not JUST that. This easy fun book shows you how to grow peanuts, (did you know the plant actually burrows back underground to grow the nut?) as well as other interesting things. A great way to get kids interested in growing things and even get a head start on the season.

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life – by Jenna Wogginrich

A fun book about a young woman who holds down a “normal” full time job and homesteads. I was hooked when she talked about choosing chickens from the poultry catalog that were small enough to fit into a cat carrier in case she had to move.

See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America – by Logan Ward

This is about a couple who moves to Virginia and buys a farmhouse. They have decided they will live like it is 100 years ago, the early 1900s. This involves removing electricity and plumbing and otherwise retrofitting the house and their lives to do it. They park their car and buy a horse and buggy. Of course, they must raise their food or buy it from neighbors and they get a crash course in subsistence gardening and life.

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (P.S.) – by Eric Brende

A graduate of MIT and his wife study the effects of technology by living for a year in a Mennonite community. They give up all modern comforts and have some very interesting insights. Now everytime I use the air conditioner I think of this book. Read it and you will understand.

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living – by Doug Fine

Set in New Mexico, this book recounts the story of a man who is passionately commited to seriously reduce his carbon miles in everything from his heating to his oatmeal. He uses some cutting edge technology and has some intense run-ins with desert life. This may be particularily interesting to those of you in the Southwest, as he gardens in a pretty extreme situation. He is a little heavy handed on the politics, but if you can handle that (or agree with him) this is a great story.

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Sometimes you have a plant that does incredibly well in your yard.  Other time you pick up a plant that you like the look of, but have no idea what it is.  This happened to Liz and I a few months back when we started planting the back yard after the summer heat broke.  We have a pact that we will not plant flowers before October 1st due to the pounding the plants take in those last few dog days of summer.  As you can imagine, we are pretty excited to load up on plant when October arrives and we hit the local nursery the first weekend in October.  There we found this

wonderful specimen that was not labeled but had incredible flowers.  So we loaded up a few in different colors and planted them in some 20 inch terracotta pots that we keep on our back porch.

To say they have gone nut would be an understatement – blooming well right through the mild winter and weathering a couple nights of frost.  So for us, these are certainly keepers, but we have yet to see them back in the nursery.  So I have been harvesting the seeds from what I now know is Nicotiana or Flowering Tobacco.  Who would have guessed…

The Process of Harvesting Seeds

There is nothing all that magical about gathering seeds from your plants. You just need to know what to do and not do, and take your time.  In fact, we have been gathering seeds off the Nicotiana plants for the better part of a month.  Here’s how it works:

1. First, if you are a zealous dead-header, you are literally throwing away your seeds.  Slow down with the dead heading and let the seed pods develop.  With our plants, we tend to start thinking about seeds as we reach the end of the growing season.  If the flowers are starting to slow, it might be the time to cut back on the dead-heading.
2. Once the flowers die off, typically the seed pods will form behind where the flower bud was.  These seed pods need some time to develop so you are best to just leave them alone at this point.
3. Seed pods are ready when they turn brown or are starting to open.  It’s important to monitor them closely or you might loose the seeds to birds or spilling out onto the ground. The latter is not too bad since they very well may germinate the next year if conditions are right.
4. Pluck the seed pods from the plant carefully ensuring you don’t spill the seeds or tear off too much of the plant.  All seeds are different, but the usual approach is to break open the pods and pour the contents into a small envelop.  I like vellum or glassine envelopes from Xpedex.  They are small enough for the seeds to not get lost in, and semi translucent so you can see where the seeds are.  Pour the seeds in the envelop and seal them up.
5. If the seeds are still moist, you most likely picked them too soon. In this case, place the seeds in a paper envelop until they are completely dry. Keep seeds in a dark, dry, cool place until it’s time to plant next year.
6. The last step is to label the seeds.  This may seem so obvious, but proper information is often left off the seed packets.  Besides the variety of the plant, you should include a harvest date, and I like to include any special instructions on the envelop like, “plant in late summer indoors, blooms well all winter. Prefers sun and ample water.”

Experiment with your plants and gather their seeds. You may find that you can sustain many years of gardening without ever setting foot in your local nursery. Not that this is likely, but it’s a nice thought that you can recycle the plants that bring color and joy to your yard.

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