How Much Of A Seed Saver Do I Want to Be....

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How much of a seed Saver do I want to be? Do I want to build my own seed vault like Bill Gates?
Check out Svalbard Global Seed Vault

But it is also interesting to note that corporate giant Monsanto is one of the partners in the massive seed vault on an island in Norway. Is the seed vault there to help humanity after we have done too much damage to our natural seed legacy? Or are some of the biggest corporations of our day poised to take over complete control of our food supply once all the
 "native seeds" have been patented or adulterated by genetic modification? Perhaps it is already too late. Large corporations are not the enemy. For now we still have the freedom in my province of Ontario to grow what we want wherever we want and give our seeds away to friends and neighbors. I pray that this freedom will remain. 

Who doesn't love collecting acorns?...the squirrels are having a frenzy...hiding acorns in my outdoor flower pots, where perhaps they will forget the precise location and Voila.... perhaps a beautiful tiny oak tree will begin to sprout up next spring from the acorns that the squirrels have greedily hidden in the soil.

Oh,,,,,but do I have the discipline to actually save some tomatoes to harvest and dry the seeds from to plant next year? Or will we gobble up these fresh goodies?

An ole standby .....and even if you have an orange thumb versus a green one...you will undoubtedly be able to manage growing some simple green beans in your back yard or porch.

I always love the way the mature green beans begin to show a fancy purple and yellow pattern on the skin the more it dries and prepares the deep dark purple seeds for plucking.

Growing food from all kinds of funky locations is fun..... have you seen the Woolly Pocket Company?
They have created a whole line of products that will help you grow veggies on any wall and in the most unusual and convenient containers.

Indoor Food Gardens using Repurposed and Compostable Items

This photo is of my first successful indoor food experiment and contains healthy young green beans hanging from the plant.

 Dryer lint is an untapped recyclable material available in plenty in many households. Add one layer of lint
to the bottom of your planter/seed nursery before you add soil on top.
Cardboard egg cartons are a great tool for starting seedlings. Cardboard can easily
assimilate into the garden soil if/when you choose to replant your plants outdoors. Cardboard is easily cut with scissors and soaks up the water well while helping to keep the seedlings hydrated.

 The re-purposed soil has been added on top of the dryer lint and seeds planted
into each pocket of soil. Water added after planting seeds.

Collect lint
every time you use your clothes dryer and save it in a coffee can or zipper bag

It has become an interest of mine to see what kind of food plants will grow successfully indoors. And so, I tried to grow some green beans indoors this winter and have had some success. I also made of point of using compostable and re-purposed items to set up these plant nurseries. Growing things needn't be costly other than the time and tlc required to nurture them to health and full bloom.

The items I have used in creating these planters is lint (yes the stuff from your clothes dryer) as the
first layer which will help retain moisture and provide a cushy bottom for the seedlings to grow in.
Secondly I used cardboard egg cartons as planters and place them into my own glass and plastic shallow containers so that they would not leak water.
On top of the lint I placed soil that I repurposed from wilted Pointsettia plants given to us at Christmas time.
Whenever you receive a flowering potted plant as a gift, if you find that the flowers have wilted and you are tempted to throw the whole pot, plant and soil into your garbage....think first. The soil is recyclable and you can either add it to your planters and indoor or outdoor gardens. ( be careful not to reuse soils that you suspect has contained a sick or diseased plant, as you don't want to spread the plant disease through the soil)

Enjoy this thrify "Green" experiment. Children also love to see things grow and will watch enthusiastically as
their indoor garden matures.

Peace.


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