Does anyone here save seeds from their veggie, flower…gardens?
I just started this year. So far I have a few varieties of sunflower, marigolds, our yellow “green” beans , and cherry tomatoes. I never knew what it was called (Mullen) but was always fascinated with the structure, fuzzy leaves, color of the flowers; fast forward many years later we have had ZERO Mullen plants on our property and I have been asking the universe for Mullen (excellent bronchial medicine.) I started moving dirt and excavating a section of our property to make it look better. NOW do we ever have some Mullen . If anyone needs seeds, I have a metric shit ton . I also have Moth Mullen seeds, beautiful and the pollinators love them.
Does anyone else collect seeds from not only veggies and flowers but maybe native plants?
Funny you should post this. I just clipped and separated all the marigolds in the front planters yesterday. So prolific they are self seeding in the box still, and what I pulled yesterday will last me a few years LOL.
We haven’t bothered saving veggie seeds really, just sunflowers and marigolds, impatiens, jewel weed, I’ve tried collecting coleus, hosta, day lily and iris seeds as well. I have some mexican sunflowers out front that will be cut next week, and seeds saved from them as well.
Mullein is AWESOME for bronchial issues. I actually heard the trick from an old Native American neighbor, struggling with phlegm and a cough one time, he suggested I smoke some. Odd, but hey, those old timers know some tricks. I bought a cheap corn cob pipe, crumbled up some leaves from the 2nd year growth, took one hit, coughed up a lung, but it honestly dried up my phlegm in record time and I could breath! Mullein is known as a bi-annual, it has two different growth patterns. First year its low to the ground, giant leaves, hunters toilet paper we call it. Second year of growth is when it puts up the stalk and grows flowers / seeds. I collect and smoke the fine leaves that dry on the stalk whenever I have phlegm / congestion, and it works. Better than any medicine at the local drug store.
Key point with peppers, especially the superhots. Start them WAY earlier than your other veggies. Things like scorpions, nagas and bhut jolokia I would start in NOVEMBER, not in march / april (bell peppers can be started in April easily). The superhots want a longer grow period.
We save all kinds of seeds. I help in some community pollinator and rain gardens, and get a lot of natives. Aster, coreopsis, cut leaf cone flower,swamp milkweed, milkweed bush, common milkweed, American Beautyberry, hyssop, Joe Pye, black eyed Susans, brown eyed Susans…
Ms H saves Cherokee purple tomato seeds, and various pumpkin and squashes.
I used to save hot pepper seeds, but after a couple of years they really show cross-pollination. Apparently they need 100’ between varieties, I’d need 100 acres!
Just read an interesting article about natives. Since they’ve become popular, there’s a lot of new breeding. Not all cultivars are beneficial, or desirable to pollinators, but some are even more so than the originals. Not a lot of cultivar info on plant tags. And, native does not always mean native to your specific locale. Pot breeders are not the only ones who muddy the facts, lol!
Now is a good time to sow a lot of natives outside. Things like milkweed need stratification (some freezing weather) to pop.
I was just thinking I wish I had picked some young leaves before it was too late. I walked out to the garden for some reason I forgot now and right on the edge of where I grow broccoli, this
That’s a really good point. It’s worth checking if your state university has an extension office that can point you in the direction of true native plants. In RI there is a group that does a two sales of truly native plants each year. I’m sure such things exist elsewhere too.
yup, thats all year 1 growth. Tall stalks will come next year on those if ya dont accidentally cut em lol… But they also have those big fuzzy leaves next year at the base, so its obvious which plants are the mullein…
I picked some and washed them up. I have no clue how many are around now, ask and ye shall receive . We have been here 7 years and have never seen one plant till last year and this year
, and cherry tomatoes. I never knew what it was called (Mullen) but was always fascinated with the structure, fuzzy leaves, color of the flowers; fast forward many years later we have had ZERO Mullen plants on our property and I have been asking the universe for Mullen (excellent bronchial medicine.) I started moving dirt and excavating a section of our property to make it look better. NOW do we ever have some Mullen 
