Twiggybet1's Blog

Confessions of a Compulsive Seed-Saver
Sep 30, 2008 | 7:33 AM PST

Hi, I'm Twiggybet and I save far more seeds than I will ever use.

(the room responds "Hi, Twiggybet!")

I do this to myself every year.  I have paper bags with seeds drying, trays with seeds drying,  bundles of stems with seed heads hanging upside down, all over the house it seems.  I save far, far more seeds than I have room to plant.  And with my track record of killing most of the stuff I plant in seed trays you would think I'd stop it.  But I always tell myself I will do better next year, and learn from my mistakes.  Hope truly DOES spring eternal!

What to do with all these seeds?  Well, I plan to attempt wintersowing again this winter.  And of course I will plant some trays of vegetables and flowers indoors as well.  And I promise to pay better attention this time!!!!!

I do plan to share some seeds with my sisters for their gardens.  One sister claims to have very limited time for gardening ; I think very limited interest as well.  But, bless her heart, she tries a few things and on occaision asks for advice.  I managed to help infect another sister with the gardening bug!  We exchange news on our gardens all season long, and compare notes.  I exchange flower seeds with my stepdad every year, along with plant divisions.  While my mom enjoys getting out and doing a few things in the yard, it is my stepdad who is the garden enthusiast of the two.  Mom has other hobbys.  And I love to encourage the kids to try to grow something of their own, and give them seeds for easy-to-grow things.  I think kids and gardening go so well together.  I even bought a pair of Dora gardening gloves for my grandniece when she was living with us.  She was 2 at the time.  She loved "helping" in the garden.  I remember her helping to pick tomatoes, found some green ones in the basket.  And when she "helped" to pick some flowers, some had the roots still attached!  I have noticed that using the hose seems to be most kid's favorite part of gardening...But I digress...

Any way, so far this year, I have saved a long list of vegetable seeds:  peas, radishes,corn kernels (no one else in the vicinity planted corn, so these SHOULD sprout true, I hope), green beans, various lettuces, assorted peppers, assorted tomatoes, all labeled according to variety, provided I remembered which variety.  At least some sort of description.  I know I must have saved more that I can't remember off the top of my head.  I also saved loads of sunflower seeds.  I prefer to buy already roasted and shelled ones to eat (I'm lazy that way) so these are purely for planting.  I love sunflowers, so sunny and bright looking.  I also like the different colored varieties I've seen in recent years.  These are something I usually succeed at growing, being as they are so reliable and don't need to be started early.  I saved seeds from a few other flowers as well.  I have pods right now on the moon flowers, so I will have more of them next year.  I saved some pods from my new-this-year blanket flower, "Lemons and Oranges". I saved seeds from a few that I don't know their names because they were in a hanging basket that was given to me without the tag.  If I have any success with these, I will make an effort to look them up and identify them. 

I plan to save some basil seeds.  I planted two kinds this year, regular green and a purple variety.  One of my mints is blooming, so I will try to save seeds from it, too.  But if they survive the winter, I might not need to worry about sowing more seeds for them, as they should spread by runners. 

I guess saving seeds is one of my favorite passtimes this time of year.  Now if only I could get the hang of rooting cuttings, I would really be in business! 

New Aquisition
Sep 25, 2008 | 7:54 AM PST

My goodness, has it really been a month since I blogged???  I have been telling myself to make time to post an update, but I simply haven't done that.  So what has been going on here? 

Well, we found the property we have been looking for!  We have discussed buying vacation property for years.  We talked about what we wanted in property, where we should look, and worked toward getting in a financial position where it was possible to seriously consider buying something.  We had been checking real estate listings for months now, and made a couple of trips to view property over the summer.  We found property that we liked in August, made an offer, and are now the proud owners of 20 beautiful, rolling, wooded acres in northern Michigan.  (I should say, northern part of the lower penninsula)  I am so thrilled!  Let me tell you, though, it isn't easy to conduct a real estate deal long distance.  Things got kind of hectic there just before closing, but everything came together nicely in the end and we closed last Friday.  We had a fun weekend enjoying the property, and having the family over to visit. 

I really wish I had some pictures to share, but, the batteries died in the camera after one picture.  We use rechargable batteries, and we left the charger and spare batteries back at my mom's house.  Rats!  Oh, well, we did take some video images, but, this not being YouTube, I don't know how to share them here.  But I will take lots and lots of pictures on our next trip up there.

The property is situated on a main, paved road.  This is a big plus as far as accessability during the winter months.  There is an older mobile home on the property, which we plan to dismantle and scrap because it is in terrible condition.  There is well and septic, both in good working order, and electric service.  Our cell phones roam there, though.  I dread getting our next bill.  So the first thing we plan to do is get temporary living quarters in the form of a travel trailer (something else we have been wanting for quite some time) and hopefully, by next summer the old mobile will be gone, and we can replace it with either a newer mobile, modular or something stick-built.  Hubby favors the stick-built, but that is the option that may take the longest amount of time.  And probably be the most expensive. 

The real estate agent told us it is prime hunting property.  The previous owners apparently were avid hunters, and when we looked at the property, there were several hunting trophies displayed on the wall.  The sellers got those before closing, I'm not sorry to say.  Apparently, there is an abundance of deer (like the rest of Michigan) on the property, along with fox, turkey, coyote and black bear.  We found a few surprises while exploring around.  There is an old root cellar built into the side of the hill, that doesn't look like it has been used in decades.  We found a foxes den.  We had a visit from the neighbor's dog, who probably came to investigate my noisy beagle.  And we met the next door neighbors, very nice people.  I think we are really going to like it there!