quote

"The boughs of the oak are roaring inside the acorn."
- Charles Tomlinson

quote

"Seeds are a link to the past."
- Rosalind Creasy

a silly season classic

"I am a wayward, willful, contrary gardener. I don't follow seed-packet directions."
- Barbara Dodge Borland

"Every year, back comes spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants."
- Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967, American author, poet, journalist, humorist


April Fools, need a smile? Try out this solid gold classic "Garden Humor" site. Back whenever- in the 90's, I enormously enjoyed "Dibble's" storytelling - whenever his next installment arrived in my e-mailbox...
http://home.golden.net/~dhobson/

quote

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today."
- Indian Proverb

quote

"We know enough of the internal workings of the seed to stand in awe at its variety, its toughness, and its practical simplicity."
- Nancy Bubel

quote

"Seedsmen reckon that their stock in trade is not seeds at all ... it's optimism. That's what they're selling when you're seduced by that gorgeous picture on the front of the packet."
- Geoff Hamilton

"For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad."
- Edwin Way Teale

Faith in a seed

I dream gardening by habit.
Not in my genes, or from childhood training, but cultivated through an adult lifetime of passionate, if self taught, interest in the subject of green and growing things.

Confession: my enthusiasm for most of life has been on auto-pilot lately.
This has been an exceedingly long Michigan winter, but, unlike my usual practice I've only closely read maybe two of the cascade of garden catalogs that found my mailbox this year... and only ordered from one.

But with Spring comes Hope, and sometimes just following through the patterns that have been imprinted is the solution to getting through the foggy times.

Snow is in the forecast, and it's too cold outdoors to enjoy pruning the shrubs, so today I sat down at the computer and listed my plans for the growing season - if only revealed by the signs and hints found in seed and plant lists which I'll share with you now:

Seeds From Richters (Canada)

Ambrosia Seeds 1.60/pkt 1.60
Chia SowNatural(tm)Seeds 2.30/pkt 2.30
Cumin, Black Seeds 1.20/pkt 1.20
Honesty Seeds 1.20/pkt 1.20
Marigold, Lemon Gem Seeds 1.60/pkt 1.60
Marigold, Orange Gem Seeds 1.60/pkt 1.60
Scullcap, Baikal Seeds 1.40/pkt 1.40
Thyme, French Seeds 1.60/pkt 1.60
Wolfberry, Chinese Seeds 2.30/pkt 2.30

Herb Plants From Companion Plants (Ohio)

3 x Acorus calamus (SWEET FLAG (bareroot)) = $9.00
Longevity: HP (in USDA Zones 4 to 11)
Lighting Conditions: PS-FS
Average Height: 5 feet

1 x Santolina rosmarinifolia (Santolina rosmarinifolia) = $4.50
Longevity: HP (zones 6 to 9)
Lighting Conditions: FS
Average Height: 2 feet

2 x Salvia scleria (CLARY SAGE) = $9.00
Longevity: B (zones 4 to 9)
Lighting Conditions: FS
Average Height: 2 feet

2 x Marrubium vulgare (HOREHOUND) = $9.00
Longevity: HP (zones 3 to 8)
Lighting Conditions: PS-FS
Average Height: 18 inches

3 x Salvia clevelandii (BLUE SAGE (Cleveland sage) = $13.50
Longevity: TP-HP (zones 8 to 10)
Lighting Conditions: FS
Average Height: 3 feet

Woodie Plants From Genesee County (Michigan) Soil Conservation District

1 Tamarack (Am. Larch) $2.00 ea
Native. Full sun, moist to boggy soil, fast growth 40-80'.

4 Elderberries $3.00 ea
Full sun to shade. Moist, rich soil. Variable growth to 8'.

2 Serviceberries $3.00 ea
Native. Full to part sun, average soil. Moderate growth to 15'.

1 Hazelnut $3.00 ea
Full sun, average soil. Medium fast growth to 10-15'.

Vegetable plants requested from Pat Whetham's Organic Farm CSA

3 okras
3 eggplants
6 cabbages
1 tomatillo


Seeds from 'Rack Packs' / a.k.a. 'impulse purchases'

Borage (Cook's Garden)
Sunflower 'Sunspot' (Thompson & Morgan)
Thyme, Old English (T&M)
Banana (T&M)
Olive (T&M)

And finally, seeds that found me by chance:

Lemon seeds - from a Meyer lemon.
Basil 'Serata' - from MHA conference.
Parsley Italian Dark Green - from MHA Conference.
Fenugreek seeds - from Sharon Paulsen, GCHS Herb Study for January, 2009.

GTS: the audacity of hope - plant seeds

Shelf #1 Mine: Lemon basil, lime basil, basil 'Purple Ruffles', basil 'Mexican Spice', Thai basil 'Siam Queen', holy basil, Genovese basil, basil 'Napoletano Bolloso', basil 'Mammoth', calendula 'Flashback', calendula 'Pacific Beauty', Celosia cristata 'Red Velvet', Viola tricolor, summer savory, sweet marjoram, stevia. (Rotated outdoors: pansies and parsley, flat and curled)

Shelf #2 Herb's: tomatoes, peppers and okra.

Snow is predicted this week. My memory tells me that for thirty years of observation (except for last year), it always snows on my daffodils. A blanket or only a few flakes, but it does. But the tender annual seeds are in the soil, safely indoors, waiting and preparing themselves for Memorial Day.

Yesterday at the Genesee County Herb Symposium, our speaker, Donna Frawley said something I that just loved that I'll try to paraphrase:

We gardeners have such imagination! Just think of how we sprinkle a few basil seeds in the palm of our hand and we can already smell the pesto! Imagine, bowls of pesto from those tiny black dots.

And of course there is the classic comment by Henry Thoreau in his last book:
"Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
Henry David Thoreau
I'm doing the happy dance today, the herb symposium is over! and it was great fun! and I think our guests liked it too. What more can you ask?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

More seeds

The seeds at the nearby big box go on sale as soon as they are put out. So while I was a Meijers I bought some more seeds:
Dutch Corn Salad Valerianella locusta(which we call Mache)Livingston Seed Co.
Mustard (Mizuna)LSCo.
Roquette (Arugula) NK
Kale 'Dwarf Blue Curled Vates' NK
Mustard Spinach 'Tendergreen' NK
Swiss Chard 'Rhubarb' NK
Dill 'Dukat' NK
and Cilantro 'Longstanding' NK

Looks like I need a nice fresh green salad. Pat Whetham's organic gardening workshops begin this weekend (though I start next Friday), which seems to me a sign of spring, even though the temps are supposed to plunge again tonight. I get cabin fever most when I hear the furnace running so darn much. You can live in Michigan without air conditioning - I did for the first fifty years of my life. But we do need heat. I can't imagine what poor people are doing, mothers with little children in drafty rental housing and seniors, who if they can afford it, crank it up to 82 degrees.
Wouldn't you think the generous politicians who are sending checks for $1,200 to couples who make $149,999 "to stimulate the economy" could have found it in their hearts to vote for heat for the poor? Or extending unemployment benefits?
Don't let me get started, this is the happy blog.

Snowbound with Garden Catalogues - What's a girl to do?

Seeds from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman:
(Shipping= $1.50)
Arnica montana
Astragalus membranicus
Artemisia vulgaris
Ocimum sanctum
French Sorrel

Plants from Bluestone Perennials:
Free shipping because I recycled my packaging
20 percent off my order because I ordered early
(And I used my coupons that Bluestone packs with their plants.)

Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice' (shrub)
Kerria 'Honshu' (shrub)
Veronica 'Waterperry' (3)
Dianthus anurensis 'Siberian Blues' (3)
Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Bath's Pink' (3) for extension herb garden
Achillea 'Terra Cotta' (3) for extension herb garden
a free surprise three pack
and backordered from last year with coupon:
Dianthus x allwoodii 'Old Spice' (3)
Fothergilla 'Major Mt. Airy' (shrub)

Both orders combined came in at a thrifty $56.00. I'll get some of that back when I plant the 6 plants in the extension garden. I feel pretty good about this, and I'm confident that although Bluestone perennials are small, they are true to name and they arrive healthy. All it takes is patience to increase their value.

I just talked to Norma, our club president, and we're going to ask (with permission from membership) a local herb nursery to be a plant vendor at our 2008 Genesee County Herb Society Herb Symposium in April.
That should make buying plants for the extension herb garden easy and support a good cause at the same time.

facing the autumn with grace

The ginkgos are yellow, the serviceberries are orange, the maples are a little dry and crispy leaves are flying everywhere. The unusually nice weather has given me time to do a good job of gathering and 'putting by' my garden's harvest. Not that there isn't a lot more to be done, in putting the yard to bed. You'd think I had forty acres (and a mule) by the way I talk, but it is only a small suburban lot.

I'd love to have some 'real land' (she said in her lumberjack voice) to work with, but I have borrowed views to enjoy, and I know my familiar soil, and it is all already so ever much to do, and the older I get the more I understand that someday it will all have to come to an end. Toward this, ahem, end, I'm severely limiting my plant collecting impulse and consciously not replacing things that I lose. The lost years of the fragrant dianthus collection, the colorful irises, the tropicals and the spring bulbs, the daylilies, the old garden roses, the varieties of daisies and veronicas and achilleas and campanulas and agastaches (I used to get the little catalogue from J.L.Hudson, Seedman, if that tells you anything) and especially the seed starting mania will have to be beautiful memories to entertain my mind when I can't garden any more.
And the herbs. Don't let me forget the herbs.

And the critters. There is such joy in the strangeness of other species of animals. I've seen animals in books and on film, and in 3-d reality in zoos, but there is something above wonderful about seeing mother nature's other children out in the open, living and surviving on their own. (Yes, Marion, Nature does too exist.)

On that note, I was out in the garden yesterday picking more peppers (almost finished for the year) for cooking and freezing and dehydrating when a literal crashing through the brush behind the shed brought me up from my task and there manifested three young deer, standing right there in a clearing among the scrubby shrubs with their bright eyes and huge ears and lovely velvety noses at attention.
I understand it's bow hunting season, and they move in response to the hunters' disturbing of their domain but I've never actually seen a deer in my yard before.
I have seen tracks and found some damage (blueberry), but the rabbits are the real culprits around here with their shrub girdling winter hunger. What a treat though, to see these three deer up close and personal.
They stood as mesmerized as I was for a few moments and took off leaping right back into the field. In one fortunate moment of grace I had collected a memory for the winter, undeserved, appreciated.

Sprouting a 2,000 year old seed

Why did I post this year-old article, even if I just think it's interesting and garden-related?
Because it reminds us that we don't need to plant the WHOLE packet of seeds. Plant as many as you need, and a few to give away, and if you don't trust the germination rate or your luck, then plant a few extra. But then tape the package closed again, and for MOST seeds, you can save them in the back of the fridge to plant again.
I store them in a tightly sealing Tupperware-type box to keep them fresh. I've certainly planted 10-year old basil seeds with success.
This way, you can try something new next year, while still planting your favorite old stand-bys.

June 12, 2005
After 2,000 Years, a Seed From Ancient Judea Sprouts
By STEVEN ERLANGER
New York Times

JERUSALEM, June 11 - Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old.

The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders.

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says Psalm 92. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."

Well, we'll see. Dr. Sarah Sallon, who runs a project on medicinal plants of the Middle East, notes that the date palm in ancient times symbolized the tree of life. But Dr. Elaine Solowey, who germinated the seed and is growing it in quarantine, says plants grown from ancient seeds "usually keel over and die soon," having used most of their nutrients in remaining alive.

The plant is now 11.8 inches tall and has produced seven leaves, one of which was removed for DNA testing. Radiocarbon dating in Switzerland on a snip of the seed showed it to be 1,990 years old, plus or minus 50 years. So the date seed dates from 35 B.C. to A.D. 65, just before the famed Roman siege.

Three date seeds were taken from Level 34 of the Masada dig. They were found in a storeroom, and are presumably from dates eaten by the defenders, Dr. Sallon says.

Mordechai Kislef, director of botanical archeology at Bar-Ilan University, had some date seeds from Ehud Netzer, who excavated Masada in the 1970's. "They were sitting in a drawer, and when I asked for one, he said, 'You're mad,' but finally gave me three," Dr. Sallon said. "Then I gave them to Elaine, who's an expert on arid agriculture and dates." Dr. Solowey said: "Well, I didn't have much hope that any would come up, but you know how Sarah is."

Dr. Sallon, who is a pediatric gastroenterologist trained at University College, London, came to Israel 20 years ago. She is the director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization, which she set up 10 years ago to study natural products and therapies, from Tibetan and Chinese medicine to the indigenous medicinal plants of the Middle East. The idea is to preserve these plants and their oral histories in a modernizing region, but also to domesticate them, evaluate them scientifically and then try to integrate them into conventional medicine.

Dr. Solowey, who teaches agriculture and sustainable farming at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, based at Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Negev, works on finding new crops for arid and saline areas like Jordan, Gaza and Morocco. She also works with Dr. Sallon to domesticate indigenous plants that appear to have medicinal uses.

Dr. Solowey grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California and studied horticulture, then turned away from commercial agriculture in disgust, coming here in 1971. "I don't come to organic agriculture from the hippie side, but as a frustrated agricultural scientist," she said.

"We've bred for yield and taste, but not hardiness, so we have a lot of plants as hardy as French poodles, so we have to spray to protect them, and then we pay the price," she said. "There isn't a cubic centimeter of water in the San Joaquin Valley that isn't polluted with something."

She planted the date seeds at the end of January after trying to draw them out of their deep dormancy. She first soaked the seeds in hot water to soften the coat, then in an acid rich in hormones, then in an enzymatic fertilizer made of seaweed and other nutrients.

"I've done other recalcitrant seeds," she said. "It wasn't a project with a high priority. I had no idea if the food in the seed was still good, but I put them in new pots in new potting soil and plugged them into drip irrigation and kind of forgot about them."

About six weeks later, she said, "I saw the earth cracked in a pot and much to my astonishment, one of these came up."

The first two leaves looked odd, she said, very flat and pale. "But the third looked like a date leaf with lines, and every one since has looked more and more normal - like it had a hard time getting out of the seed."

Lotus seeds of about 1,200 years of age have been sprouted in China, and after the Nazis bombed London's Natural History Museum in World War II and a lot of water was used to put out the fire, seeds of 500 years of age also germinated.

"But no one had done it from 2,000 years old," Dr. Sallon said.

In the time of Pliny, forests of date palms covered the area from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea and made Jericho famous; a date palm features on ancient coinage, as it does on the current Israeli 10-shekel coin.

The date palm symbolized ancient Israel; the honey of "the land of milk and honey" came from the date. It is praised as a tonic to increase longevity, as a laxative, as a cure for infections and as an aphrodisiac, Dr. Sallon said. But the dates of Judea were destroyed before the Middle Ages, and what dates Israel grows now were imported in the 1950's and 60's from California and originated elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Prophet Muhammad considered the date of great importance for medicine, food, construction and income, and it is described in the Koran as a "symbol of goodness" associated with heaven.

Dates need to grow 30 years to reach maturity and can live as long as 200 years.

But it is the female date that is considered holy, and that bears fruit. "Men are rather superfluous in the date industry," Dr. Sallon said.

"O.K, I have a date plant," Dr. Solowey said. "If it lives, it will be years before we eat any dates. And that's if it's female. There's a 50-50 chance. And if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."