Horseradish & Honey

Musings of an organic gardener in Cincinnati

Garden Musings

Saving Seeds, Saving Money

December 24, 2018
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I’m always looking for ways to save money and time in the garden. While it’s fun to make the rounds of my favorite nurseries, it’s also time-consuming and expensive! Same with perusing and buying from seed catalogs—those seed packets can add up quickly!

I’ve always saved “easy” seeds including nasturtiums, marigolds, cosmos, zinnias, peppers, radishes, squash, peas, and beans.

I decided to step up my seed saving game in 2018 and I’m proud to share that I met one of my 2018 garden goals, which was to save more seeds.

In addition to my easy list, I also saved borage, salvia, tithonia, oregano, lemon basil, dill, cilantro/coriander, tomatoes, and the helpfully labeled “plant bees like near hanging platform feeder by raised beds” seeds.  Admittedly, I should have saved some of these—like dill and cilantro—all along but I didn’t take the time to.

5 Seed Saving Tips

Some seeds are easy to save, some are a bit harder, and some I just guessed at. Interested in learning how to save seeds? These 5 tips can help:

  1. Use online resources. I knew borage seeds could be saved, but I had a hard time actually finding the seeds. A search led me to this video by John from GrowingYourGreens. After watching the video, I learned exactly when to look for the seeds and quickly became a borage seed-saving pro.
  2. Experiment. I wasn’t sure about how to save tithonia seeds so I cut the heads off the dried flowers and I’m storing them in a paper bag. I’ll toss them on the ground when I plant in the spring, which is similar to my lazy method for saving and replanting zinnias.

    I’m also experimenting with this method for saving tomato seeds. I’ll know if this method works when I start tomato in March. 

    Saving tomato seeds on a paper towel

    Saving tomato seeds

  3. Label, label, label. Similar to seedlings, many seeds and dried flowers look alike. During the busy end-of-summer harvesting, I always took the time to label what I was saving. Even the previously mentioned “plant bees like…” label works!
  4. Organize your seeds. I spent about three hours this past weekend cleaning up my seed starting area and organizing seeds. By the end of the growing season, it will be a hot mess again but getting organized during December or January helps me get ready for the upcoming gardening season. I like to store seeds in a few different categories:
    • Annuals
    • Herbs
    • Cool-season crops – grouped into greens, radishes, beets, peas, etc.
    • Warm-season crops – seeds grouped into tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc.
  5. Learn how to store seeds properly. There’s no point in saving seeds if you don’t know how to store them correctly. I’m fortunate enough to have a cabinet decided to seed storage and other gardening supplies. I store seed packets in plastic bins and seeds in either paper bags or Mason jars. My friend Amy recently gave me an adorable and useful seed organizer tin, which you can see below, and I’m now resisting the urge to upgrade all my plastic bins! 

    Seed storage container and cabinet

    My seed cabinet

Does this mean I’m giving up on making the nursery rounds and buying new seeds? Of course not! But savings seeds does save money and time and, as a frugal and busy gardener, I appreciate both. 

Garden Musings

End of the Growing Season

November 15, 2018
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It’s that time of year. We’ve had a few hard frosts. Most of my raised beds are covered in a thick layer of leaves and barley straw. Some hardier vegetables are sticking up here and there – scallions, Brussels sprouts, a few radishes.Raised bed ready for winter | Horseradish & Honey Blog

It wasn’t the best growing season. Lots and lots and lots of rain helped some plants, hurt others. Tomatoes took their time ripening this year but, man, they were SO good. I had a bumper crop of cucumbers, which is rare due to cucumber beetles. And the peppers – they grew and grew and grew until the first hard frost hit. My favorite ‘Trombetta di Albenga’ squash grew like a champ as usual.

On the other hand, beans broke my heart this year; harvests were paltry and none of the plants produced like last year.Greens, in general, were not happy with all the rain. Flea beetles got to the bok choy seedlings. I had a great spring beet harvest but some animal – rabbit? – came through and ate the fall beet seedlings.

Each year, I try to convince myself I need a break from the garden in late fall and through the winter. In reality, I would be happy if I lived somewhere that allowed me to garden outside throughout the year. The garden is my place of solace, it’s my therapy, it’s where I learn about – and even challenge – myself, it’s my stress reliever, it’s my happy place, it’s so many things to me. You’ll still find me wandering about in the yard and garden this time of year, even with snow on the ground. But my heart and thoughts are already longing for spring 2019.

Birds, Bees & Butterflies

Pawpaw Trees and Zebra Swallowtails

October 5, 2018
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Guess what? I was in the garden one evening. I know…what a shocker!

All joking aside, I spotted a Zebra Swallowtail that evening. Only the second one I’ve seen in the garden this year, and maybe the fifth or sixth one I’ve ever seen in the garden.

It got me thinking about symbiotic relationships and this crazy world we live in. Why symbiotic relationships? Because I know that Zebra Swallowtails feed on pawpaw trees. In fact, pawpaws are the only host plant for Zebra Swallowtails. Why crazy world? Because I think about all the development going on in cities and suburbs and rural areas and wonder how many people know that, without pawpaw trees, there will be no Zebra Swallowtails. What a shame that would be – they are some of the most beautiful butterflies I’ve ever seen.

Zebra Swallowtail on Butterfly Bush

Zebra Swallowtail on Butterfly Bush

Zebra Swallowtail on Butterfly Bush

Love those colors

Zebra Swallowtail on Butterfly Bush

Check out that long, thin tail

Live in an older neighborhood, I’m sure there’s a stand of pawpaw trees somewhere within butterfly flying distance, just not sure where. I think I’ll ask my neighbor, who has lived in the neighborhood most of his life, next time I see him.

Want to Learn More?

  • Zebra Swallowtail – Eurytides marcellus
  • Connections: The Pawpaw Tree and the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly
Garden Musings

The Power of Gardening

September 13, 2018
3

I always plant “sacrificial” tomatoes in our backyard for deer. This year, I decided to plant them in the rental house backyard (which is next door to ours). Deer and other critters have nibbled on the plants off and on, but the plants have grown and grown and grown. In fact, they’re taller than the lovely barbed wire fence that separates the yard from the park.

Super-Tall-Tomato-Plants-Horseradish-and-Honey

Tomato plants are taller than the fence!

A month or so ago, I was back there harvesting the tomatoes I could reach. A woman walking by with her dog stopped to ask if I wanted her to hand me the ones I couldn’t reach through the fence. I laughed and told her to take them if she likes tomatoes. “Really?,” she asked. “Yes, please please please help yourself!,” I begged.

We realized we were talking through the really tall tomato plants, so we took a few steps to the side so we could see each other and introduced ourselves. Monica used to live on a farm with her husband and kids. After he died a few years back, she sold the farm and moved into the city to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She told me how much she loves her daily walks in the park and, in particular, how much she admires the flowers, plants, and trees in both our yard and the rental yard. Monica also told me how much she misses eating her own homegrown tomatoes. We both agreed that there’s almost nothing better to eat.

It took a bit of persuading, but she eventually filled her pockets with tomatoes. A few days later, I was out back again at the same time as Monica and her dog. She waved and told me how happy the tomatoes made her and how delicious they were.

I don’t see her every day. But, on the days I do see her, her pockets are full of tomatoes. And she makes sure to tell me how happy she is to have access to them.

Gardening, and specifically vegetable gardening, takes a certain amount of work (understatement of the year!) and passion. I put a lot of both—and a HUGE amount of love—into everything I grow. I love sharing with family and friends. But sharing with a stranger, who is now no longer a stranger…that’s the power of gardening!

Birds, Bees & Butterflies

Butterfly Love

August 16, 2018
1

I was in the garden minding my business stalking bees and butterflies when I noticed two monarchs flying around. When they both landed on a butterfly bush, I went over to check them out and take some pictures.

After watching them for a bit. I turned around to ask John a question and imagine my surprise when I turned back around and spotted this!

I yelled the monarchs are mating! to John and proceeded to give them zero privacy. But they didn’t seem to mind.

You know I almost died from the excitement of monarchs mating RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, IN MY GARDEN, ON MY BUTTERFLY BUSH. I took a zillion pictures and even a video (which I’m not sharing because there wasn’t any movement and all you can hear is me babbling about monarchs “doing it” because I’m mature like that).

At one point, they briefly switched positions. Or whatever monarchs do when they’re really getting into it, I guess.

Of course, in the middle of all this excitement, a hummingbird moth stopped by. It’s been a great year in the garden for these moths. While I don’t spot them daily, I have seen them a few times a week.

How does this story end? Hopefully there are monarch eggs on the milkweed in the garden. Time will tell!

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Hello

I'm a nature-loving, dig-in-the-dirt organic gardener in the Queen City of Cincinnati (Zone 6a). Always learning, experimenting, and sharing...let's grow something!

Recent Posts

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