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The quickest and easiest germinating vegetable, by far, is the radish. You can plant the seed one day and three days later you will have a nice row of tiny green sprouts.  Not only is the radish fast germinating, it is also fast maturing.  You can harvest a large crop of fresh, crunchy radishes in just three weeks! 

The radish is a cool weather, early spring root crop and thus, now (April) is the perfect time to sow the seed in the majority of the US.  Some areas of the US can plant radishes in the late fall as well.    Radishes enjoy full sun and somewhat loosened soil, so pick a sunny spot and simply till the top crust of your garden by hand.  You may also sow radishes in containers if you'd like.  Next, take a small spade and draw rows in the soil at about 1/2 inch in depth (or draw circles if using a pot).  Scatter seeds in a line inside the rows and very lightly tamp soil over the seed.   Water carefully, but amply.  In just a few days you will surely see sprouts - too many sprouts in fact!  Give the sprouts about a week to establish themselves and then carefully pull up every other one  - or more if there is an area where they are obviously too crowded.  You will need to allow each plant room enough to create an inch-and-a-half round radish underground - although some radishes are shaped like traditional carrots!

Speaking of . . . there are indeed several varieties of radishes available today relative to shape, color and taste. The most common radish is perfectly round and is red on the outside and white on the inside. It is crisp, juicy and can be a little spicy at times.  It is thought the hotter the weather while growing, the hotter the radish will be.   Round varieties also produce pink, purple, bi-colored and white fruit.  And, as I mentioned, there is the White Icicle variety that simply looks like a white carrot.  Timely enough, there is even an Easter Egg seed packet you may purchase that is a mixture of many of the varieties above!  

Although most kids and some adults do not care for the taste of radishes, they are a colorful and nutritious bonus to salads.  In addition to adding color and texture to a salad or meal, radishes are high in Vitamin C, folic acid and potassium.  They are also a good source of magnesium and calcium.  And best of all, they are filling yet have almost no calories!

Because radishes are quick developing plants and are not in the soil for long, fortunately they are not attacked by many pests and have no known diseases that I am aware of.  I have grown radishes almost every year for the past 25.  Only once did I have an issue with insects on my radishes and that was just an odd year all around.  I had developed a root maggot infestation.  It literally grosses me out to think about it even now.  That particular year, the root maggot fly (which looks like a light gray housefly but a tad smaller) infested my radishes, turnips and carrots.  As I pulled them out of the ground, little white wiggle worms were all over the veggies.  Sadly, once a garden is infested with these pests it is hard to salvage your root crops.   The best thing to do is to discourage the adult fly from the beginning by placing row nets over your plants and leaving beneficial wasps and beetles (that eat the fly) in the garden.  Nematodes can also be added to the soil to deter the larva of this pest and others.  Well, although I spent a lot of words describing this situation, chances are - you'll be able to grow a crop or two of radishes this season without having this very undesirable issue.   
   
So - if you'd like to spark your children's interest in gardening, I highly recommend beginning with the rapid radish.  (It is also the best veggie to begin with if you are attempting to green the thumbs of some of your impatient adult friends and family members too!)  Not only is the radish easy to sow and fast to grow, it is extremely fun to harvest.  You might consider it an underground Easter egg hunt!)  Kiddos love pulling up the little multicolored balls from the ground - although I admit they may not like to eat them!  But the good news is, if you've sparked their interest in gardening with the radish you may have challenged them to grow longer season fruits and veggies like strawberries, watermelon, cucumber and tomatoes.  -And we all know there isn't anything more delicious than a home grown tomato with a "shake" of salt!  They'll be hooked -

Until next time,
Cindy

If you wish to create a bold and beautiful tropical background to your landscape this summer, now (March/April) is a great time to plant Elephant Ear bulbs.

For about the past 15 years, I have been fortunate to enjoy Elephant Ears in my back yard with very, very little garden work involved. There was only one really very cold winter that I recall when I had to plant a few extra bulbs the following spring, otherwise my Elephant Ears have reliably sprouted and multiplied throughout the years.  (That really cold winter I'm speaking of was the very unusual February in 2011 when we had freezing temps and ice on the ground for 3 -4 days straight - during Super Bowl weekend of all inconvenient times!)  At any rate, the reason I mention this is because Elephant Ears are tropical plants and thus, are considered annuals in Zones 7 and northward.  You will most likely have to dig up the bulbs and overwinter them from year to year if you reside in the less than tropical zones of the U.S.  The good news about this practice is it will give you the opportunity to split the corms (or eyes of the bulbs) and produce more plants the following year.    I personally live in Zone 7b (the southern part of Zone 7) and as I stated earlier, my Elephant Ears are definitely perennial so there is a little wiggle room with the annual/perennial designation depending upon the location in your yard that you plant your bulbs.  (For a detailed garden zone map, including lookup by ZIP code, see http://www.garden.org/zipzone/index.php.)

Elephant Ears are fast-growing, huge foliage plants very similar to, but much, much larger than their close relatives, caladiums.  Depending upon where you live, Elephant Ears will grow 3 - 6 feet tall and their leaves can become as large as . . . ummm . . . Elephant Ears!  Because of their bold appearance and need for ample space both in width and height, it is best to plant Elephant Ears in corners of your home or landscape - or on the back row of your beds.  They will give a tropical, summertime feel to any landscape and thus, are especially attractive planted in yards with pools or ponds. You may find bulbs that produce green, variegated or dark purple leaves.   So - depending on the color of your home's brick, rock, wood, etc. you are sure to find striking specimens perfect for your surroundings. Various leaf margins can also be found among the exotic species, such as smooth, ruffled or scalloped.


Black Magic Elephant Ears  http://scienceray.com/biology/elephant-ears/

Unlike most bulbs & tubers, Elephant Ears enjoy warm, humid and oftentimes wet conditions.   In very hot areas of the U.S., such as south Texas and Florida, Elephant Ears do best if planted in full to almost full shade.  Areas north of these states can plant the bulbs in mostly sunny to partly sunny locations. My Elephant Ears are planted in a corner of my backyard that is mostly shaded and stays a bit damp.  They thrive in this (relatively) cool, damp locale, although they do get a burst of sunlight for a couple of hours in the late afternoon - amazingly from the reflections of a couple of my neighbors western facing windows!  Sometimes the sun is so intense bouncing off the windows in the Texas heat, I will find the leaves of my plants will have temporarily wilted and dipped to the ground.  However, after a quick spray of the water hose they usually perk up by the next morning.

Once you have located the perfect location in your landscape for your Elephant Ears, you will need to plant the bulbs, pointed end up (or sideways if you have a bulb that is hard to differentiate), at about 2 inches under the soil.  Typically, the bigger the bulb, the bigger the plant, thus, depending on the size of your bulbs you may wish to leave about 1.5 to 2 feet between each one accordingly. 

As I mentioned earlier, in the ornamental sense, Elephant Ears are grown specifically for their large and beautiful leaves.  However they do flower on rare occasions.   The flowers remind me of those of peace lilies (although about 10 times larger!).


Frog in Elephant Ear Flower www.emilycompost.com


Another interesting fact about Elephant Ears (also called Taro) is their bulbs have been cultivated for many centuries in the tropical areas of Oceanic, Asian and African countries, and still are today an important part of the Hawaiian diet.  In fact, Taro is considered a "tropical potato".  Different cultures utilize the bulb (and sometimes the stalk and leaves) in different ways, but it is always cooked thoroughly.   If not, the plant can cause quite an upset stomach, among other problems, as it contains calcium oxalate crystals which can produce gout and kidney stones in humans.  Since pests are hardly a problem with Elephant Ears, it is thought the spiny calcium oxalate crystals within the raw plant actually deter insects from eating the plant as well. 



Elephant Ear (Taro) Bulbs

(Incidentally, as I was researching Elephant Ear, or Taro, I came across many photos of people eating Elephant Ear pastries at county fairs.  At first I thought they were actually deep fried Elephant Ear leaves!  Well, come to find out, it is just another name for a huge pastry - one that does not include chlorophyll, by the way.  Elephant Ear pastries, no matter how authentic they look to deep fried leaves, are simply another tasty carnival tidbit similar to funnel cakes and Belgian waffles.  Either they don't routinely bake them in Texas or I simply have overlooked this treat all of my life (which is hard to believe since I love funnel cakes!))  

Well, at the close of this post, I'd like to point you to a few Web sites that provided me a wealth of information - but the main reason I'd like you to visit them is to gaze upon the photos to see just how huge an Elephant Ear leaf can get.  Truly amazing.   

I hope you find the perfect place to create your tropical paradise this year!

Until next time,
Cindy


References:  
 http://www.emilycompost.com/elephant_ear.htm
 http://www.elephantearsplants.com/elephantearsgrowing.htm                             
 http://www.tarofestival.org/  
 http://www.tropical-plants-flowers-and-decor.com/elephant-ear-plants.html



  

There is a little white dog with reddish-brown spots that lives, unfenced, two doors down from my mom (about 6 acres away).  He probably isn't full bred, but he definitely has a lot of Bud Light's "Spuds McKenzie" in him or rather, Bull Terrier blood, that is.  

I first met this little dog two and a half years ago when he invited himself to our annual 4th of July cook-out and homemade fireworks display, routinely held under my mom's carport and in her rural back yard.  Spanky, my mom's 10 year old Schnauzer, is deathly afraid of fireworks and hides in the closet every 4th of July.  He's a house dog and only ventures out in the fenced front yard for necessities, so we didn't expect Spanky would be joining in the loud festivities.   Instead, this tough, stout, little white dog with a spotted nose and tiny triangular eyes came down and celebrated with us that evening.  He never flinched when the fireworks got a little too close for comfort or when my mom yelled at him to stop chewing on spent sparklers.  It was pretty apparent nothing fazed this little dog. 

That night, I donned him "Chumpie".   I don't know why, but it is a name that fits and he seems to like it.   Chumpie has made a point to trot down and visit us at every family gathering since, and I don't doubt for a minute it is because he netted a couple of grilled hot dogs (in addition to spent sparklers) that 4th of July more than two years ago! 

 
Chumpie and my niece, Amber

Jumping to present time, last weekend, my mom's Schnauzer, Spanky, in an extremely unusual act for him, dug out of the fence.  He was gone about an hour before my mom noticed he had escaped.  As I mentioned earlier, Spanky is an indoor dog that only goes outside into a protected chain-linked fenced front yard.  Spanky is not at all adapted to the wide-open rural life as some "country" dogs are.  Realizing what he had done, my mom panicked of course and immediately began looking for Spanky.  She knew his sheltered life would not serve him well in a rural area that boasted of free range, territorial ranch dogs - not to mention the occasional coyote, bobcat, rattlesnake, and rifle-carrying protective land owner.  Most frightening to us, however, were the 70 mph missiles on the two farm-to-market roads that bordered my mom's widespread neighborhood.  Folks in the country do not tend to slow down when a "critter" is in the road.  This is not so much because they purposely wish to run over it - but for two reasons, really.  Number one - there simply isn't any room to swerve on two-lane country roads as generally there aren't shoulders present and you certainly don't cross the yellow center line into oncoming traffic.  Number two - most roaming country dogs know to get out of the way of vehicles. (I'm not sure how they know this, but they do.  In fact, they know just how close they can get to your vehicle to chase beside it without getting hit.  Ever driven past a rural home and out of nowhere comes a German Shepherd or Collie that can keep up with your vehicle as you drive the length of the property?)  Well, at any rate, Spanky is not one of those adaptive creatures.  And to top it all off, Spanky escaped on New Year's Eve - the second most popular night for fireworks!  My mom was having visions of Spanky darting in all directions trying to avoid the onslaught of fireworks exploding in the dark rural sky that evening. 

After my mom searched for a couple of hours with no luck, she called me and I loaded up my car for an overnight stay and drove down there.     It would be close to dark before I arrived at her home, but I had a couple of flashlights and binoculars and we would do as much searching as we safely and cautiously could, I supposed.  If you read my blog regularly and in chronological order, you are aware my dad passed away recently. To me, this major loss and very raw wound increased the importance of finding my mom's furry companion.

That evening we drove around four adjacent rural neighborhoods, calling out Spanky's name between fireworks explosions and cautiously shining our flashlights into vacant fields.  (Note my mention of rifle-carrying protective land owners earlier.)  As we drove down one of the county roads, out of nowhere comes none other than Chumpie!  He had heard us in the distance calling out to Spanky and decided he'd answer the call.  (He knows Spanky as the dog on the other side of the fence, so to speak.  They've met before - nose to nose.)  At any rate, Chumpie decided to get out in front of my car headlights and lead the search party.  This little dog ran in front of my car the length of two long county roads, stopping every now and then to christen a mailbox post.  At the end of the second road, I took pity on poor Chumpie as his short legs had slowed to a trot and his tongue was dripping and hanging out to the side of his mouth.  I lured him into my car, setting him between my mom and I in the front seat.  I don't know that he's ever ridden in a car before, but he wasn't afraid and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.  

Defeated for the night, we drove back to my mom's, letting Chumpie off at his designated house along the way.  
                                            
The next morning, my mom and I got up early and created about 30 posters with Spanky's picture, description and mom's contact information listed.  We then resumed our mission, this time with the blessing of daylight.  We passed out posters to folks working in their yards and taped the remainder to fence posts located at the entrances of several nearby dead-end country roads.  As we did these things we continued to call out Spanky's name.  Well, you probably guessed it, here came along Chumpie again - this time running to us from a different direction and across another field.  Again, he led the search party, taking the time now and then to walk up into some of the yards where we humans couldn't legally venture.  The three of us searched all that second day with no luck. 

Spanky was found that night.  Alive and well.  Hallelujah!  

He had dug inside the fence of a home located two county roads over from my mom's.  We can only guess that he became disoriented by fireworks, or any one of the other aforementioned dangers, and decided it was best to be fenced in after all!  The problem was he didn't pick his home to dig back into - he picked a vacant home several acres away in which to seek shelter.  Fortunately, a kind and sympathetic woman noticed a little black dog hiding under the porch of this fenced-in, known-to-be-vacant home, put two and two together and called my mom's phone number listed on the flyer that we had posted at the entrance of her development. 

                             A jealous Spanky looking on as my mom and nephew, Vincent, feed an abandoned kitten. 
                                                                          The kitten was ultimately adopted by my niece, Kristin.



Well, in the end I'd like to say Chumpie had something to do with Spanky's rescue . . . 

So I will! 

Although Chumpie did not directly find Spanky, he certainly led the search party for two straight days.  Most of all, he gave us hope.  How?  We knew if Chumpie could hear us calling three county roads away, then surely Spanky could hear us too.  We knew if Chumpie could run toward us, dodging thick brush, makeshift fences, creeks and ponds, then Spanky could most likely get to us too.   We knew if Chumpie, a tad smaller than Spanky, was able to withstand the dangers and elements overnight, then Spanky probably could too - at least for a little while.   Thus, Chumpie gave us the fortitude to keep on looking - all the while posting more flyers and searching further out than we originally thought plausible.  Chumpie inspired us and proved that an unlikely feat can oftentimes be accomplished with mere perserverance.

Thank you, Chumpie.  We definitely owe you a few grilled hot dogs at the next family gathering!

                           http://www.stonehengetours.com/html/stonehenge-winter-solstice-tour.htm


December 21st is the shortest day of the year in 2011.  You probably are asking, "What do you mean the shortest day of the year?  Aren't there 24 hours in every day?"  Absolutely.  Allow me to be more specific. 

December 21st is the date in which there will be less daylight hours than any other day in 2011.  It is the time of the winter solstice - which in Central Standard Time will occur around 11:30 p.m. this year.  The winter solstice usually occurs sometime between December 21 and December 23 every year in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is the time of the year when the North Pole is tilted at its greatest distance, 23.5 degrees, away from the sun.  The winter solstice also signifies the first day of winter.  

At the time of the autumnal equinox, September 23rd, daylight and dark were equal in length at 12 hours each.  Since then, in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight has progressively decreased with each day.  In fact, territories north of the Arctic Circle will experience 24 hours of darkness upon the winter solstice. 

It is important to mention this seasonal phenomenon is reverse for the Southern Hemisphere.  For example, the territory south of the Antarctic Circle will experience 24 hours of daylight on December 21st.  And, in the areas between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, the balance of daylight and dark hours remains stable and the weather warm and humid.  (Thus the reason we must mimic the 12 hours of darkness for native tropical photoperiodic plants such as the Christmas Cactus and Poinsettia to force their blooms/bracts in our part of the world!) 

If you've done any reading or research about ancient cultures, you are familiar with the fact they viewed the transitions between the seasons as very important.  The solstices and equinoxes determined when crops should be planted and harvested, when berries and nuts became ripe and when certain game could be hunted.  The winter solstice, in particular, marked the time ancient peoples were to begin preparing food and supplies, obtained from their autumn harvests and hunts, in anticipation of the next three months of cold weather.  Ancient civilizations, such as the Aztecs, Druids, Egyptians, Greeks, Mayans, Phoenicians and Romans, among others, erected incredibly accurate temples, pyramids, monuments and calendars that assisted their villages in knowing when the seasonal changes were occurring.  Stonehenge, in the photo above, is an example of such structure.  The photo below is of the Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange in Ireland.  It is a mounded tomb structure that is estimated to have been built in 3200 BC.  There is a roof box over the entrance of the tomb which at sunrise during the winter solstice, a shaft of sunlight breaks through and illuminates the entire interior of the structure.   

                                               http://www.knowth.com/winter-solstice.htm

As with human rites of passage, celebrations and feasts were a major aspect of the ancient seasonal transitions as well, especially during the winter solstice.  Fruit and nuts were plenty, beer and wine were fermented and animals thought not to survive through the winter were slaughtered.  Food was in abundance at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere and feasting was done in preparation for potentially 90 days of sparse sustenance.   

Festivities surrounding mid-winter holidays certainly continue in most cultures of the world today.  In fact, Julius Caesar deemed December 25th the date of the winter solstice in early Roman times.  And as most of you know, later on, the Christian church adopted this sacred date in honor of the birth of Christ.       

In conclusion, you may ask why I have titled this post, Winter Solstice - A Time of Hope, when it apparently marks the time of anticipated hard, cold weather.  As I pondered all the reasons, the scientific one came to mind first.  Every day after December 21st brings more sunlight.   The ancients knew if they prepared what food and supplies they could for the coming of winter and feasted on that which remained, each day they survived offered more sunlight and eventual warmth.  Hope simply helped them endure the season of long bitter nights and barren days. 

In today's world, the winter solstice falls at the time of year (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) when most of us, no matter our religious persuasion, strive to mend relationships, are charitable to those in need and reflect on our personal blessings.  It is a time of faith and observance and thanksgiving.  It is a time we come together to congratulate and to celebrate.   It is a time we come together and mourn those no longer with us yet we remain determined to continue the traditions that have become all the more meaningful in our loved ones' absence.  It is a time we deeply reflect upon our life and muster the determination to live better physically, emotionally and spiritually in the coming year.

As a Christian, I believe the date of the Roman winter solstice was absolutely purposefully chosen to represent Christmas Day, as the spirit of Christmas signifies great hope for all mankind.

No matter your faith or circumstances, I wish you the amazing experience of hope this winter season. 
 
Until next time -
Cindy




This post is dedicated to my nephew, Vincent, who was born 10 years ago on the shortest day of the year!

                                                    Biscuit - AKA "Psycho Cat"


I wasn't planning to write a post this morning.  I have one in the works for tomorrow or sometime next week regarding pansies and ornamental cabbages, but it isn't quite finished. 

This is the week of Thanksgiving and I am so thankful I was indeed able to sleep in this Saturday morning as I had no hair appointments, grocery shopping, impending chores or otherwise to do early.  It felt good to wake to no alarm, a rare occurrence for me and I dare say, for most of you, too.  You see, I'm one of those people that naturally needs 10 hours of sleep per night.  I'm not lazy, although I am sure some folks with high metabolisms think I am.  I merely function optimal with 10 hours rest.  At my age, I have simply learned to accept this fact and try to plan accordingly. 

At any rate, while I didn't awake to a nasty alarm this morning, I did wake to my cat, Biscuit - lovingly called Psycho Cat at times - meowing and nudging me.  Although I had no personal pressing chores to do, I did need to feed her, my blind & deaf dog, Buzz, and the blue jays that were stirring by that time. 

After feeding Biscuit and Buzz, I decided it being Thanksgiving week I would fill all my bird feeders to the brim this morning.  After all, I had plenty of black oil sunflower seed in the garage.  Feeding chores done, I planned to leisurely have an extra cup of coffee in the kitchen and watch the birds surround my autumn backyard as I browsed my computer for Christmas deals. 

Psycho Cat interrupted this plan. 

Biscuit, aka Psycho Cat, is an indoor cat.  She has no front claws.  Not by my doing, but by the person who owned her years ago before I adopted her.  She's been a rather skittish cat for the most part, but for some reason she has recently decided to come out of her shell - or she has simply become bored in the house.  Over the past couple of weeks she has, inch by inch, ventured out into the backyard via Buzz's doggie door.  I've seen her partake in a little green grass outdoors - which is good for kitties to eat every now and then, by the way. If they eat too much, though, you will find it regurgitated in areas you hoped not to.

This morning, Biscuit decided to venture outside after finishing her breakfast.  She hung out on the patio a while, preventing numerous birds from flocking to the seed I had just deposited in the feeders.  Oh well, I thought to myself, the birds will come later.

Next thing I know, Biscuit is hiding in the knock-out roses, scouting a dove that is perched on the bird bath.  All hell breaks loose as the dove, not the fastest bird on the block, freaks out and flies smack dab into the fence.  I immediately get up from my coffee and whisk Biscuit into the house before she can pounce on the poor stunned dove.   

Well, that lasted 3 minutes.  Psycho Cat's now had a taste of the possibility that she might actually capture a bird, no claws and all.  She's back out there hiding behind my St. Francis statue, lying in wait for another fat dove.  How ironic is this, I think?  St. Francis is holding a dove in his hand. 
 
I get up again from my now cold coffee and shoo her away again.  In less than 3 minutes she's back outside (thus, the luxury and limits of having a doggie door.)  This time there is a huge ruckus in the backyard and I'm hearing chattering and clicking noises I've not heard from a bird before.  I look up and Biscuit has amazingly scaled my live oak tree, due to shear speed, no doubt, as she falls 8 feet to the ground when her clawless paws don't stick.  She's quite unhappy and so is that something which is chattering  and clicking from above.  As I walk outside, I see there is a squirrel above us, flicking his tail wildly and giving Biscuit the ole, "haa haa haa ha haaaa, you didn't catch me" business!   

I scoop up Biscuit and walk her back into the house for the 4th time.  I decide I'll give her some extra food this morning to fatten her up and hopefully make her drowsy for the remainder of the day.  I can only hope. 

This trick gives me about a 5 minute reprieve.  I'd settled back into my comfy kitchen chair with a refill of coffee, when I hear thumping and over the counter I see a white flash dashing back and forth in my living room.  I assumed Biscuit was playing around with another piece of curling ribbon she found around the house so I wasn't too worried . . .

FLASHBACK . . . those of you on my Facebook Page know that two days in a row this week I arrived home from work to find my blind & deaf dog, Buzz, with his two back legs completely wrapped up in curling ribbon - no doubt, compliments of Biscuit.  Both days I found him sleeping soundly in his doggie bed, unable to walk properly because his legs were bound.  You see, I had wrapped a gift earlier in the week and left the remaining ribbon out on the kitchen counter.  Only Biscuit could retrieve it.  I can only imagine in my mind how bonkers the curling ribbon must have made her to get to the point she ran 'round and 'round my poor helpless dog - two days in a row!  Of course, after the second day I placed the ribbon in a drawer where Psycho Cat could not find it - well, at least I had hoped she wouldn't find it!

Back to the story this morning . . . as I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop, trying to order one simple item for my mom for Christmas, I had to yet again get up from my seat and check out what Psycho Cat was up to.  After all, she was now bouncing off the couch, coffee tables and fireplace and I wanted to be sure she wasn't binding and gagging Buzz again!  Mystery solved.  Seems as though while eating her second breakfast this morning, Psycho Cat found a huge, cold-stunned, helpless moth in the garage.  I tried to save it before it became headless, but no such luck.  Psycho Cat may not have claws, but her teeth can do a world of damage and she's discovered maiming insects with her teeth make them more fun to play with.

Paper towel in hand, I give the moth a proper burial in the garbage can.  As such, Biscuit is off to another adventure, no doubt.   

Well, this is it for today.  Just had to share the events of my "laid back" Saturday morning!  By the way, before I sat down to type this post I scooted over to my email to confirm my online shopping order went through.   Yep, it went through - TWICE!    

I can see Psycho Cat is back outside.    Where's that customer service number??   I think I better correct this on the telephone this time!

Until next time,
Cindy

Speaking of online shopping, if you do some of yours online as do I, please consider doing me a favor to help build "authority" for my blog - place your orders from Amazon, Petsmart, iTunes and others by clicking on the ads to the left.  There is absolutely no difference in price to you by going through my blog and you can order anything from the shopping site - not just the item on the ad.  This helps promote and build authority for my topics so that I can continue to be found in the search engines! 

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Purple Coneflower Dried Flower Heads and Seeds

Clematis (pics below) are other examples.   Maple tree seeds actually twirl through the air similar to helicopters!  Another way seed is dispersed by wind, although indirectly you might say, is through tumbleweeds!  I must admit I never thought of a tumbleweed being a form of wind hitchhiking for seeds!  For a very detailed and interesting article about wind dispersal of seeds, see:  http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plfeb99.htm.

     
  Gerbera Daisy Seed                                                    Clematis Seed  

Instead of seeds embedded in dried flower heads, other plants form pods in which one or more seeds are encapsulated.  Again, you will find these pods at the point where the former flower dropped off the plant.  Most times, seeds drop straight down from these types of plants (once the pod becomes dry and brittle) and they germinate nearby the mother plant.  Think of Morning Glory, Moonflower, and Cardinal Climber.  These seeds are relatively easy to collect by simply gathering the pods just prior to them dropping from the plant.  You can also look directly below the mother plant and gather seed from the ground as well.  


  Morning Glory Dried Seed Pod and Seeds

With other plants, the seed pods eventually become so brittle they shrink, separate with force and actually pop interior seeds in the air, dispersing them outward from the mother plant.  Think about 

Dwarf Mexican Petunia.  These types of seeds can be somewhat challenging to collect unless you happen across a dried pod just prior to it popping!  


Dwarf Mexican Petunia Seed Pods in Various Stages (dark brown pod on right is almost ready to pop)

As we know, seeds of vegetables reside inside the mature fruit of the plants.   -And where on the plant are vegetables harvested?  For the fourth time - at the point of a former flower!  Think of Tomato, Pepper, Squash, Cucumber, and Pomegranate plants, for examples.    In the natural, the pulp (or fruit) around the seeds serves as the ultimate fertilizer should the fruit drop or be left to rot on the ground.  I can attest to this as one lazy winter I left pumpkins out to rot behind my greenhouse in my backyard after using them for Thanksgiving decorations.   Come spring, I literally had hundreds of little pumpkin plants sprouting alongside my greenhouse!  Leaving the fruit pulp among the seed greatly enhanced the success of germination.  However, I do not recommend this method for many reasons - you'd probably prefer to eat the fruit if possible; it is too smelly and messy to plant an entire pumpkin, cantaloupe, etc.; and, of course, there are superb soil and fertilizer alternatives! 

Well, if you had a prized plant or two or three in your garden this summer and would like the opportunity to grow additional ones from seed next year, take the time in the next week or so to look closely at the former flowering areas of your plants.  You will most likely find seeds or seed pods  in abundance at this time of year.  However, let me provide you a few of tips regarding harvesting the seed:

• Keep in mind the size of a seed can vary greatly and may not correspond with the size of the plant necessarily.  Some seed are so tiny you can barely see them with the naked eye and others are hard to miss.  Moss Rose, Alyssum and some grasses have minute seeds.  Among those plants with large seeds are the Avocado and Peach trees. 
• Unless it is a fruit or vegetable plant, wait until the seed or seed pod is dried (brown and crunchy) before harvesting.  I have never had success harvesting immature or green seeds.  This means you will need to allow your prized plants to dry up and "go to seed" versus tidying up for fall.  Think of Dill for example. 
• If your seeds are inside a fruit/vegetable - after de-seeding the fruit, wash the seed and spread it in a single layer on a cookie sheet or paper towel and let dry on the counter for several days.  
• Remove as much chaff as possible and store seed in a cool, dry area or container until planting time comes next spring.  I usually store seed in sealed plastic ware or used coffee cans and place in my garage or pantry. 
• Lastly, after all this talk about collecting seed I must let you know not all plants produce seed that is "true."  What this means is, if you purchased an amazingly beautiful, unusually-colored Moss Rose hanging basket this year and wanted to duplicate it via seed next year, unfortunately its seed may not produce the exact colored flowers or it might not even produce flowers at all.  This is because the genetics and cross breeding involved with creating the unusual "hybrid" plant may have rendered it unable to reproduce "true."  If you are aware a plant is a hybrid, just keep in mind its seed may not produce an exact replica of the mother plant.