Kitchen Scraps Garden Part Two: Carrot Seeds

Most kitchen gardeners grow carrots, and I am no exception. My daughters love eating them, and generally I find them easy to grow. While seeds are not overly expensive, I find I go through a great deal of them each year because of having to sow so many then thinning the seedlings to allow for adequate growth.

I have been experimenting with growing food from kitchen scraps, and I saw a post somewhere about planting the tops of carrots to produce seeds. As a novice gardener I am beginning to delve into seed saving, which has so many benefits. This seemed like a perfect fit.

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The Benefits of Bolting

We are approaching the dog days of summer and in the heat many vegetables are starting to flower. I am always surprised when I see people pulling up all their plants that have bolted, to make way for new plants. Of course once some plants have bolted their greens are bitter to taste and we need to remove them so that we can have a continuous supply of plants to eat. But those plants that have flowered are great for the garden. I would like to make an argument for intentionally letting some vegetables flower and go to seed.

Seed Saving

Leaving plants to go to seed, and then collecting the seeds, may not be on the list for novice gardeners, but I believe that it is important. It provides free seeds for subsequent years' gardens, which is always a good thing. It also preserves a diverse living history of plants so that we can maintain and grow plants that we do not typically see in the grocery store. There are many other benefits to seed saving, but an important one is that it takes the control of seeds out of the hands of corporations such as Monsanto and their terminator seeds.

Kale seed pods drying.

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Spot the Pollinator: Honey Bees

With the hot summer weather many things in my garden are starting to bolt. One positive of my plants going to flower is seed saving. Another is all the bees that the flowers are attracting to my garden, and I need them to pollinate my summer squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. But on a purely happiness level, seeing the bees makes me smile.

I'm a little bit obsessed with bees, and when I see them I have to stop and take a photo of them. My kids and husband are getting a little bit tired of waiting for me to get the perfect shot, which sometimes is a challenge armed with just my iPhone.

I saw the bumble bee and honey bee when we were at Granville Island
this weekend. In fact, there were so many bees here that the air was buzzing. 

I managed to get a second good capture as the bumble bee flew away.

This honey bee was pollinating my cucumbers.

Cilantro bolts very quickly, but it is lovely when it flowers. They are
in the same bed as my zucchinis and bringing the bees like crazy. The
bee is difficult to see in the top middle of the photo. 

I am linking up with The Green Bean Chronicles who is hosting the Spot the Pollinator segment. Pop on over and visit her.







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Save Seeds, Save the World

Over at The Green Phone Booth I'm blogging about the whys and hows of seed saving.

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