MY SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Reasons to Save
I’m saving seeds of some of this year’s juiciest tomatoes and most colorful flowers to plant in next year’s garden. Why? Saving my own seed from year to year gives me a bit of independence from seed companies, which, for one reason or another, may stop offering certain varieties.
Picnic Orange pepper from saved seed
It’s also a way way to maintain an annual supply of seeds that seed companies never offer, so-called heirloom varieties that have been handed down for generations from parents to children and from neighbor to neighbor. Read more
TWO GOOD FLAVORS IN ONE
Friend or Foe?
Is it a weed or is it a garden plant? Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) is among those plants — paulownia tree, Jerusalem artichoke, mint, and anise hyssop are others — that has paraded under either guise.
Garlic chives comes from a good enough family, the onion family. There is one definitely weedy member to this family, wild garlic, but so many of its other kin are valuable garden plants. Star-of-Persia, Read more
HOMEGROWN IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST
What is Ripe?
Some people, many of them gardeners, believe that the secret to eating a delectable tomato is to grow it yourself. Second best, they say, is farm-fresh. At the risk of committing horticultural sacrilege, I say “not so” in both cases.
Ripeness is, of course, important to great flavor. An unripe tomato tastes no better than cotton soaked in diluted lemon juice, to me at least. But this time of year, ripe tomatoes are to be had everywhere: from backyards, from roadsides, from farm stands, even from supermarkets! And if truth be told, tomatoes picked slightly underripe can still ripen to perfection off the plant, as do bananas, winter apples, avocados, and pears. Read more
