Saving Carrot Seed

Carrots are a Biennial plant which means that in the first year they will produce leaves and a root and on the second year they will flower and go to seed. My carrots have finally gone to seed and are ready to harvest.

Here is a close up shot of the seed heads....They kind of look like hairy little bugs!

The seed heads are loaded and I am surprised at how many seeds are on one umbel.

The seeds are easy to harvest by shaking and gently rubbing from the umbel.  Watch out for earwigs though...I found a few while harvesting my seeds!

Looks like I will have plenty of carrot seed for  next years garden and the seeds are good for 3 years. 

Next step is to sieve the seeds  and rub the tiny hairs away with rubber gloves to make planting easier. 

Saving Sunny Seeds

Saving seeds from my beautiful Sunflowers, as the last days of Summer come to an end!

Sweet Harvest

This morning's sweet harvest...

It's a race to see who will harvest these first....Me or the chickens ;-)

Ease my worries

Life get's pretty crazy sometimes....

This past week has been a real doozy!!! 

What better way to ease my worries away,  than  relaxing in an outdoor bath.

Doesn't get any better than that!

Flower Power

'Tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes!  

~William Wordsworth

Hot Summer echinacea

Cheyenne Spirit echinacea

And the day came

when the risk to remain

tight in a bud...

 was more painful

than the risk

it took to blossom. 

   ~Anais Nin

Morning Glory

Cut and come again Zinnias

Bloom...

Grow...

Blossom!

Sunday Canning

I love an easy going Sunday...

Puttering around the garden led to collecting all the goodies for Crinkle Cut Dillies which led to puttering around in the kitchen.

I love how pretty the pickles look in the new green jars that  I got as a gift for my birthday!

 Image Source

Garlic Harvest

The Garlic was harvested on July 14th. this year. I usually dry the garlic in the shed but, this year I tried something a little bit different....

Garlic was laid out on the wire racks in the green house, in piles by variety and covered with sheets.

(I spy a very lazy daisy dog...lying in the back yard)

Well, as you can imagine...it gets scorching hot inside the greenhouse even with all the windows and door  open... 

The garlic dried lightening fast.

So, this past Sunday was spent trimming and cleaning all the garlic. A record time for me....I usually put this chore off until Fall.

Now...Oven roasted garlic is in my future.

Coloring outside the lines

This Strawberry Blonde sunflower volunteered to come up on it's own ... Popping up in a random spot, unconcerned that it may be coloring outside the lines of  a perfectly planted vegetable row.  

Flowering in an obscure, conjoined twin fashion, the double bloom heads are fused together and facing opposite directions.  I loved the surprise!

The Zinnia row is now in full bloom.

Berries on

This past week the Raspberries have began to ripen...Within a couple days, they have started to rapidly ripen...I see Raspberry jam making in my future!

Bush Cherries

Who knew? 

Guess I've been living under a rock!

Carmine Jewel Bush Cherry 

Self pollinating

Hardy to zone 2b

Height 6-8 ft.

Years to harvest: 3-4 years after planting

Saving Carrots

A year in the making.....The Carrot umbels have finally bloomed. 

I am always surprised at how tall a Carrot can get during the seed saving process.

Carrots are biennial's, which means that it will take two growing seasons to complete the life cycle. 

The first year is for vegetative growth, the second year is for maturity and seed production.

With just a little more time...these will be pollinated, left to dry on the stalk and then finally ready for harvest.