Seeds and Harvest Time

Growing up in suburban Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we always had a garden. A small suburban garden with pretty flowers that were different every year.  My parents sometimes had a small vegetable bed where tomatoes and beans struggled to grow in the short hot summers.   We had a large lilac shrub and a crab apple tree.  Those were pretty much the regulars, everything else was bought at the beginning of the season from a garden centre and when it died it was pulled.  My husband comes from a long lineage of alpine flower enthusiasts.  When we were first together he had two planters of narcissus that he had gathered from around Europe with his father.  They were being babysat by a friend who had outdoor space.  She had them for years.  The thought of having a friend look after plants for years with the intention of getting them back one day was really outside my comprehension.  Plants were disposable.  To my husband they were projects and things to be rescued.  Often coming home with a rough looking half dead plant from the supermarket and spending the time to help it recover and flourish on our windowsill.  

 

 

Then we moved to the country and were able to use a little bit of land to plant a garden.  A garden, as I have mentioned already in past posts, that was completely eaten by rabbits this year.  All except for some garden ornamental flowers and two year old spinach bed.  Then the pots started showing up.  Little pots full of seeds.  Instead of ripping out old flowers and plants when past their best, Dan leaves them to die fully and then collects the seeds.  

Check out these seed pods: 

Can you guess what flower it is from?  I’ll give you a hint.  It is a perfect plant to collect seeds from on Michealmas. Come over to Natural Kids Blog to find out.