“I Loved this Video!” – More Thoughts on Seed-Saving | The Survival Gardener

Lisa writes:

I loved this video! David gave a brilliant explanation as to why gardeners should save seeds, touching on several points that are relevant to the average backyard gardener.

My local climate in a high altitude of Pennsylvania can be challenging for growing some types of veg. I’ve learned that saving and growing seeds year after year produces better results both in plant health and harvest size. I save seed from broccoli, kale, pak choy, parsley, beans, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, okra, taters, and some flowers.

Another advantage of the seed-saving process is that when you let your plants go to flower, it draws in pollinators and Enemies of Bad Bugs. I love watching hundreds of them swarming the clouds of flowers before the plants go to seed. I have very little pest pressure in my backyard garden and maybe it’s partly because of the support that the flowering plants provide for the tiny assassins.

I was glad to hear David mention the book ‘Landrace Gardening’ as it’s at the top of my book list to buy.

Also coincidently, I’m growing Seminole pumpkin for the first time this year, hoping to save seed and that it will adapt to the conditions of my land. I’ve successfully grown cempazuchil (true wild marigolds native to Mexico, used in Day of the Dead observances) which take months to start blooming, in my short-season region by saving and regrowing seeds of the first blooming flowers. One particular lettuce that I’ve been growing for five years has become my “pet” veggie. It popped up one early spring day in a pot that had been left outside all winter, probably the lone survivor of a lettuce mixture from a packet of seeds from the dollar store. I let some go to seed, saving some and also letting seed release into the area. It’s a big, beautiful red/green deer-tongue type of lettuce. It’s delicious, even when warm weather turns other lettuces cranky and bitter, and slow to bolt. And oh man, is it prolific! It grows everywhere, popping up in the lawn, other garden beds, under fruit trees. Although I still save its seed, I don’t have to anymore because it magically appears each spring. Reminds me of manna.

Lisa left that comment on this video:

She’s having success adapting seeds to her climate, using the same techniques we use here and Joseph Lofthouse uses in Utah.

Though I can’t always share gardening information specific to each climate in which my various viewers are located, we do use a lot of principles and techniques that apply universally. The Grocery Row Garden system is universal, as is Landrace Gardening. Composting, single row gardening, etc., are also universal.

Work with the climate God gave you, adapt your plantings to it, and use what you can of the advice you get on YouTube and in books. We’ve learned from gardeners in the tropics and gardeners in the far north, gardeners in arid climates and gardeners in the rain forest. Eat the meat, spit out the bones.

Then throw the bones in the compost pile.

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