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30.10.09

How To Collect Hosta Seeds

Gardeners who grow hostas usually grow them for the foliage and because they lighten up shady gardens, but these perennial garden plants have just as impressive star-shaped flowers. The first hosta was introduced in my garden by way of seeds I swapped with another gardener online. In the fall I dug a small hole in the soil and placed the seeds, covering them with an inch or two of soil...the next spring I had hosta leafs!

I now have a couple of different hostas, all grown from seeds I collected once I learned how easy it was to gather and sow the seeds.

Unopened hosta blooms, how to collect hosta seedsHosta flower stalk: How to Collect Hosta Seeds.

22.10.09

How To Collect Calendula Seeds

Calendula is sometimes called pot marigold but shouldn't be confused with Marigolds from the genus Tagets. Since they are in the Asteraceae family they also don't develop a single seed pod that makes collecting seeds extremely easy for the beginner gardener/seed saver among us, but the seeds are just as relatively easy to locate as the Marigold seeds.

Orange Calendula flower, How to collect calendula seeds

21.10.09

How to Collect Marigold Flower Seeds

Marigolds are common and inexpensive garden annuals, but that doesn't mean you can't, or shouldn't, collect seeds from your Marigold flowers for next year. This year was the first year in a really long time that I grew Marigolds in my garden. I grew them alongside a few vegetables and herbs as companion plantings. Over the weekend I found myself doing some cleaning in the garden and a took a few minutes to save a few seeds from my potted Marigolds for next year. Marigolds don't produce large or round seeds- which can make figuring out where the Marigold seeds are confusing for the beginner gardener or first time seed saver.

How to save seeds from Marigold flowers

15.10.09

How To Plant Iris Rhizomes In Your Garden

This past weekend I transplanted a few clumps of "black" bearded irises in my garden. The first time I planted iris rhizomes I thought they were planted similar to canna rhizomes and planted them too deep in the soil. A couple of clumps of iris rhizomes never bloomed and some bloomed only sporadically over the next few years. While reading a garden book one day I learned that the reason for the poor flower production was probably due to planting the rhizomes too deep.

Black Bearded Iris flower

5.10.09

5 Funny Garden Articles in WWN

The next time you find yourself in the checkout line of your local grocery store skip the traditional gardening magazines and pick up a copy of Weekly Wold News to keep up with the most interesting gardening stories.

Garden slug diet

3.10.09

How To Collect Morning Glory Seeds

Morning glories are popular annual garden vines because they grow in a variety of soil conditions and in container gardens. The flowers usually last for a single morning and die in the afternoon, although on cloudy days, the flowers may last well into the early evening or night.Collecting and saving morning glory seeds from a vine in your garden, or one you may admire in another garden, is just as easy as growing them in your garden. Morning glories require very little attention in the garden and collecting seeds from a morning glory doesn't take any special knowledge.

Blue morning glory flower, how to collect morning glory seeds

1.10.09

Gardening Articles In Life Magazine-For FREE!

Google recently digitized the entire run of Life magazine as a weekly and made the archive available for free. I was curious if there was any content in this archive that would be of interest to gardeners and have found quite a bit. Some relevant at the time gardening news, tips, gardener, garden and plant profiles. Here are a few that I've found interesting in my searching over the past couple of days. If you find any that you particularly like feel free to share with the group.