Zinnias are Awesome

"They bloom in vivid colors from summer until frost, are a snap to grow from seed, 

and attract birds, bees and butterflies to your yard"

One of our most successful flowers to grow has been the humble Zinnia. I guess you could call it a heritage flower, in the sense it has been around forever - If your grandparents were gardeners - they probably grew these.

The longevity and easy care nature makes it perfect for anyone looking to have a colourful display three seasons of the year.

The on-set of winter has meant however we no longer have them! They are slowly dying down but now we are blessed with dried seed buds! Yay - love seed collecting!

In a couple of months when the last frost has past, we will start re-planting - they are extremely easy to plant from seed.

Roll the seed head between your hands and scatter for a rambling cottage garden or pick out the spear-head shaped seeds, they range in colour from pale brown to black and are a similar size to a sunflower seeds, but flat. They can grow quite tall, so near a fence or other shrubs is ideal. As a rule of thumb, loosely cover the seed to a depth three times it's size. Allow 6 weeks before your garden is awash of Zinnia colour!

Dead heads don't look that attractive in the garden, but mean many more flowers for the future!

Used here in a foam block for a table centrepiece. 

Sweet Pea Seeds

...a bunch of love

What a brilliant display of sweet pea flowers we had this season. No doubt thanks to nature supplying us with those fat seed pods from the previous year! Any plant that goes to seed it is really worth collecting as this is natures way of saying "hey this plant is growing really well here in these conditions - go populate!"

A few weeks back we collected a huge supply of seed of the last of the rambling vine. If the pod feels dry and rattles when you shake it - it's ready to pull off the bush. If some a still slightly green, but mostly brown, still pull it off - if you leave them somewhere for a week or two to completely dry out, they will be easier to crack open and collect the seed.

Then they go into a brown paper bag just in case there is any moisture so then they won't go mouldy. Label them and come St Patricks Day (17th March) we will be planting out these babies! By then hopefully along a 'new' fenceline… (mmm, possibly a new garden on it's way!)

Free Seed!

Now the Basil has dried out pretty well - time to get serious and score some seed! As well as free up some space in the garden for some other goodies.

You know the time is right when there are a good number of the dead seed heads on the bush.

Now this is the tried and tested way that I collect it, feel free to give feedback on improvements.

All I do is get a bucket (put some gloves on if you like) place your hand below the seed head and draw it up to rake the seeds off the stalk.

Then throw this handful of seed pods and stick and stuff into the bucket. Actually, this process can be applied to most plants.

Then shake the bucket around good, a bit up and down as well, roughly take out the lighter bits resting on top like leaf and stick. Do this a few more times, occasionally rubbing between palms.

Then start tipping from one bucket to the other and crouching down, blow a breath of air through the stream of seed as it falls to the bottom bucket (it is best doing this when there is a slight breeze blowing). Do this a bunch of times - the more you do it the cleaner batch of seed you will have.

When you do this think “Africans sorting out their wheat crop” you will feel the brother hood J Well it makes me feel good!

Trust me you will feel the wealth after doing this when you see all the seed you have. Now make sure you plant some straight into your garden, or give some to your neighbour!

There would have been heaps of seed fall into the garden throughout the process anyway.. Happy seed collecting!