No guts, no glory

As promised, we went back to the fishing spot again today.  This time, I came prepared with a container to take home the fish guts to add to the garden.  The proprietors were nice enough to give me lots of extra fish guts from other patrons!  Last week they asked me if I wanted to take any home and I regretfully passed.  I thought I wouldn't really have use for it because the garden has been planted for months -- the time to use that kind of material is a month or two before you start planting, right?  

Well, then I remembered the area that is supposed to be our pumpkin patch.  While we do have 2 pumpkin plants and 2 butternut squash plants, none of those plants are taking off like gangbusters, so maybe that area could use some supplementing.  I dug a trench in that general area and a couple of extra holes, and in went the fish guts.

I tried to do a decent job of covering it up, lest a random animal digs these up.  

It struck me how much of gardening is a "planner's" game, and how much it inherently fits with my personality.  I guess every worry wart should take up gardening.  I'm serious... what is gardening but planning for the future?  We pour through seed catalogs.  We make meticulous garden plans.  We amend the soil.  We plan for pests and predators.  We preserve the harvest lest we let any crop go to waste.  And then, we save seeds to do it all again next year.

I thought a lot about seeds this year.  I helped run a school fundraiser where we grew seedling starts.  A bunch of our sales inventory was derived from seeds that I saved in previous years.  It bugged the crap out of me to have to go to the store to buy seeds.  For example, I bought a zucchini seed pack that had a measly 13 seeds in it.  Of those seeds, I think only 2 or 3 germinated.  The pack probably cost somewhere between $3 and $4.  It's not that the money will break me or anything, but knowing that in my own garden I can generate a giant pile of seeds makes it hard to justify buying into a crummy supply chain that probably treats those seeds with God knows what.   So, if my laziness about pulling plants allows me to reap the reward of having free seeds, so be it!

When I used a hot pepper the other day, I kept those seeds.  I love saving pepper seeds because it's so easy.  I don't have to do the same fermentation treatment that I need to do for cucumbers and tomatoes.  I just leave it in a fine mess sieve over a few days and let it air out.  I know I'll be planting these again!

Next, I assigned the kids the job of harvesting the seed from the snap peas from the winter.  I kept one plant going after we'd had our fill of snap peas, hoping it will yield a bunch of seeds for next year.  I'm a little disappointed I didn't have more supply.   I'll remember that next year and save a few more plants.

Next weekend's project will be the meditative task of harvesting the radish seed pods.