Gardening for the next era.

This is a concept, I am making up as I go along.  I expect it to evolve.

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Each gardener has a local climate.  Also local soil, local minerals, local water, local plant diseases and insects.  By growing what grows best locally, the gardener pioneers for himself, and also for future gardeners.  Big companies can't/won't do that.  They grow what looks and does the best in big, regionally centralized commercial nurseries.  Plants that look best in the big box stores and garden centers.   Those may be shipped hundreds of miles.  For farmers, a genetic "bottleneck", is created, eliminating diversity by marketing genetically engineered crops that require commercial chemicals to grow.  

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Generations of gardeners and farmers in the past saved their seeds.  They created countless varieties of plants and great genetic diversity, and local adaptation.  Genetic diversity created opportunity and flexibility for changed conditions.  Now, with a much smaller number of hybrids (which don't grow true from saved seeds), and genetically engineered plants, that are not legal for gardeners to reproduce, we are increasingly dependent on plants that are not designed for diversity, not locally adapted, not amenable for the individual gardener to develop, probably more susceptible to disease, insects, climate challenges.  The effect is complete dependency on the marketer and chemical company, and at the same time, more risky plants with less future potential, and more dependency on chemical products for the garden.

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This is not to demonize hybrids.  Many of them are great.  But there is a lot to be said for saving seeds, starting your own plants from ones that do well for you, and sharing them with others.  It's usually easy.  It's very rewarding to see plants that I grew from seeds, that I collected from plants that I grew from seed, that I collected....

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Then there's trees.  Most nursery-grown trees are grown as cloned grafts from a small number of varieties.  Even forest trees are made via clones of the fast producing varieties.  That makes them more susceptible to disease and climate challenges.  By growing trees from seeds, you provide future generations with more genetic diversity.   You create a buffer against clonal degradation, and propagate varieties that prosper locally.  You grow a tree that is most likely to thrive in your own community.  That tree may impart disease or insect resistance not present in a clone.  In addition, cloned plants, especially grafts, carry viral disease from one generation to the next, but seeds do not proliferate the viral infections.  Virally weakened plants are less vigorous and less productive.  

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Figs and roses are good examples.  Grafted roses do not live as long, and virally infected roses are more susceptible to weather challenges.  Most figs carry fig mosaic virus, which is thought to make them less productive.  

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Many trees are easy to grow from seeds.  A young person will live to see the tree mature.  An older person will know that they have given something valuable to future generations.  As a boy, I grew maples, ginkgos, honey locusts, maples, and oaks from seeds.  Even though I don't live in the region where these were started, the last time that I visited, some of those trees were amazing, huge trees.  Shows how old I am.  My grandfather grew peaches from seeds.  More recently, I've grown ginkgos, peaches, cherries, and plums from seeds. 

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 The 15 year old ginkgo in my back yard is now about 20 feet tall.  That seed came from a tree, grown from seed from my elderly boyhood neighbor, Herman Deege.  He taught me about how gingkos were around in the time of dinosaurs.  Most commercially grown gingko trees are a handful of clones, all male to avoid growing female trees that make stinky, messy fruits.  However, ginkgos are also a food crop.  Americans have not caught onto that yet.  Similar thoughts apply to other tree species - ginkgos happen to be a favorite of mine.

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I'm planning to use more open pollinated, locally adapted varieties as time passes.  If I see a seed from a tree that is prospering, I might grow it.  I'll continue saving seeds from garden vegetables, and some fruits, that do well for me here.  I don't think I have to spend decades developing varieties.  Much of that has been done.  I just have to be conscious about my choices, and conscious about saving seeds when the opportunity presents.

Garlic, Shallots, Potato Onions. Progress Report.

Potato onions are almost all up, and 6 to 8 inches tall. The earlier ones are ahead of the later ones, by a few inches. Only one of the earlier ones has not sprouted. Several of the later ones have not sprouted. Egyptian Walking Onions are a little smaller but virtually all of them have also sprouted and grown to about 4 to 6 inches tall. The bed is a little weedy. I've been pulling weed seedlings. More of that effort is needed.

Inchelium garlic. I think it's at about 50% sprouted now. Keeping track of the growth will help me plan timing for next year. About half of the later-planted Inchelium garlic has also sprouted. Not clear the earlier planting is advantageous.

The german porcelain garlic. Growth is excellent. Next question will be, is faster growth more, or less, susceptible to the freezes to come.

The Holland Shallots are about 50% sprouted. The Safeway shallots are 0% = none have sprouted yet. I guess that's an effect of germination inhibitor, used for produce.. I wonder what germination inhibitors might do to the people who eat treated produce.

Plum Seeds

These are the wild plum seeds I opened 2 months ago and placed into the fridge in a moist paper towel, sealed in a plastic ziplock sandwich bag. That was July 8th. So germination is about 3 1/2 months. One looks rotted. The other 2 are slightly moldy but growing. This was one week ago.

Here they are today. I planted them in seed starting soil. No problem from the mold. Seems like wrong time of year to be sprouting. Will grow in window.

Irises.

The 3rd raised bed is completed. Soil is from a pile behind the house. Again, mixing with compost as I filled. Maybe about 20% compost by volume. This time it's for flowers. Saving space for the spring shipment of irises. Plus added a row of Anemone rhizomes at the front. No idea if they will grow. They were like little rocks. Dry and hard.  Could have soaked them first. In this climate, with rain expected for the next 4 months, that seems excessive.  So I did not soak them.  I"m growing the Irises in a grid.  I'm not interested here in them as landscaping.  I like the flowers for themselves. The bed is just under 4 X 8, and the irises are about 7 across and 3 deep.  So a little more than a square foot each.  The smaller growing ones are toward the front.

The three iris rhizomes here with, white leaves are from dried-out shipments / store bought.  No confidence they will grow planting so late.  The far right, back one is Red Zinger, a medium size iris I wanted to try.   The lower right one is a rescue, I saved from bacterial rot this summer.  Diety.  Between them, I planted 2 rows of iris seeds from this summer's hybridization effort.  By planting them in the beds, there is minimal maintenance.

I planted some of the containerized irises. I've been coddling them for months. Four have died from bacterial rot. None of the in-ground irises did. Maybe that means, container method is not so good? The potting soil is not so good?  Mostly I want this bed for heritage irises, but some are modern.  I did not water them in.  I planted a little shallower than they were in containers. They had excellent root growth.  I tried not to disturb the roots.  No use spreading the root out.  Iris roots are deciduous, die off and are replaced as new rhizomes grow.

Trees, leaves, planning for bees. Plant trees in fall. Ginkgo.

That back yard ginkgo. The leaves are yellow now. Beautiful! I say it over and over, but I'm proud I grew that from a seed!

The big maple at the battleground place. So beautiful. Dropping leaves. They will make lots of great compost.

Found this little leaf linden, "Greenspire' at HD. Marked down from sale price of $39.99 to $8.00. Can't beat that price. With plans to start beehives, linden trees are a great choice. I read that linden pollen makes the best honey. This tree had a great root mass. Not too root bound. I did have to prune a few. There is no central leader. It will need corrective pruning for 2 or 3 years. But at that price, who can complain? I cut off a couple of small rubbing branches, that's all. Wait for bloom, prune after that next Spring.

About 8 feet tall once planted. The ground was very easy to dig now. No more summer dry soil. Not too much work. It will be a great source of pollen for the honey bees.

What does it take to make me happy? Leaves for compost is a good start. It's like a christmas present. Leafmas.