Just A Seed: The Life of A Poppy

The life of a poppy seed is short, but very beautiful!

The poppy flower bud.  Little does it know the long journey it is about to embark on!  From bud to flower to pod to seed and FINALLY to our shower.

Poppy flowers come in a variety of colors, including pink!  They can be either double (as in the picture) or single.  I'm not really a fan of the single poppies.  Why would you want a single row of petals when you could have this gorgeous beauty?

Sadly, poppy flowers don't last very long.  So enjoy them while they last! 

After the petals fade and fall the poppy pod stands tall and proud.  The poppy's pod has an important job.  It protects the precious seeds and allows them to fully mature and dry in the safety of its circular shell.  The green pods contain seeds that are not dry.  The green pods are very difficult to open, but once the pods dry to the correct point, little 'doors' at the top of the pod open and the seeds can escape.  A light breeze or a passing human will stir the pods and they scatter their seeds in all directions.  Sometimes the seeds will travel several dozen feet away from the original pod.  The pods act as tiny catapults! 

Each beautifully designed poppy pod holds hundreds of tiny seeds.

These seeds can be collected and planted next year or they can be used in a variety of interesting items, including soap!

The finally step in the life of our poppy seeds: Lemon Poppy Seed soap colored with natural safflower powder.  These little poppy seeds have traveled from bud to flower to pod to seeds and now will work as powerhouse exfoliaters to get our skin smooth.  

In life,

we can only hope to be as beautiful or as useful as the humble poppy seed.  

My Egg-celent Seed Planter

I planted some Lincoln shell peas. The seeds are from last year, so I put in some extra seeds. If they all sprout - Yay! If half sprout - Yay! Either way I will get some peas - Yay!

I covered the peas with some straw to hold in the moisture.
Moisture = good germination = more peas!
The straw was free! From the brush site. It's amazing what people will throw away.


This is my egg-celent seed planter. It's the egg holder that came with my refrigerator.
I put a few seeds in each opening, removed the seed spacer and lightly covered the seeds with soil. Hopefully, this way the seeds will be spaced and I won't have to thin the seedlings. I always promise to thin them, but then I forget about it until it's too late.

Showing Off Plants

Just a post to show off the beautiful plants!

Aren't they gorgeous?

My Mom and I are throwing around the idea of having a plant sale in mid-May.

We started way too many plants (again - how does that happen every year?).

Last year we gave away the extras, but this year I think it would be fun to have a plant sale.

We could sell plants and I could sell a few of my cement mushrooms and glass plate flowers.

So, if you live in central Minnesota and want some plants........

Tomato Starts Growing

The seeds' babies are still growing!

Starting Seeds - Spring 2010

It's time to start seeds!

Last week I went over to my Mom's house and we started peppers, eggplants, geraniums and petunias.

The propagation unit showing off its wicking layer.

Spreading in the starter soil.

Pressing the soil into each cell.

Seeds ready to be covered (except for the petunias - they need light to germinate).

Everything written out in the planting book.

The grow lab.


Fast forward ONE WEEK..........................................

Bing!

We have sprouts!

These are almost ready for transplanting.

They are so tiny!

Just to show you how we position the light over the propagation unit.

Spring Will Soon Be Here

This is a list of some of the seeds/plants I have ordered for the 2010 season.

I say some, because I ordered a bunch of tomato/pepper/herb seeds from Baker's Creek that aren't in this list.

Some of the seeds I ordered are for my Mom and Dad.

I buy the seeds and my Mom starts the plants for both of us.

It's a win/win!

The ones in italics are varieties I planted last year and liked so much I'm planting them again.

~
Stock Harmony Mix
Stock Princess Pink
Ornamental Kale Nagoya Hybrid Mix
Golden Shallots
Super Giant Zinnia Mix
Yukon Gold Potato Sets
Margarets Pepper
Parris Island Romaine Lettuce
Gooseberry Offer
Golden Crown Hybrid Watermelon
Oregon Giant Pea
Planet Hybrid Pepper
Early Butternut Winter Squash
Miss Oklahoma Canna
Red Lake Currant
Super Blend Hybrid Broccoli
Dusky Hybrid Eggplant
Copra Hybrid Onion Plants
Candy Hybrid Onion Plants
Tiede Lettuce
Mixture Inca 11 Hybrid Marigolds
Burpee Golden Beet
Zavory Pepper
Tidal Wave Petunia Offer
Gourmet Sweet Pepper
Ribbon Hybrid Snapdragon
Heavenly Blue Morning Glory
Canesi Hybrid Winter Squash
Hot Pink Orbit Hybrid Geranium
Sweeter Yet Hybrid Cucumber
Magellan Coral Hybrid Zinnia
Hansel Hybrid Eggplant
Savoy Express Hybrid Cabbage
Twinny Peach Hybrid Snapdragon
Delicata Winter Squash
Redskin Hybrid Sweet Pepper
Ailsa Craig Exhibition Onion Plants
Majestic Giants 11 Hybrid Mix Pansies
Forget Me Not Gladiolus
Blue Giant Hosta
Fireworks Cornflower
Mixture Antigua Hybrid Marigold
Blue Lake S-7 Stringless Pole Bean
Sugar Baby Watermelon

~

My Baker's Creek order arrived yesterday and for the first time ever - I got everything I ordered!

Usually they have to refund part of my order, because they are sold out.

Well, thinking that at least some of my order wouldn't be in stock - I ordered extras!

We will not be short on tomatoes this next year!

Have you ordered your seeds yet?

Seed Box

I saw this great idea on another blog My Tiny Plot.

She organized her seed box by month, but because my growing season is so short here, I didn't think that would work for me, so I used plant names.

I also used a bright neon orange box, so I can't lose it in my garden.

Before.

My "seed box".

Very unorganized! I just put all my seed packets in this cardboard box and when I wanted to plant something I would dig through all of them.

Not the best system.

In fact, last year I forgot to plant shell beans, because I didn't see the 2 packets until August.

Whoops! Too late!

Now.

Nice and organized.

Now, I can see what seeds I need to order for this year - mostly peppers, flowers and one or two new tomatoes, but I have lots of seeds to use from last year.

I also like this box, because it has a cover.

(It's a shoe box.)