How to Save Bean Seeds {Tutorial}

As the garden is dying down and preparing for winter, I've been out collecting my open pollinated bean seeds to plant in following years, and wanted to share this easy tutorial.

As with all seed saving, be sure that you are only collecting seeds from plants that have been grown from open-pollinated (heirloom) varieties.  Any plant that is not open-pollinated, or hybrid, will not produce seed true to the parent type.  If you are unsure, check the seed packaging.  Most hybrid seeds are not labelled, but most open-pollinated seeds are.

Bean flowers are perfect, meaning that they self pollinate and produce without the help of bees.  This makes them one of the easiest seeds to save, because you do not need to worry about cross contamination or hand pollination.  The only thing you need to do is allow the beans to grow to full size, dry out, and harvest.

Most green beans are picked while young and tender, when the seeds are very small.  If you are planning on harvesting seeds, you will need to allow them to grow until the seeds are fully developed.  At this point the beans are not good for eating; they become tough and stringy.  Once they have reached this point, simply allow the pod to dry out, and you can harvest the seeds.  Here's how:

How to Save Summer Squash Seeds

I love September.  The nights start cooling off, but the days are still hot enough that the garden is still in full blown production mode.  Before all of the warm weather crops start dying off, I wanted to share a tutorial on how to save seed from summer squash plants.

As opposed to, say, tomatoes, squash plants do not have perfect flowers; meaning they do not self pollinate on their own.  They require the help of bees, or in this case, you.  Because of this, they are not the easiest seed to save successfully.  However, they are far from the most difficult, and anybody with a little know how can do it.  Today I'll be walking you through step by step.

As with all seed saving, the most important thing to remember is to choose plants that were grown from open-pollinated seeds.  Open-pollinated means that the plant will produce seed true to the parent plant.  Hybrid seeds are just the opposite: the seeds will not produce "true seed".
Open-Pollinated = Good for seed saving
Hybrid = Bad for seed saving

For this tutorial, I will be saving seed from an open-pollinated Rampicante Italian Vining Zucchini:

Keep in mind that this same process will work for seed saving from any summer squash plant.

How to store carrots in the ground over winter

I have found that carrots are one of those things that most home gardeners just don't grow.  Maybe it's because you can usually buy an enormous amount at the grocery store for $5.  That used to be my opinion.  But once you've eaten a home grown carrot... you'll never go back.  They are, in my opinion, one of the most noticeably improved tasting vegetable when grown at home.

And they are just about the easiest things to grow and store.

Which brings me to this post.

So if you did happen to grow carrots this year, and you don't quiet know what to do with them, this is for you!

(If you didn't grow carrots, or have never grown them, it is definitely worth looking into, because you are missing out!)

These pictures were taken in the middle of January in 2014.

I live in Utah, and it gets cold here.  But I have found that fresh garden carrots in the middle of winter are just as possible as any time of year; without electricity, hot beds, or anything else.  All you really need is a bag of leaves.

How to Prune Raspberries

Raspberries are one of my favorite fruits to grow at home!  They are easy to manage and are a worthwhile investment considering the price and flavor of those you can buy at the grocery store.

They require little maintenance each year, which involves pruning them.

First, a lesson on raspberries:
Each plant has 2 canes.  One cane produces berries, the other grows leaves only.
Each year, the "leaf" cane stores collects energy to store throughout the winter to produce a new came that will grow berries the following year.  It is important not to prune your raspberries until the leaves have fallen off - this allows time for the energy from the leaves to be transferred to the root of the plant.

Each year a new cane for growing berries will grow from each plant.  Once a cane has produced berries, it is useless after that.

So, when pruning, you have 4 jobs:
1) Remove canes that previously produced berries
2) Remove dead canes
3) Trim to desired height
4) Maintain boundaries

Here is my raspberry patch:  The leaves have fallen off or are dead, and it is a huge mess of vines.

How to Save Tomato Seeds

It is the middle of September.  The nights are cooling down, and so are some of the plants in my garden.  The tomatoes however, are still in full swing.  I wanted to share this easy technique on how to save your own tomato seeds before those delicious beauties are done producing for the year.

Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to save seed from.  The flowers are "perfect", meaning they self pollinate without the help of you or the bees.  There are only 2 things you need to keep in mind when choosing which tomatoes to save seed from.

May 2013 Garden Tour

I finally planted my garden.  And, since I am weird, and enjoy viewing what other gardeners are out planting, I have decided to give a picture tour of what I have so far.

May 2013 Garden Tour

Arial view of the major garden.  Not much to see yet, except for the strawberries and golden raspberries on the left.

Most everything was planted from seed, but you can see the carrots coming up in the top right corner.

Soaking Seeds Before Planting

As the garden season approaches, I wanted to share a quick tip that I adopted that has helped speed up the process of planting seeds.

24-48 hours before planting, soak seeds in water.

Moisture is needed for a seed to germinate.  Soaking the seeds will help better prepare them for germination, which results in them coming up quicker once planted.

2012 Garden Journal

Throughout each gardening year I keep a journal.  Last year I learned a lot!  And I am glad I wrote it all down.  It is helping me immensely in my preparations for 2013.  If you haven't started keeping one for yourself, I highly recommend it!

2012 Garden Journal

2011 Garden Journal

  Last year I posted about the importance of keeping a garden journal to remind yourself of what you planted, how much it produced, what you did well vs. what you did wrong, etc.

I should have posted this at the end of the season, but here is my complete journal for 2011.

I was in the middle of moving into a new home so I planted / transplanted everything into the garden during the first week of June.

I didn't lose any plants due to frost damage.

Plan a Garden Layout

One thing that has majorly helped me with gardening is to make a layout before I plant.

Start by taking the dimensions, and mapping it out:

I also like to use pictures.  It helps me remember exactly how many plants I had when I look back on previous years.

Garden Plant Spacing Guide

I am in full swing planning for this years garden (more of that to come), and I noticed I hadn't posted anything on plant spacing.

So, here is a quick rundown of each plant, the width of the row, the spacing between plants, and any other need to know notes.  This should help in determining how many plants you need for your area.

This obviously doesn't include every plant, but the list can easily be compared to plants of similar size/nature.

If you are a square foot gardener, check out this post for spacing questions.

Fertilizer (for the garden)

Anything and everything I know about fertilizer (which isn't much), I learned from a class I took a while back.  This is my simplified yet detailed description of how to fertilize for your garden; specific to the needs of Utah Valley.

FERTILIZER

Garden Plant Companions

Getting ready to plan your garden?

Remember to keep in mind that some vegetables do better (or worse) when planted next to others.

Here is a
Garden Plant Companion List
to help you decide where to plant.

Herb planting companion and use guide

Herbs make a great addition to your garden - but some plants do better with certain herbs planted close by.  This guide goes over where to plant herbs, as well as some of their uses.

HERB COMPANION AND USE GUIDE

Basil

Likes:

- tomatoes

Use:

- Repels flies and mosquitoes

Borage and Beebalm

Likes:

- tomatoes

Use:

- Improves growth and flavor

Caraway

Use:

- Loosens soil

Camomile

Likes:

- cabbage
- onions

Use:

- Improves growth and flavor

Chives

Likes:

-carrots

Use:

- Improves growth and flavor

Cucurbits 

Likes:

-pumpkins
- gourds
- cucumbers
- muskmellons
- watermelons
- squash

Dead Nettle

Likes:

- potato

Use:

- Deters potato bugs
- Improves growth and flavor

Flax

Likes:

- potato

Use:

- Deters potato bugs
- Improves growth and flavor

Garlic

Likes:

- raspberries
- roses
- fruit trees

Use:

- Deters Japanese beetle
- Improves growth and flavor

Henbit

Use:

- General insect repellent

Hyssop

Likes:

- cabbage
- grapes

Use:

- Deters cabbage moth

Lambs Quarters

Likes:

- corn

Lemon Balm

Plant throughout garden

Lovage

Plant throughout garden

Marjoram

Plant throughout garden

Marigold

Plant throughout garden

Use:

- pest deterrents (Mexican bean beetle, nematodes and other insects)

Mint

Likes:

- cabbage
- tomatoes

Use:

- Improves health and flavor
Deters white cabbage moth

Nasturtium

Likes:

- radish
- cabbage
- cucurbits
- fruit trees

Use:

- Deters aphids, squash bugs, striped pumpkin beetles
- Improves growth and flavor

Petunia

Use:

- Protects beans

Rosemary 

Likes:

- cabbage
- beans
- carrots

Use:

- Deters cabbage moth, carrot fly and bean beetle

Sage

Likes:

- cabbage
- beans
- carrots

Use:

- Deters cabbage moth, carrot fly and bean beetle

Tansy

Likes:

- radish
- cabbage
- cucurbits
- fruit trees

Use:

- Deters aphids, squash bugs, striped pumpkin beetles
- Improves growth and flavor

Tarragon

Plant throughout garden

Thyme

Likes:

- onions

Use:

- Pole Beans

Valcrian

Plant throughout garden

Wormwood

Use:

- Plant as a border - keeps animals out