A lot of my work and vigilance went down the drain- or should I say down the trash can. When I questioned my family member that tossed them out I was really surprised by how unsympathetic the reaction was.
"Whatever, they're just seeds."
Actually they were MY seeds that I went through a lot of work to collect. And they were going to be used for trades and to build up the number of plants in the garden.
"They're just seeds that grow some plants."
Seeds grow more than just plants. It was the realization that saving the biggest, nicest seeds from the best crops would result in better crops and that realization allowed our expansion out of the cradle of civilization. Because of seeds I've met a lot of really cool people on the internet and have been exposed to plants I could never afford to buy let alone find on a seed rack. From my experience seeds grow friends. The generous seed traders I met on GW not only shared seeds with me but I was able to give seeds to others, I shared seeds and seedlings with my neighbors. These seeds that came from across the country helped beautify my community and I found myself having conversations with people in my neighborhood who I had never really spoken with before. From my experience seeds grow a community.
In the middle of my rant (which fell on deaf ears) it dawned on me that I had created my own personal tag line.
"Seeds Grow More Than Just Plants"
The next time you're faced with someone who doesn't understand your need to buy seeds, stop your car along the road to harvest a seed pod or go out into your garden at night flashlight in hand to check on the ripening seed pod(s), explain to them that they're not just seeds and that "Seeds Grow More Than Just Plants."
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I used a Sony Cybershot Digital Camera
, a sheet of white paper and an opaque take out container to take the photo of the Castor bean you see on this blog entry. If you want to reproduce the effect of a pure white background in some of your photos see this mini-tutorial entry on my other blog. If you have questions feel free to ask them in the comments section of that blog entry.
I know how that can be. I am lucky to have a mother that grew up on a farm so I'll never hear "They're just seeds". If she's thrown anything out, it'll be of other reaasons. "They didn't look healthy. They didn't look like they would grow." etc...
ReplyDeleteI'd still be livid because my response would be "But I still wanted to give them a chance!"
I used to harvest 'Heavenly Blue Morning Glories' for years and years. I actually started to think of the seeds as something I'd pass down to a child or nephew/niece. "Been growing them for years, I have!"
However, the sad thing was, as the years passed, the seeds were growing into weaker and 'stringly' plants. More and more seeds weren't even germinating. I tried other locations but it was always the same. Eventually I just didn't bother collecting the seeds from it anymore.
I like your tag line. It makes you stop and think about what seeds can do. Not only can it bring people together in trades but they help a lot in nature, especially the bee in the picture.
Good point about the insects and birds I had totally forgotten about them when I made this post.
ReplyDeleteYour experience with the Heavenly Blue MGs is interesting. I hadn't thought about the possibility of a stock plant producing weaker seeds after a while. I'll have to do some reading and asking around. Did you think about introducing new seeds of the same plant from a different source?
BTW on my other blog I mentioned that you should start a blog of your own. Since you like Jades and they're such popular plants a think a blog about Jades would be a great addition to the blogosphere. Think about it.
I did but not just heavenly blue. I grew a variety of morning glories on an arch in the backyard so I was pretty sure the bees (or random insects) would've pollinated since the blue morning glories wasn't that far from it. One year, I tossed what seeds I had left into the bed with the other morning glories. I saw some blue ones on the arch but never did collect the seeds.
ReplyDeleteI started the blog and tinkered with it. Got about three posts up. I did post about other stuff besides jade plants though. *laughs* I wouldn't be sure what to post about on Jade plants.
LOL, well you have enough pics to fill that blog. I just checked it out and left you a comment.
ReplyDelete