Today is International Kitchen Garden Day. Admittedly, I had hoped to plan something, a meal perhaps if nothing more, but in the busy-ness of back-to-school I've dropped the ball. Instead I'll be looking out at my yard and appreciating the fact that my newly sprouted beans won't be inundated by the 8 - 15" of rain that we could have received if Tropical Storm Fay had continued our way without weakening.
In my garden, we're still getting jalapenos and bell peppers, a few green onions, and herbs.
I've been planning the fall garden and have ordered a few things that I needed. If you have leftover seed (as I do) you can still use it the next season, and in some cases even for a few years. The germination rate will go down, but you should still be able to get the plants you need by sowing more seeds. I was paging through a book my mother gave me, Rodale's The Frugal Gardener: How to Have More Garden for Less Money, and found a chart of expected life of seeds. (It's not my favorite garden book, but I do reference it fairly regularly.) There's the usual caution about keeping seeds in the proper conditions, i.e. cool and dry. I used to save seed as recommended, in an airtight jar in the refrigerator with a silica packet to absorb moisture, but the last few years I've just been keeping them in a storage container in the house and I don't notice a difference in performance.
What's your appreciation of your kitchen garden today?
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