Tag: seeds

Native seeds and seedlings

Having successfully sprouted native plants from seed using the very easy method in this podcast episode, I can now recommend a listen. Got me thinking about supporting local genetic diversity of each native plant species, not just a diversity of species.

Heather McCargo from The Wild Seed Project on Cultivating Place

Plus if you start native plants from seed you get to see their tiny baby form ❤️

This is a Nootka Rose / Rosa nutkana that sat outside in its pot all winter and popped up in March.

Close-up photo of a tiny Nootka Rose seedling, showing two oval cotyledons and a single lobed leaf

Sometimes it is hard to guess whether a sprout is your intended plant or a weed, but this one is recognizable even when still tiny. A little Western Red Columbine / Aquilegia formosa that sat unattended outside all winter and started slowly growing itself in February.

Close-up photo of a Western Red Columbine seedling, with its classic Aquilegia leaf form-- groups of three, blue-green leaves with lobed ends

Yarrow started coming up in December and hasn’t stopped. It’s one of those plants that really loves life. Hopefully it will stay this happy once i transplant it into my lawn 🌱

Close-up photo showing multiple plugs in a seedling tray that are crowded with yarrow seedlings' feathery leaves

Great Camas / Camassia lechtlinii has been making me emotional by self-seeding all over my garden after its first year of blooming, but it did come up really well in outdoor trays as well. It’s like it was meant to grow here or something.

Close-up photo of part of a seedling tray, with grass-like camas seedlings growing several to a plug.

Last baby photo for today: this is a wildflower from the prairies (not my region) that I am growing because it’s so pretty. Prairie Smoke / Geum triflorum. It was described as non-invasive here in the PNW and I would believe it– suuuuper tiny seedlings sprouted outdoors in February, but sparsely and they have been growing very slowly.

Close-up photo of a very tiny Prairie Smoke seedling, with two oval cotyledons and two scalloped leaves all flat to the soil.

Seed starting, seed saving

My peppers are sprouting, Aleppo peppers from seeds I saved last year. I started growing these because the plants were facing extinction due to the war in Syria. There was a push to steward the seeds for when Syrians could return to farming them. (Also the peppers are delicious.)

I remember Cheryl Bryce talking about how war and colonization doesn’t only happen to humans, it happens to the rest of the inhabitants of the land as well. That invasive species are a form of colonization. I started growing qʷɬáʔəl (kwetlal, camas) because so many people in that podcast emphasized that settlers can and should learn to propagate Indigenous plants.

Bonus pronunciations:

It’s interesting to me that with all the complications of power dynamics and cultural appropriation, it’s so common to encourage allies to do seed keeping work. Yes, grow the seeds in your garden. Yes, save the seeds and trade them around. It isn’t only hobby gardeners who want to share seeds and cuttings and harvests. (Disclaimer that each plant has its own discussion and context.)

Now that it is seed starting season in the northern hemisphere, I wonder who is growing Palestinian plants, to keep the seeds for when Palestinians can grow them again. This episode of Seeds and Their People from a few years ago is an interview with a Palestinian seed keeper in Philadelphia, growing molokhia (jute), kusa (a summer squash), and zaatar (a savoury herb), and it includes links to buy seeds from the True Love Seeds network of small farmers.