Kitchen Garden Blog #2: In which we winnow.


THE ALICE MILLER KITCHEN GARDEN 

Blog #2: In which we winnow.

A wise person once said, "Gardening is a long game that never ends." I don't actually know if anyone ever said that. But i'm saying it now. For those reading this that are avid gardeners, they'll know what I mean. You're always learning as a gardener, the issue is that it takes a long time to get another crack at it. "Oh my cucumbers struggled this year, perhaps they didn't get strong pollination, I'll try again.....in 10 months!"  BUT - gardening is not all about the end product. It's about the journey too and you can get a lot of joy from the various stages of growth. Planting a seed, creating the right conditions for germination, nurturing the young plants, observing them grow into big healthy plants, trouble shooting any issues along the way, and then finally harvesting! (A little bit like growing young people. I'm not sure about the harvesting part...) But it doesn't end there. It's a never ending cycle, if you want it to be. I always let plants go to seed. The flowers are great for pollinating insects, and the plants provide you with a means to propagate them again....seeds! I love collecting and saving seed from my healthiest plants. I brought in a variety of plants that had gone to seed and we spent a session carefully collecting the viable seed to plant. Part of this process is winnowing. It's such an old fashion, but useful technique to seperate the wheat from the chaff - so to speak.  We broke the seed heads up with our hands and let everything fall into mixing bowls. We then gently blew across the tops of the bowls, blowing away the lighter, husk material and leaving the heavier seeds. We then jarred and labelled them for future planting.








Cheers and happy gardening - John and the KG Team












 

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