Guest post by Ariane Khachatourians
Melon season has brought to me a new hobby: seed saving. I know it may surprising, but this has never been a priority for me… This year, however, was different, because over the course of the past month, I have eaten some of the best melons of my life–all organic varieties you never see at the supermarket. So, under the superb guidance of Gayla’s fabulous book, I decided to try my hand at saving some of the seeds from these melons for next year.
I saved the seeds from three melons: a small round orange fleshed watermelon,
a medium long pink watermelon, and a medium galia melon (two packets) which is a honeydew canteloupe hybrid (both of which I neglected to photograph…oops).
Rinsed off the seeds:
Let them dry on some tea towels, cause I didn’t have mesh or newspaper on hand:
Then packed them into cute little packets made from the patterns in Gayla’s book!
And voila! Cute seed packets to admire all winter long, and seeds for yummy melons to plant in the summer. What else could a gal ask for?
yay! potential!
nothing better than dreaming about green things when it’s dark and cold!
Seed saving is fabulous…I am inspired to get some of my organic buttercup squash seeds saved now too.
Love your embellishments on the packets. Lovely!
K–so true…i think i will take them out and just look at them in february when it is dreary and i haven’t seen the sun in months!
joni–it is so easy and satisfying! if you manage to get any plants from them in the spring, you will have to post on the forums and let us all know!
jenn–they’re all patterns from gayla’s book, she is so creative isn’t she? i linked to your blog and saw all the great photos of your pond! how wonderful!!! i long for a backyard or even a real patio so i can expand and be a little more experimental like that!
I’m so envious, Midge. I used to save seeds religiously, before I moved into an apartment. I even traded them via some online forum, the name of which I no longer remember.
I don’t have space to garden anymore, but seeing flowers go to seed fills me with excitement.
Your pictures are awesome. Thanks for letting me live vicariously!
my pleasure!
yeah, apartments suck for gardening. luckily i live near a community garden, though the plot i have right now is kinda boggy. i’m going to try and upgrade next year.