Some seeds

Most of the seed planting I do takes place at this time of year, the fall. And sometimes in the winter, too. It's really a delightful way to go about expanding one's stock of flowers and medicinal plants; calendula, mullein, evening primrose and pansies do particularly well this way, and no doubt there are others. Echinacea, too.

I wander through the garden foraging for seedheads that have matured on the plants and scatter the seeds on the surface of the soil where I want them to come up next spring. No particular care is taken, just a whole lot of fun is had.
Often the seeds land on top of the creeping charlie or I'll hear them pattering onto the violet leaves or the gorgeous yellow, red, brown or burgundy leaves that have fallen from our trees. From there, gravity, weather and little critters will ensure that they'll make it where they need to go. There's no "preparing of soil" goes on, although sometimes, if I'm scattering them in an area that's quite hard packed, or on a bit of the lawn, I'll rough it up a little with my fingers. No tools required.

I had great success recently creating a new patch of deep purple New England asters - so gorgeous in autumn and such a great end-of-the-season food source for bumble bees and butterflies - simply by taking a stem that had gone to seed and tossing it onto an existing bed. Exactly where the asters would come up I couldn't say at the time; as it turned out they placed themselves nicely so that they grew near a wild rose. The purple of the asters alongside the orange-y red of the rosehips is particularly stunning.

(By the by, bumblebees spend the night in aster flowers. Really, they do, and it is utterly charming to go out in late in the day when the flowers are closing and watch the bees muscle their way in, whereupon the petals close up and around them. Imagine spending the night curled up in a fragrant nest like that, rocking in the breeze .. sigh ..yes please!)

When you think about it, my seemingly haphazard method of seed dispersal makes sense. After all, in Nature, seeds (or fruit) drop in the autumn, they overwinter (or they're eaten and deposited) "out there" in the elements in one way or another, and survive perfectly well. In fact, I think I get better germination this way than I've ever had from a packet of seeds that had been kept in "ideal" conditions and I'd planted the "correct" way.

Seeds are very, very interesting things. And I've recently found a couple of articles illustrating just how interesting they are.

The first is about how the seeds of forest floor plants are dispersed by the sequence of actions of three separate critters, all of them essential to the process - it's here. By the way, that is a particularly good blog about medicinal plants, it's worth exploring.

Next is an article of interest to anyone who is a fan of Chaga. No, chaga doesn't have seeds, but it has a whole lot of melanin, which is also an essential part of seeds (the coat). The seed coat does far more than protect the seed. That melanin, it turns out, not only helps the seed to germinate, it improves the soil conditions around the seed as well and .. well, you gotta read this, it's just amazing. Nature is just amazing. The article is here.

Next, for any of you who might be messing about with rosehips this fall, you've probably learned that they are a bit of a pain to work with. (Putting it mildly). The seeds and tiny prickles have to be removed, the critters forced to vacate the premises .. ugh. I found something on a forum, a very nicely done "how-to" (with loads of pictures) from someone who clearly has had a lot of experience with this fiddly but rewarding job. (Rosehips are worth it!!) You can find that here.

We're due for snow here soon .. but it has been a gorgeous fall and my shelves and larder are full of good things so I'm content. I hope you are too. Do continue to keep me up to date on your experiments and adventures, I love learning from my readers.