Have you ever tried to save your own seed? Have you ever let your vegetables pass their prime and go to flower or seed? Until a few years ago I hadn’t. My first run-in was with some lettuce that bolted (went to flower due to the heat). I had never seen lettuce flower before and I didn’t want to yank it to plant something else because I thought the yellow flowers were beautiful. I was also fascinated how this little leafy plant suddenly went from about 6-7 inches to about 4 feet tall! By the way, once it bolts, lettuce gets very bitter. I don’t recommend it! 🙂
So the following year, while I was getting my community garden plot ready, I let some onions and leeks go to flower in the backyard. Now that is a sight to behold.
In my opinion, the Allium family has some of the most amazing flowers you’ll see in the (vegetable) garden. Now that I’ve seen them go to flower once, I can’t resist letting some go each season. At the time I didn’t really even think about the seed. I just enjoyed the watching the process unfolded. And if you like to watch your pollinators go to town, this is a great way to see it. They love these flowers and can’t seem to get enough. Especially those big bumble bees which are one of my favorites to watch.
Fast forward to this season and I had overwintered some turnips. Well I let the seed pods get a little too dry this spring before cleaning things up to plant tor the season. Well let’s just say I was a little surprised when I saw just how many seeds had fallen when I planted my beans this year!
If you have only grown your vegetables to the point of of perfect edibility, please if you have the space, let something mature full circle. It’s really fascinating to watch. And while you can go online and read a post like this one, I really think you’ll be happy that you took the time to witness it yourself. And more importantly it might just spur your desire to start saving your own seed.
In these two examples, I almost certainly won’t have the original variety of turnip or leek because of cross pollination with other varieties in my and my neighbors gardens (or even wild species). Other plants like tomatoes, beans and peppers can be far easier to start with if you want to save “pure”/non-crossed pollinated seed. But that’s for another post.
Turnip seed pods