Collecting Seeds For Next Year’s Garden

Seed pods collected in late June: Top: hollyhock, Middle: penstemon Bottom: pansies

A well-rounded Jewish mom really benefits from knowing all kinds of interesting things that she can share with her children! How should you go about acquiring this information?
One possible solution is to visit this blog regularly and pay attention! Along with the crafts and the decorating and the gardening and the cooking I'll do my best to impart to you tidbits of valuable information that you can use yourself and pass along to the little ones! Here goes:

Did you know that the seeds for many flowers, especially wild flowers are contained within seed pods which either grow independently of the flower, or are actually the base of the flower?

The reason I'm talking about this now is that, at least in Eretz Israel, all the beautiful spring flowers are dying back and their seed pods are now dried out and ready for harvesting! Collect now and you'll have the main ingrediant  to start a wonderful garden of spring flowers next year.  Take a walk and see what you can find. Collect only those pods that are golden brown and store separately according to species in paper envelopes.

And remember seeds come in all sizes from quite large to tiny, and the search is part of the fun. A few days ago I even discovered seed pods on my snap dragon plants, and the seeds inside the pods are tiny, like poppy seeds. (And then it occurred ot me, oh right poppy seeds are actually seeds! ) Look for the most obvious seed pods on any flowers that you've seen growing wild, like mallow, morning glory, hollyhock, and foxglove just to name the few that I know of. Just make sure to put your seeds in a place you won't forget, because spring will be here quicker than you think!