Seed saving and sowing seeds during autumn and winter

Last week we took part in our first ‘Change the World Wednesday’ challenge. I first read about it on TC’s Live Smart book site.

The challenge, set over on the Reduce Footprints site, was to plant something.

At a time of year when most of us are thinking about more time indoors, infront of the fire, this challenge piqued my curiosity!

However, blessed with lovely weather, we had a great week indulging in a little self sufficiency.

Here’s what we did, here at Chez Green, Much of it was not strictly ‘planting’ something, but it was all related:

• Rescued a very sad looking basil plant from the garden and bought it indoors for an indoor winter herb garden
• Bought in 3 parsley plants and 1 lemon verbena plant
• Dried lots of mint and lemon balm to make tea
• Did some seed saving: fennel, coriander and runner beans
• Planted some kale seeds and are going to get some winter salad seeds; probably lambs lettuce

I found some great resources on my travels around the internet:

1. Monica Miller, The Garden Faerie, is passionate about gardening during the winter.
2. If you’re wondering what you can plant this time of year, Winter Gardening Tips is the place to go for lots of information and ideas.
3. Over on Winter Sown, you’ll find hints about seed saving and sowing seeds during the winter.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what challenge is in store for us tomorrow!

Before I got on the ‘Change the world Wednesday’ scene, people over at Reduce Footprints were busy reducing their syrofoam dependency (polystyrene). Fortunately, we don’t use a lot of that, but have a look and see how they got on:

Connie
Yanic at Adventures into Green
TC at Live Smart Book
Argentum Vulgaris
Elizabeth at Gaia Tribe
Rewinn
Harri Pao