There is always such a big debate about what is down to nature and what is nurture. I believe it has to be a little bit of both. Perhaps it's as simple as loving doing the same things as the people you love like doing because you get to spend time together being happy. My Grandma and Grandpa both collected seeds at the end of one season to sow for the next season. I used help Grandpa take the seeds out of the runner beans to dry in his shed before we had a big bonfire with the dried plants. Now Charlie likes to collect the seeds with me. He's been carrying around some borlotti beans in his pocket all day after he found the pods that I collected from the allotment earlier this week. My Grandpa took the business of growing runner beans very seriously and his beans were dried on his work bench before being stored in paper bags. In our house, it wouldn't be summer without sunflowers or autumn without the house and garden being covered in sunflower seeds that we've collected. We have so many we store them in glass jars and use them for art work throughout the autumn. So I wonder if harvesting seeds is something that I learnt to do or whether it is part of my thrifty, green nature, I feel that I have to collect seeds even though I could never grow all of them.
Seeds are so full of possibilities and as I picked these fennel seeds pictured above, I wondered what might happen to them. Will they grow into plants? Get eaten by animals? Go in tomato sauce? Become part of a piece of art? Get spilt on the floor? The possibilities are endless and that's what a wanted to share. One of the lovely things about of collecting seeds has to be sharing them with other people.
So if you would like some seeds, please leave a comment with your email address and I will get in touch and send you some. I definitely have more parsnip, sunflower, fennel and aquilegia seeds than I could possibly use and might even be able to spare some sweet pea seeds that are ready to plant this week. I am not really sure about the rules relating to sending seeds abroad though, but I suppose the worse that could happen is that you don't receive them.
Happy Friday
And if you live nearby, would you like a bunch of nasturtiums in golden sunshine colours?
They would brighten any one's day.
Love your blog as usual , I think its half and half, you are probably naturally green fingered and at one with nature but also think that your grandpa taught you alot about seeds . He sounds lovely. Please dont let me win the seeds though because i am not (unfortunatly) green fingered ! I wish i was! My children probably know more about planting than me ! xxx
ReplyDeleteHello Susie. I have been in bed most of the week and offline for even longer so reading your blog has welcomed me back to the world. I would LOVE some seeds please. Could I have fennel and sunflower and sweet peas if you can spare them? In return you can have some lucky dip flower seeds which I collected from all different flowes and put into the same jar xxx
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