By Jannie Vaught

I would like to recommend a book for those of you who seriously save seeds, beginners or those of us who have saved for generations. Many rules have changed from my Grandparents day. They just grew with experienced know how this wisdom passed along from gardener to gardener often in one family and they simply saved seeds, but we are much more complicated now.

The book is “Saving Vegetable Seeds, Harvest, Clean, Store, And Plant Seeds From Your Garden” by Fern Marshell Bradley. They also have Saving Container Plants and Starting Seeds. These are small books with clear vocabulary and content. This week we will have a look at the pollination of fruit and nut trees. Fruit trees are self-pollinating or require pollination between two trees when they are in flower. This is where the Honeybee is most necessary. There are many pollinators that also do this job, butterfly’s, wind, birds, and even bats. The Honeybee is most noted to many of us and when we sit and observe we will see a highway of visitors going from flower to flower. There are over 4.000 types of bees in the United States. 20.000 known in the world. Here’s a small list. Apples, pears, Asian pears, sweet cherries, some varieties of plumbs and nuts, namely almonds and pistachio. Pecans are wind pollinated. Self-pollinating fruit trees are apricots, nectarines, peaches, sour cherries. Many nut trees need cross pollinating so it is best to plant two of the same type.

Even if the label says self-pollinating and you have poor quality or low fruiting you will need to bring another one in to bring it to a healthier production., I just know that every tree needs a friend. When you decide to plant a fruit or nut tree plant two. This goes for cane berries, blue berries and grape vines. some do not need to be side by side but close enough for them to have the same bees visiting them all. Foe those of us who are now deep into their Fall garden I must say this is a beautiful season and the greens are up almost ready for some harvesting. You still have time to get some garlic and seed onions in the ground. But remember we are getting close to some frosty nights. I have my burlap; frost covers and the water faucets are all wrapped and the faucets covers are setting next to the outlet just in case. I don’t like having to rush around finding what I need for frost protection. A covered tub close by will be a good advantage when the cold comes along.

The cabbage, collards, turnups and other Cole crops are now large enough to withstand some cold. With our warm daytime temperatures, I have had to water, also the feeding schedules showing to be producing some growth. I have worm bins that have a bottom section what has a dispensing tap and this fills with the ever so good worm juice. last week I had 2 gallons that I then diluted and watered with a hand watering can. Very happy plants. For extreme cold I plan on bringing these bins under the carport or garage to keep them from freezing and they are multiplying and I have had to increase their feeding the last few weeks. Wet newspaper, cardboard, some watermelon rinds and alfalfa hay with a good layer of coffee grounds. I had some problems with raiding ants, so I placed the bottom legs in a shallow water tray, it didn’t stop them but it did slow them.

It is a beautiful season to garden.

Growing Green With Jannie