:: cool weather garden

I'm working today on my fall/winter planting. I don't usually do this, but before I put my plants in the ground I decided to do a quick layout to decide where I would place them. Using Sketchbook Pro 6  to create my artwork & Carrots love Tomatoes & Roses love Garlic by Louise Riotte as a reference for companion planting I drew up this plan for my fall/winter garden.

So there you have it, my fall/winter garden plans. Now, I'm off to buy some Black Cow & Epson salts to amend my soil & get my plants into the ground before the rains come.

Have a wonderful weekend.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

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:: collecting cilantro seeds

Hello sweet friends, hope this post finds you all well.

Just thought I would pop in & share how I started my morning today.

Well, first I started my morning doing my daily devotionals with my sweet hubby.

Then I headed outside to take care of the gardens before the heat kicked in. It has been one hot summer here in North Carolina, and I'm dreaming of Fall every day now.

Anyhoo I digress. While I was looking around my gardens I decided it was finally time to do something with my fading cilantro. It went straight to seed this year without even one clipping for my kitchen. I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time with it this year, in years past I've had so much I couldn't possibly use it all. Now....n o t h i n g.....here it is shortly after planting....already flowering.

Here they are a few weeks later, turned to seed. To prepare for collecting the seeds I simply pulled the plants out of their pots root & all. 

Here they are before I started to remove their little seeds. Actually, these are quite large as far as seeds go. The seeds of Cilantro are also known as the spice Coriander and can be used as such, or like me you can collect them & use them for starting new plants.

Once I pulled up the plants, I simply held the dried bunch over an open paper bag & gently rolled the seeds between my fingers to release them from the stems. This is very easy to do, however, it is a little time consuming. This is a self seeding plant so at some point they would probably fall off more easily on their own & then you could probably just shake them off into a larger container. However, mine needed a little more help to drop from their stems.

{ c o r i a n d e r }

or

{ c i l a n t r o  s e e d s }

The seeds are so lovely on their own that I can't wait to place them in little jars to store & display them. I'm pretty sure I have some vintage spice jars that will be just perfect for seed collecting.

 So, this is what you do when your cilantro plants bolt straight to seed in the hot weather. You wait patiently, enjoy their flowers & collect their seeds for next years crop. Or you can be like me & try to replant some right before the weather cools just to see if you can get a second crop in during the cooler months to come...they do prefer temperatures between 68 & 74 degrees after all. Wish me luck. 

 I was also able to collect a few seeds from a few of my basil plants that bloomed & seeded while I was on vacation. I'll try to share them with you next time...they are really tiny seeds. I'm becoming obsessed with seed collecting, it's so fun.

{ peace, love & hugs }

Carrie

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:: potager garden

Welcome to my new & improved potager garden. 

The picture below is my end goal, and as you can see we have a ways to go. 

Here it is just the other day, via instagram.

 It's grown a lot in a few weeks, but as you can see I still have some bare spots to fill in.

 {  roma tomatoes }

 { squash }

{ cucumbers }

First fruits, I love this time of year.

How are your gardens coming along?

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

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