hello welcome to Bloomwood farm you
would never believe it from the weather
today it's absolutely gorgeous but it is
the autumn equinox so we are heading
into winter and so what am I gonna be
doing today some seed saving
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so as you can probably see behind me
there are some sunflowers that are going
over so I'm gonna start harvesting those
sunflower heads for a number of reasons
hey I want to be able to grow those
sunflowers again next year as sunflower
plants I want to do some microgreens
using some sunflower seeds
I want to eat some myself and I also
want to use them to feed to my menagerie
of birds Michael Curtiz my budgets and
things like that and there's also some
nicotiana that I want to provost it's
got tons of little seed pods on it and I
need to harvest those now before they
all start popping out of the seed pods
and going everywhere I'm so let's start
with the nicotiana so it has to be said
that the nicotiana has been amazing this
year now it obviously in these sunlight
it doesn't look great because it's one
of those plants that comes out in the
evening you can see the flowers kind of
look like that white one but of an
evening they glow in the moonlight
they're absolutely amazing they have
tons of fabulous scent as well and these
are actually plants they were planted
last year and they savate you can see
they're very woody at the bottom and
there she survived the winter because we
didn't really have a harsh first so but
they have been absolutely amazing but
they're properly now they've done all
this flowering and they're starting to
not look so great they're probably gonna
die off but you can see there are a lot
of little pods on there and these pods
all full of seeds so let us grab some
now the thing about seeds is you need
them to be dry so what I'm gonna do
actually I might just be able to they
just actually come straight off they're
put there and then what we've you need
to put them into cardboard or paper not
plastic because the plastic will then
hold in all of that moisture and then
they'll go mod you can see how tiny
those seeds are now I obviously haven't
got an envelope at the moment so I'm
gonna click them in this egg carton top
and they can just lie around because
even though these are really really dry
they could probably once they've been
picked off the stem they could probably
do with just being sat around on a cot
in a cool place in the house for a
little bit just to completely dry out
these seeds can be sorted from the chaff
and put into an envelope and labeled so
it really is just a case of finding
these and they have dried out ready and
you can see they've already started to
open up so some of these foods are
probably fallen out it's just a case of
pulling them off and you can see the
flour how it flowers it flowers from
here and then the stems grow and they
keep going so it's not a flower that you
need to actually dead hit because they
just keep going up the stem you can see
here we've got some older flowers that
turned to shoot pod and here's some more
flowers and then there's more flowers
right at the top and that's another
reason I love this plant so much just
because no deadheading the quiet and
just goes on and on and on so let me
just take off some of these might need a
pair of sucker tears
it is glorious how you can just actually
I can just twist it and then they're
coming off there we go so just from
these seeds you can you can see just how
many seeds coming out so I will try
these all off in sight all that head
loads and then these will get saved
next you're probably gonna do a few more
colors I've only got white Nicotiana
yeah are you interested in what I'm
doing it's seeds it's not to eat it's
not food no not food so I'll probably do
some more colors next year because I've
just got the white ones so far but they
have been amazing and it's just that
glorious scent at night so I've got
these I'm gonna go and do the sunflowers
so this is a multi-stemmed sunflower
called Helios we actually have some
flowers still up here you can see that
yeah nice and big and we have that sort
of red centre on them they're starting
to go over now and I've left them all in
situ as you can see but they really need
to start coming off now so this seed
head it's pretty ready to go all of
these are individual some class seats
I've got one over here and what happens
is so the flowery bit so that here's the
pol any bit on your flower you can see
the pollen in the middle of the flower
and then they die off as you can see in
this way and then this just rubs off and
the seed are below and I could probably
harvest this now actually and just take
all of this stuff off what I'm gonna do
though is I'm going to take off these
heads and it's literally just the case
of snipping them off get a pair of two's
there we go it's done and then again
what you want to do is you want to take
this inside and because even though it
looks dry you want to take it inside and
just dry out make sure all that moisture
is gone so I'm going to collect a few
more seed pods and we'll go inside and
put in my tray
so I averted a tray of sunflower seeds
this doesn't get direct light which is
why they all consider the orchids quite
like it because it's not direct Sun but
it's warmish and it will just mean that
these will dry out really really nicely
and now most of them as you can see it
are really brittle and I think this
might be an even the first one and you
know when they're really dry because
they start to curl over so that's not
flattening more I start to curl over and
I wonder if we can get some seeds to
come off it it's not there we go so they
are off sunflower seeds which are
wonderful so I'm gonna collect all of
these up and they'll be used both in the
kitchen for me and also for the birds
and but for now I'm just gonna dry these
out here
turn the MOBOT well this one's been
really dry as well you can see it's all
starting to come out already which is
great and these sunflowers have been
brilliant so this is Helios I've had it
in the house and I've used it as cut
flowers and I'm gonna do tons more next
year which is why I want some new seeds
because I'm gonna actually sell those
cut flowers as well because they're a
really pretty plant but they're just
there's so many uses for the seeds
afterwards as well and even if you're
inundated of seeds you can use them in
the winter to feed the wild birds
they'll absolutely love them you can
roast them you can I'm gonna try I've
never tried this but I'm gonna try them
as microgreens as well and just see how
they come up but they just they also
look fabulous I mean I love little
sunflower seeds they look great don't
they it's not gonna focus on it but um
yeah so this is the first haul but there
are tons more agar I've got maybe six
plants and each plant has multi stems so
you get a lot a lot a lot of seeds for
your money
so this is a great time of year to start
all that seed saving so you don't have
to buy more seed for next year I mean
you can do it from your vegetables - I'm
an actually I know this is out of season
this proverb but it long to tell Pierre
on its own I didn't plant it here it's
just been really really wonderful and
it's a beautiful white one and again
these flowers are starting to fall off
now and if you look down here we've got
developing seed pods so again I will
collect these now one thing I will say
about fox club's is they often hybridize
with other species so even though you've
got I bought this white one they may
well not come out white the only thing I
will say is because there is none other
no other ones open in the garden at the
moment is probably that the insects have
cloned it from the same plant that
pollinate it from the same plant so if
these are actually fertile seeds they
probably will come out white so I'm
going to enjoy the rest of the day
because I have a long list of things to
do I hope I've given you some ideas
about getting out and you've got saving
some seed and growing your own plants
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soon bye