Marigolds

Thousands of marigold seeds! Our marigolds grew like gangbusters next to the pepper plants this year. I harvested the dried flower heads and separated the seeds from the flower. We have more than we need for 2017 planting and to share with our friends! We were also able to save a ton of basil and dill seeds and sand‘andy peas for next year and have enough seed potato to grow a full crop!

I love saving seeds. We brought potato, basil, pepper, mint and a few other seeds with us from North Carolina. We actually dug up potatoes from the ground the day we moved, carried those with us to Georgia, planted those seeds in our first fall garden in Georgia, saved seed from that batch that we planted in 2015 and saved potatoes out of that crop to replant in the spring of 2016. Those are our Ruby Lane Whites and we will plant those same seed descendants in our spring 2017 garden. Not only is it economical to save seeds by not purchasing new seed, but the seeds that came from healthy plants grown in your own garden are custom made to grow and thrive right there in that soil under those same conditions. Those are the things we “brand” as Ramsey Farms produce – the foods that grow from seed that was raised successfully in the previous season.

You can also use dried marigold flowers as a food coloring and light-flavored herb. The marigold flowers we didn’t harvest for seed (as well as the seed pod and dried petals) went to the chickens for a fun snack! They’ll eat up those dry flowers like candy and recycle them into great garden compost. The chickens love marigolds, blackberries, muscadines, strawberries, and pears! Acorns, apples, dried bread, and veggie cuttings are great snacks too, but they sure do love their fruit.