FALL GARDEN RESET 🍂 Cleaning Out Raised Beds, Saving Seeds & Fall Containers, by Blackthumbgardener on YouTube. 18 min 6 s.
- Video length
- 18 min 6 s
- Time to do it
- 45 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 7
What you need
Steps
Pull spent annuals and finished tomato plants out of the raised beds. Bin any mouldy or diseased stems and leaves instead of composting them.
Pick marigold heads that are fully dry, brown and papery. Choose a dry afternoon so the heads are not damp with dew.
Roll the dried head between your fingers over a bowl until it cracks open. Pick out the long thin seeds, which are black with a pale tip, and drop the chaff.
Spread the seeds in a single layer on a paper plate and leave them in a dry, airy room for one to two weeks.
Write the flower name and the date on a paper envelope, tip the seeds in, and store it somewhere cool and dark.
Harvest late crops such as small pumpkins before the first frost, leaving a short stub of stem on each one.
Top the cleared beds with a few centimetres of compost, then plant up your fall containers and water them well.
Tips and common mistakes
Only save seed from open-pollinated marigolds. Saved seed from F1 hybrids often grows into plants that look nothing like the parent.
Wet or green seed heads will rot in the envelope, so wait until they are fully brown and dry.
Clean your pruners with rubbing alcohol between plants if you have had disease in the bed.
Label every envelope straight away. Marigold seeds all look alike once they are dry.
Questions
How do I know marigold seeds are ready to pick?
The flower head turns brown and papery and the petals fall away. If the head still feels soft or green, leave it on the plant a bit longer.
Will saved marigold seeds grow the same colour flowers?
Open-pollinated and heirloom varieties usually come true. Hybrid varieties can produce mixed colours and different flower shapes.
How long do saved seeds keep?
Most flower seeds stay viable for two to three years when kept cool, dark and dry. Label the year so you know how old they are.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
