This is a photo of a squash flower that magically appeared in an uncultivated part of the garden.   A stray seed may have found its way from the compost pile, or it may have been distributed by birds, like this sunflower.  Alot of things appear around the garden like this: corn, squash, watermelon, sunflowers.

Unfortunately, I’ve gotten in the bad habit of purchasing seeds from non-local suppliers like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s.  The varieties that come in these seed packets are often hybridized, meaning that it is highly unlikely that the progeny seed will perform as well as the original predecessor.

In fact, these varieties tend to perform so poorly that they might not even form a fruit at all.  I’m letting them grow out anyway, in the hopes that I am mistaken.

A gardener that doesn’t produce his own seed is in a weak position, and we depend heavily on the whims of large corporations and their selling patterns.  Although spinach will produce all winter, even in a North facing position, I have yet to see a store selling spinach seed at this time of the year.

Yes, I plan to produce my own seed, but first I have to purchase seed stock from a good supplier.  An excellent candidate is Native Seeds, a non-profit seed bank that has done a wonderful job preserving the germplasm of crops domesticated in the desert Southwest.  Hopefully by next spring I can get started.