Joys of Fall

I love the end of summer and early fall harvest. Plants nurtured all through the growing season come to serve a purpose other than a purely ornamental one. Home grown tomatoes and lemon cucumbers brighten my lunches, and peppers become stuffed for dinner. I’m impatiently waiting for an experiment to ripen. I planted Banana Melon seeds for the first time. The large, tapered sixteen inch green fruits are slowly turning yellow. I can’t wait to sample the salmon-pink flesh.

At the Garden, hundreds of children attend the Seed Sense tour and collect seeds to bring back to school. They learn where seeds are found, how they travel, and experience the wide variety of seed shape, size and color. Others will experience the fall with their schools by coming to look at scarecrows and select a pumpkin from the vegetable garden. And on October 3rd, Idaho Botanical Garden members may reap the benefits of a Garden harvest by purchasing seeds collected from the grounds!