Just A Seed: The Life of A Poppy

The life of a poppy seed is short, but very beautiful!

The poppy flower bud.  Little does it know the long journey it is about to embark on!  From bud to flower to pod to seed and FINALLY to our shower.

Poppy flowers come in a variety of colors, including pink!  They can be either double (as in the picture) or single.  I'm not really a fan of the single poppies.  Why would you want a single row of petals when you could have this gorgeous beauty?

Sadly, poppy flowers don't last very long.  So enjoy them while they last! 

After the petals fade and fall the poppy pod stands tall and proud.  The poppy's pod has an important job.  It protects the precious seeds and allows them to fully mature and dry in the safety of its circular shell.  The green pods contain seeds that are not dry.  The green pods are very difficult to open, but once the pods dry to the correct point, little 'doors' at the top of the pod open and the seeds can escape.  A light breeze or a passing human will stir the pods and they scatter their seeds in all directions.  Sometimes the seeds will travel several dozen feet away from the original pod.  The pods act as tiny catapults! 

Each beautifully designed poppy pod holds hundreds of tiny seeds.

These seeds can be collected and planted next year or they can be used in a variety of interesting items, including soap!

The finally step in the life of our poppy seeds: Lemon Poppy Seed soap colored with natural safflower powder.  These little poppy seeds have traveled from bud to flower to pod to seeds and now will work as powerhouse exfoliaters to get our skin smooth.  

In life,

we can only hope to be as beautiful or as useful as the humble poppy seed.  

The Garden That Was - Summer's End 2010

Above is a pic of a salad I made using Zavory peppers from my garden. They are my favorite pepper. They have the flavor of a habenero, without the heat. They are yummy! Usually they don't make it into the house before I eat them.

The following pics were taken Sept. 7th 2010.
The garden doesn't look anything like this right now.
First of all, the flower beds are gone and in their place I have a huge swath of black mud.
Yay for rain, not.
Second of all, most of the garden was hit with frost a couple days ago, so everything is wilted over and dead.

2010's tomato walls were bigger than ever.
However, next year I will plant fewer plants.
I promise.



Flower beds and Catty and Tibby.

More of the garden.

Next year, I will be taking out the bed with the blue chicken in it.

I think I might move the arch.

Once the morning glory started to grow on it, I couldn't see my pond from the house.

Flower beds. All gone. Goodbye flower beds.

Closer view of the tomato walls.

Back view of the tomato walls.

Middle of the garden. Tomato walls.

It's a jungle!

Side view.

Tibby in the jungle.

Chinese 5 color pepper.

Garden Update 5-22-10

The allium and white iris are putting on quite a show.

I wish I had been able to get a picture today before the 45 mile an hour wind blew in!

I'm starting on my patio. I was able to pour one set of stepping stones, before it started to rain.

My new trellis. I put it together myself with my new cordless drill. I love my drill!

This is a light pink poppy. It's HUGE this year!

Vegetable garden.

I hate that stupid shed! It shows up in every picture. No one wants it - I've tried to give it away for free even, but it's too much work to take it apart and move it out of my fenced in yard.