I walked to the local Intratuin garden centre today, to buy a few edible houseplants. Intratuin is on the edge of Park Frankendael. My mission was fruitful; a small banana plant, a Tea plant, Coffee and an Orange. I hope that I’ll be able to provide these plants with the conditions they need to thrive. Will be harvesting just a few young tea leaves in a week or so, if all goes well. I tweeted a photo of the Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) this afternoon, if you’d like a look…

On the way, I found this lovely patch of Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), close to a road so not my usual harvesting location but dry as a bone and bearing thousands of ripe seeds. I stripped about a hundred seeds from the plants in no more than two minutes. It barely made a dent in the number of seeds availableon and as I collected, many were blown away by the wind. I secured my seed harvest within a fold of purse fabric and continued my journey to the garden centre.

Now is a great time to look out for seeds ripening on your favorite plentiful city herbs. I’d love to know if any one else has been quietly collecting a few local seeds. If so, what catches your eye, how are you storing them and what do you plan to do with them?

Hollyhocks are next on my list of sought after seeds. They seem to germinate very easily in the sandy Amsterdam ground, can be used to produce useful home remedies and I think that they are amazingly beautiful.