Save their souls!

Assortment of dry seed pods and husks

And by souls I mean seeds. Seeds, glorious seeds, those little organic packages bursting with all the intelligence and potential for new plant life. I think my fascination with plants stemmed from my initial learnings about the cleverness of seeds. It amazed me that something so small, delicate and lets be honest a bit feeble looking could sit in the ground throughout the cold winter, biding its time until the warmer months when it somehow knew it was time to pop out and start growing. Ignorant in my young age, I now understand a bit more about the life cycle of plants and how their methods have evolved to enable them to procreate and reappear year after year. I'm not going to get all scientific now about the reproductive tendencies of plants because that would make for a very long blog post. I'm focusing on the aptly named self seeding plants which i have so much respect for. These cunning plants - knowing they are sadly not going to survive the frosts of winter - leave behind hundreds of potential offspring at the end of their flowering lives. Although many of these don't make it because they get eaten, rot away or were not properly fertilized in the first place, some survive and go on to germinate when the soil warms up as Spring approaches.  


Broad beans shelled from dry pods

Even though I have every faith in some of my favourite self-seeding flowers (Calendula, Borage, Poppy....) re-appearing each year I make seed collecting an imperative activity. Saving seeds is also a great idea because it means next year you can also start off some plants earlier indoors before planting them out giving them a head start against their brother and sister seeds left in the ground.  It is also great to have a seed bank as a store for the future and also to have seeds which you can swap with others. In terms of vegetable seeds, you can save a lot of money by collecting your seeds (provided they are not hybrid - as these seeds are not guaranteed to have the same characteristics as the ones you planted). You can also pick and choose, selecting the crops that did really well and if you continue to do this year on year you will have plants that are well adapted to their conditions. Collecting seeds also brings you closer to being self sufficient and means you can spend less on buying new seeds each year. 


Plant maracas, poppy seed heads



There is nothing particularly difficult about seed saving, it all comes down to timing. Its best to wait for seed pods to dry on the plant and then collect them and store in old envelopes/paper bags/packets made from newspapers. If you are saving seeds from fruits like tomatoes, make sure to remove all the goopy bits and let the seeds dry out before storing as damp seeds will just rot.



Calendula seed husks and seeds

As many plants are nearing the end of their seasonal life, it is the best time to start collecting their seeds now, so that you can build up a bit of store for next year. It's not just about planting them, seeds also have a many other beneficial uses. Many veg seeds are great edibles such as toasted sunflower and squash seeds make great nutritious snacks. Leftover dry beans can be soaked and cooked up in winter soups and casseroles. Herbs seeds like coriander are also great for using in cooking. I'm also going to use the poppy seed pods as decorations with other dry flowers. 

So when you next venture out into the garden to pick flowers or harvest your veg spare a thought for those little seeds and start stashing them away to begin your own seed bank. In my opinion, it will be this years safest and most enjoyable investment!