Greener gardening - seed saving
As more and more flowers are replaced by standing seedheads this month, it’s a good time to get busy collecting their bounty, to reduce the amount you need to buy next year and create lots of new plants for free.
Choose a calm, dry day and have a look around your garden for seeds which might be ready for harvesting; some which might be readily available include sweet peas, foxgloves, cosmos and poppies. You’ll know they’re ready to collect if the seedheads are brown, dry and papery, and often you can hear the seeds inside rattle when they’re shaken (but be gentle – you don’t want to scatter them yet!).
Simply take hold of the seed pod or seed head and snip it off, turn it upside down and shake the contents into a clean, dry bowl or an envelope.
Make sure they’re dry before you store them so there’s no chance of them going mouldy, and don’t forget to label them too, so you know what you’re going to end up with when you sow them. Store your collected seeds in the fridge, or in an airtight container with a desiccant like silica gel.
Many seeds will store well to be sown in spring, as normal; biennials like foxgloves, aquilegia or sweet rocket can be sown straight away. These should germinate fairly quickly and can be overwintered or planted out in autumn to flower in spring.
