All the Seeds You Should Save Now for Next Year
Many gardeners strive to save seeds, even if there are good reasons not to do so. If you garden year-round, you don’t always have time to let plants go to seed so you can harvest them because they take up too much space. Additionally, each plant needs to save seeds differently, and you need a place to do this in a way that you can identify and use the seeds later.
But as the cost of seed has risen in recent years, I’ve become even more motivated to save seed where I can. While I don’t intend to leave celery long enough to give me seeds, there are all kinds of plants whose seeds can be easily saved without sacrificing space or a long wait.
It’s easy to steal the seeds from most of your summer vegetables.
During the first year, I grew each tomato from the seeds I saved the previous year. This has two benefits: Obviously I saved a ton of money on seeds. Each package of tomato seeds costs me almost $6 plus shipping. But since I saved the seeds myself, I simply took them from the tomatoes that I liked best and that grew best in my garden. The result is a stronger garden, and it’s as simple as setting one tomato aside and digging up the seeds.
The same can be said for tomatoes, peppers and squashes , including pumpkins . You didn’t want to eat the seeds anyway, so just set one fruit aside and scoop up the seeds.
Some seeds are incredibly simple because the seed is the vegetable itself; we’re talking about peas, green beans, kidney beans or bush beans, soybeans or garbanzo beans . Take the most beautiful ones and just put them aside.
Garlic is a reliable crop that I encourage everyone to grow, but it is very expensive at the garden center – usually around $30 a pound. Instead, simply use some of the garlic you harvested in July as seeds for this year. Take the largest cloves and leave the small ones for use in the kitchen.
Perennial foods have time and space to go to seed.
The above annuals must give way to new crops each season, but my perennials have a permanent home so they are easier to go to seed. In fact, once artichokes, fennel and asparagus sprout, they become magnets for pollinators such as bees. While I harvest the first few artichokes from each plant, I leave the rest to bloom for the bees. When the flower opens, the bright purple choke becomes a place where bees like to sleep at night. Then it will begin to dry out, and what was once purple will become next year’s seeds. Simply cut the flower and then when it’s dry, pull out the seeds, which look like tiny needles.
Fennel will first bloom, producing bright yellow pollen that can be sprinkled on food such as chèvre. These flowers open and eventually develop into fennel seeds. You can eat fennel seeds raw, but you can also store them to plant more fennel.
Asparagus, a spring crop, grows into tall ferns that look like, you guessed it, asparagus ferns. As you get closer to fall, they will eventually grow seeds too. You can harvest them or just let them fall into the soil as they dry. Next year they will lead to the appearance of new plants.
Annual flowers and herbs are the trickiest
Some flowers, such as sunflowers and nasturtiums , make your life easier. Nasturtiums consistently produce seeds (which are delicious pickled) which can be harvested or left to self-sow. Sunflowers do most of the work for you, collecting seeds throughout the season. If you can save the heads from the squirrels, you can bring them inside to dry and the seeds will come out easily. Poppy heads, if allowed to dry, will turn into tiny poppy necks. Just tilt the head down and the seeds fall out.
More expensive flowers, such as zinnias, strawflowers and daisies, take longer. However, allowing a few flower heads to remain long enough to collect the seeds will benefit you if you have the space.
Some herbs, like cilantro , are shoot-prone, meaning they will sprout early in the season and you can easily harvest the seeds. Dill and basil will do this later in the season, but long before frost sets in. Unfortunately, most everything else, from sage to oregano, will have to wait until later in the season. Some herbs, such as rosemary , are perennial and never seem to set seed, while others, such as lemon verbena , take too long to harvest before frost occurs.