How to save seeds - a 2016 update

I love being able to keep seeds from the vegetables I grow. Some people get upset when their plants bolt and go to seed, but I'm happy because it means I'll be able to save the seeds and sow some more.

Poor Man's Beans seeds that I've saved

I have saved seeds from beans, capsicums, lettuce, mustard greens, tomatoes, parsley, basil, broccoli and spring onions, as well as flower seeds. I keep the seeds in little jars from my Damadi moisturiser and have a cupboard full of tiny jars. I also keep the little sachets of desiccant that come with shoes and other products and drop one in each jar to keep the moisture out.

My seed cupboard is full of little jars of seeds

Drop in a sachet of desiccant to keep the moisture out

Saving seeds from most plants is easy, just let them flower and wait for the seed pods to form and dry out. A few tips for some of the seeds that I regularly save:

Beans and peas - I just leave some large beans on the plant and wait until they're yellow and dried out.
Tomatoes - best to ferment the seeds (that's why they do so well in the compost!).
Capsicums - I just scrape out the seeds, let them dry on paper towel, and tip them into the jar.
Curcubits like pumpkin and melon - also just scrape out the seeds and let them dry (only issue being that they can cross-pollinate over long distances, but that doesn't bother me).
Brassicas like broccoli and asian greens - wait until the seed pods have dried, then harvest the entire plant and pop the seeds out of each pod into a container, then pick out all the bits of pod, you will get hundreds of seeds!
Lettuce and herbs like parsley and dill - wait for the seed head to dry and then shake them into a container and store in a jar.
Silverbeet - this one takes FOREVER to grow the seeds and dry out, so just be patient, eventually you will be able to harvest the dry seeds, which are a very odd shape.

I have far too many seeds to ever use in time, so I give them away to neighbours and friends and at our local produce share. I also scatter them around my garden and they tend to sprout at the right time, this is a concept from One Straw Revolution - letting nature do the gardening. I also found a lot of good information about seed saving in Australia in the book Organic Vegetable Gardening (not an affiliate link).

Do you save seeds? Any tips?

See below for affiliate links to some of my favourite gardening books:

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here . You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!). I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months. I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night. Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things. Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away. Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now. My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together. Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market. Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle). We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...

Neem oil for insect control

** Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post! New soap website and shop opening soon.... I also make neem soap, neem insect repellent and neem salve, all available in my Etsy shop .** A few weeks ago now I was watering the garden just after dark, torch in one hand, hose in the other, when I was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes (mozzies). I could feel them biting me, but there wasn’t much I could do with both hands in use and I really needed to finish watering. When I came inside I found that I had several bites on each leg between the top of my gumboots and the bottom of my shorts. These proceeded to itch, swell and annoy me for several days. At this time of year, when the mozzies start biting, as I do have such a terrible reaction to the bites, I usually reach for my bottle of conventional insect repellent, typically containing DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamid...

Eight Acres

Search This Blog