SAVING FOR A RAINY DAY

Saving more of your own seeds not only trims costs, over time it can create varieties perfectly suited to your garden's unique microclimate and soil, as Benedict Vanheems explains

- Benedict Vanheems

Growing your own food is incredibly rewarding, partly because of its unrivalled freshness and taste, and partly because of that immense sense of satisfaction that comes from being a little more self-reliant. Saving seeds takes this self-sufficiency a step further, offering gardeners the chance to save money on the seed bill while closing the loop on the full life cycle of the crop.

Seeds saved from your garden or allotment come from plants grown in its soil and microclimate. These plants have proved themselves capable of being productive in this setting, so when we save their seeds we know that the resulting seedlings are highly likely to thrive too. Repeating this seed-saving-then-growing process over multiple years ensures plants increasingly suited to our unique conditions.

Also known as ‘landrace gardening’, selecting and saving seeds from the strongest, best-performing crops will, in time, create plants with the genetics perfectly adapted to your area – a race of crops tied to your land. As a result plants become hardier, more resistant to common problems and perfectly optimised to your setting. It’s like gardening on steroids!

I save bean seeds from year to year and have had success with tomatoes and peas – all easy to collect and dry and a natural gateway into the seed-saving habit. This year I hope to save more, including some squashes, onions and carrots.

PEAS AND BEANS

Peas and beans are the easiest vegetables to collect from simply because of the size of the seeds, which makes them very straightforward to handle. Leave a few plants to mature towards the end of the season, selecting the most productive vines that have served you well. The seeds are ready when the pods have turned straw brown and are dry and papery.