Tag Archives: seed saving

Seed Saving

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In 2023, the first year that we were living here, I noticed some sweet peas growing through a front fence as we were walking. Once the flowers were finished and the seed pods fully dried, I picked about 3 or 4. Each year since then I have saved the seeds and replanted them and am blessed with a bumper crop of long-lasting flowers.

The spring was particularly cool this year so the flowers lasted until early December when we had our first real burst of hot weather. The pods were not completely dried by the time we headed overseas in mid-December so I asked the housesitters if they would mind picking the pods once they were dry.

5 weeks later I came home – not only to dried pods but a 1kg bucket FULL of sweet pea seeds. All shelled and carefully saved. Not only had they done that but on top of the bucket was a delightful hand-drawn illustration.

I scanned and cropped the image as I wanted to use it on packets of seeds for other people. There was no way I was going to be able to use 1kg of seeds.

This is a pile of scrap paper from old diaries (2013-2015) that I have been slowly using but I honestly have far more scrap paper and notebooks than I will ever use so I decided to use some to make seed packets. They are A5 size.

I printed the image I had created and then folded the papers to make a small seed packets ready to fill.

How many seeds? I counted out 180 seeds which filled the tablespoon measuring spoon (15ml) so I decided that a tablespoon full of seeds would go in each packet.

Once the seeds were added, I folded the top over and secured it with a piece of sticky tape. I ended up with 46 packets of seeds as well as enough left over for my own garden.

I am planning on selling them for $1/packet at the upcoming garage sale.

It may seem flippant to be writing about seeds and flowers while the world teeters on the brink of a global war. There is not a lot that I can do personally about the escalating conflict, however, no matter what happens around us the plants will keep growing and producing food and flowers in abundance which we can share without being beholden to tariffs, oil or any other commodity.

Saving Seeds

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My vegetable gardening efforts over the years have sometimes involved buying and sowing seeds but have mostly been a matter of buying a punnet of seedlings.

I know that this is not the most sustainable option for several reasons. The seedlings come in a plastic tray and they are often grown in quite different conditions to your location which does not always bode well for their success. Finally, many are hybrids which are not suitable for seed saving as they do not grow true to type.

At the beginning of October, I was fortunate enough to be given some lettuce seedlings by a fellow gardener who lives about 1km away from us. These were very successful for several months until the hot weather and then they bolted as lettuces tend to do in the warmer months. A couple of them grew to almost 1 metre tall with masses of flowers.

GMan was keen to clear out the garden bed where they were so today I checked them and found dozens of seed heads with literally hundreds of seeds. I collected them, rinsed the detritus from them and spread the seeds out on a scrap of calico fabric to dry.

Wish me luck with my first real foray into saving and replanting seed from my own garden. These lettuces have proven themselves very successful in our climate and soil conditions so I am hopeful of reasonable success.

Through a Child’s Eyes

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I mentioned yesterday that this simple living can be darned hard work – gardening, planting, harvesting, preserving, storing and cooking from scratch – not to mention the million and one other things that need to be done.

A sure-fire way to rejuvenate the enthusiasm is to see the ‘chores’ through the eyes of a child.  Our granddaughters stayed here this weekend and spending an hour or so in the backyard with them was a sheer delight.

2011-10-02 01Collecting the eggs.

2011-10-02 02Checking out the onion patch.

2011-10-02 03Splitting open beans to retrieve the seeds.

2011-10-02 04The excitement of finding a bean seed.  We will be letting them dry out and saving to replant.  We have also saved snow pea seeds.  Miss O had fun sorting the bean and pea seeds into separate containers.

2011-10-02 05Helping with the harvest.

There were lots of other things that did not get captured on film.  Pulling up the spent broccoli and cauliflower plants and dragging the up to the compost bin as well as pulling the old snow pea vine off the trellis.

Miss O helped me cook and we made a fruit slice with passionfruit icing as well as currant, orange and poppyseed muffins.  The girls took some muffins home to put in their lunchboxes for daycare tomorrow.

I also managed to get a little sewing done.  2 pairs of shorts are finished.  Here they are on the models.

2011-10-02 06And the second pair.

2011-10-02 07It is a pleasure to see the sheer delight on the faces of my grandchildren when they can help with the jobs we do every day.  I am reminded that what I am doing is ‘right’ and I look forward to sharing many more things as they get older.