Swapping seeds with friends and other gardeners is a great way to increase the variety of what we grow, as well as a good opportunity to exchange gardening tips. It also saves money because seeds are becoming more expensive. You can grow new plants, pick up ideas about new varieties and vegetables and swap ideas and advice on how to look after them, or even how to cook them.
Here is how it will work:
- Starting from now start collecting seeds from plants that do well in the garden or allotment – vegetable, flower, shrub, herbs…
- Try to collect seeds and seed pods from healthy plants when ripe, as mature seeds contain more food which helps the potential for a high germination rate. The larger the seed, the better!
- Dry them gradually and thoroughly for a couple of weeks and put them into envelope and place them in the box at the back of the church when we can all start to meet freely again.
- Label them with the variety, colour if known, the year you collected them and any special growing instructions.
- If you have any out-of-date commercial packets of seeds lurking at the back of the shed include them as well. Some seeds can keep for several years, under favourable conditions.
- Over the winter, I will repackage them and make them available in small envelopes in January/February.
There will be no charge for the seeds because it is an incentive to grow something – a fresh tomato or courgette, a flower that will attract bees and pollinating insects. For every plant we grow, though, we can then give a tenth of them to next year’s plant sale (tithing is a good Biblical principle). There are lots of websites that give advice on collecting and drying seeds and if you need any help then please contact me at [email protected]
Barry Goodwin (also known as Bazza)
You must be logged in to post a comment.