Collect and Swap Your Own Seeds to Save Money in the Garden

Collect and Swap Your Own Seeds to Save Money in the Garden
By Lois Evans
As well as seeds, perennial cuttings, bulbs, trees and shrubs, can all be propagated. You really don't have to be an expert gardener to collect a few seeds and pot them up for next year's display. To save yourself a fortune and get a garden full of fragrance and colour which will attract butterflies and bees next year, start collecting in the autumn. The anticipation and reward gotten from seed collecting is without doubt one of life's real excitements, akin to the first time you lit a fire or passed your driving test. So instead of buying new seeds, which can be expensive, why not collect you own? and you could try swapping with neighbours and friends and get them into saving. Sharing seed swaps can be great fun too.
How to Collect

• Choose a nice, bright, dry day: Look for seed pods which are about to split.
• Using a paper bag invert the whole seed head into it, snip off from the parent plant.
• Store the bags in a cool, dry place, check periodically, and when the seed pods have opened, tip the contents onto a clean dry surface and sort seeds from their casing etc.
• Put seeds in clean, dry envelopes and label.

Some of the easiest to collect and most reliable seeds give the most beautiful flowers. However, there is a real science to seed development, and some seed companies have bred special varieties in order to produce vitality and uniformity. So, the seedlings produced by those plants which you or your neighbour might have in your or his or her garden are unlikely to produce the same properties as the parent plant. Nonetheless if you're happy to save money by propagating with the seeds from plants you already have, you can look forward to a display of possibly a whole set of different colours, sizes and shapes for next summer.
What to Sow
Cosmos- (Cosmos bipinnatus) ~ plant your seeds from March to May. Use a loam based seed compost (bought in any good garden centre, or better still ask friends if they have any left over compost from last year, and swap them some of your seeds for it) When seedlings are big enough, prick out the weaker ones, when your best seedlings are large enough, plant outside where they are to flower, make sure any danger of frosts have passed.
Honesty- (Lunaria annua) ~ again, using loam based compost; sow your seeds at about 1/8in deep, and then cover with a fine grit and leave to propagate in a warm dry place, this can be done from March to June. Honesty forms quite think roots, so pot on into larger pots or outside if warm enough once seedlings are well established and frosts are finished. If you have enough space in the garden you can sow directly where you want seeds to flower, however with the ever menace of scratching cats, rain falling too hard, wind and footfall being a threat, this does have its disadvantages.
Foxglove- (Digitalis purpurea) ~ these seeds are best sown immediately when fresh: try not to overcrowd your seed tray as these chaps are prone to fungal disease. Pot up into large pots when big enough and then grow on through the winter, position in a light, bright, airy place in order to plant out the following spring.
Love-in-the-mist- (Nigella damascena) ~ Sow these seeds March through to April for a stunning, fluffy, cottage garden display which will look great July through to September. When sowing, use a multi-purpose compost and keep damp, placing seed trays in a warm, light place. Alternatively you could either sow seeds in August to September or February to May directly where you wish them to grow.
Sunflower- (Hilianthus annuus) ~ sow these large seeds in individual pots in multipurpose compost from March to May. These plants are pretty tough and reliable and can be planted outside when danger of frost is over.
All you need to do now is sit back and look forward to seeing your efforts at recycling coming to fruition. And as with all newly sown seed trays, don't forget to label, as with the best will in the world you most likely will forget what you have scattered, in those money saving, custom-made, trays of delight.
To learn more about swapping and saving and let us know how you save where you can, why not visit our blog... http://www.qualityswaps.posterous.com/
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