A friendly crowd, including new faces and old hands, gathered in Sandford on 8 September to exchange tips and experience on the art of seed saving, and to pack up some seed, ready for our Seed Share in February. Linda Lever gave us a very practical and helpful month-by-month guide (below). We also discussed methods for collection and storage. The whole process was thoroughly demystified. This is an excellent time of year for saving seed, so why not give it a try!

MONTH BY MONTH SEED SAVING

January - join Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library to support the biodiversity of seeds and protect old varieties that can't be sold. Send for your free packets of heritage seeds!

February - Come to our Crediton Seed Share and look out for other local seed swaps

March - Choose your best parsnip plant and let it grow on to produce stunning flowers and lots of seed. Might do the same for any left over carrots and beetroot and also save onion leek and brassica plants.

April - Mark your best early, autumn-sewn broad bean plants for saving. Let some chard/perpetual spinach go to seed.

May - If parsley goes to seed, leave some seed heads to mature. Leave some pods to ripen on early flowers such as nigella and pot marigolds. Sow dwarf French beans for drying to use in winter soups and stews.

June - When rocket, coriander and other early crops start flowering, leave flower heads to go to seed. Start collecting seed from early flowers when it's really ripe eg welsh poppies should release seed when the pod is shaken into your hand, calendular should fall off easily - shake them into an envelope.

July - On a warm, dry day test parsnip and other root crop heads to see if the seeds fall off easily. Collect from fennel and foxgloves and other early flowers. If peas have become too old to eat, leave them to ripen [dry and wrinkled pods]. Leave a lettuce that has gone to seed. Mark good plants of later broad beans for seed.

August - If some French and runner beans get too old before you've picked them, leave them on the plant to ripen - they need to be very dry. Look out for rocket, coriander, etc ripening seed.

September - Save some seed from really ripe tomatoes - just spread a few seeds on to a small piece of kitchen roll or similar and leave to dry out. The whole thing can be laid on the soil/compost for planting. Harvest French and runner beans that have become really dry and the later annual and biannual flowers and perhaps lettuce.

October - Try harvesting seed from ripe squash, courgette, etc, but remember that they tend to cross. Butternut squash might come true, also cucumbers. There might still be some late flower seeds around.

November and December - check that all your saved seeds are dry and looking good. Transfer them to small packets and label them well with type and year ready to plant next year of share with others.

Tips

Make sure seeds are really ripe and dry before harvesting.

Label carefully

If putting bags on plants to catch seeds, wait until they are getting ripe

Don't buy F1 seeds because the plants don't produce viable seeds for next year.

Beans, peas, parsnips, bee friendly flower seed and tomatoes are the easiest so save.