You can save vegetable garden seed and your flower garden seed from some of your better producing flowers and vegetables by collecting them when they are ripe for harvest.
Seeds are ready to harvest when the flowers fade and the tops get puffy. Beans and other plants with pods are ready to pick when the pods turn brown and dry. You need to leave them on the plant as long as you can to mature and dry. But you don’t want to leave them on so long that the birds and other animals eat the seeds.
To dry beans, carrots, corn, onions, peas, herb seeds and most flowers it is best to just leave them on the plant as long as possible. After you pick the pods or blooms finish out the drying process by spreading the seeds in a single layer on a screen for good ventilation in a dry location. For light weight seeds that might blow away, put the whole bloom into a paper bag. You can catch the seeds as they fall out of the bloom.
It is best to plant the seeds that you saved the following year. Sure you can get away with going the second or third year on some plants but your best germination and your best harvest will come from those seeds you use fairly quickly.
In case you missed the last episode Preparing For Fall Bulb Planting.
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