Saving Seeds for Next Year

As we bring in the harvest we are starting to see plants in the garden that have finished producing fruit and flowers.  We have let some of the plants 'go to seed' - partly because this encourages lots of different insects and birds to come to the garden to eat the seed, and partly because we want to save the seed from these plants.  If we carefully take good quality seeds from the plants, dry them and save them in a safe dry place then we can plant them next year and get more fruit and flowers - it's a wonderful gardening cycle!   

We took the last runner bean pods from the runner bean plants. The pods had got too big and tough to eat but the beans inside were beautifully big and purple. We carefully took them out of the pods and put them on some paper to dry out a bit, before putting them in envelopes to save in a draw for next year.

We did the same with some lovely Cosmos and Marigold flowers.  We're a step closer to getting a good  harvest and flower show in our garden next year.