SPOTLIGHT ON: STORING SEEDS
If you want to cut down on your gardening bill, here’s a tip that will save pounds – don’t throw away halfempty packets of veg or flower seeds. Store them to use next year.
There’s no point storing seeds that you’ve left out in the greenhouse as the heat, damp and light will have taken their toll. But you can save seeds you’ve kept safely indoors in dry conditions and at a fairly steady temperature. Find a large screw-top glass jar or airtight biscuit tin and pack part-used packets inside, along with any unopened packets. If possible, add a sachet of silica gel to absorb any moisture.
Kept in this way, most veg and flower seeds will come up a year later but don’t expect quite such a high percentage to germinate as usual – it pays to sow them slightly thicker than normal to make up for it.
You can also save vegetable, flower or herb seeds from plants in your garden.
Let the seed heads dry out, then gently separate the seeds from the husks and store inside dry paper envelopes with the name written on the front.
Store home-saved seeds in an inside dry drawer, rather than a jar.
It is worth saving seed from true botanical species such as fennel, dill or chervil, hardy annual flowers and open-pollinated vegetables, particularly