Permaculture is about keeping our planet healthy and sustainable. One way I am a bit more sustainable is by saving some of my own seeds. I only grow heirlooms because hybrids will not produce good copies of their parent plant. And most heirlooms taste so good, like the vegies I ate as a kid, not like the cardboard hybrid vegies they sell at the stores. Admittedly, most heirlooms don't have the shelf life or disease resistance of newer hybrids. But most of the diseases I've noticed aren't a problem in my area. And I've learned to cook/process what I grow within a day or 2 of harvesting. I do try some new heirloom seeds every year too.
I lower my carbon footprint a bit. I always keep working on that. There's no long chain of manufacturers creating packaging or using fuel to ship them. Most seeds, not all, stay super viable for at least 3-4 years or longer if I keep them in the fridge. So I only have to let some plants go to seed every year. I grow red, orange, yellow and purple carrots so I just let one color/variety go to seed each year. Otherwise I would just plant them far enough away from each other so they don't cross.
These seeds were grown and harvested on my property. So these plants have been acclimating to my climate for several generations now and will be much healthier and hardier then seeds grown in more temperate climates. And I don't have to worry about bringing in seeds that could be contaminated by diseases or herbicides from outside sources.
To continue a reasonable diversity of genes for my growing needs I always grow seeds from 6 or more plants. This gives me not dozens but usually hundreds/thousands of seeds from each crop I let go to seed. That saves me money $$$ and since I have so many seeds I also use the excess for cover crops to enhance my soil and to make a bit of my own fertilizer and for sprouts and micro-greens. And I get to share them with my local seed bank for others to enjoy.
Lots of seeds are very easy to save from things like beans, tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers etc.. At the end of the season just leave some on the plants until they are super ripe, old and wrinkly for great seeds to save. Some, like my artichokes, I just don't harvest some and they bloom and go to seed which I collect at the end of summer. I leave 6 or more of the biennials (which are mostly root crops and brassicas) in ground. Like 6 broccoli, 6 beets. They spend the winter in the garden and they will bloom in the spring and provide me with seeds the next summer.
Saving seeds is the easiest thing to do, it is almost effortless. I only had a problem one year. In a small bed in the back I had left about 20 red carrots to go to seed. And just behind them there were a dozen purple onions doing the same thing. Carrots generally grow well over 4' tall. Every time I watered I would stand there admiring my strong, vigorous, healthy carrots! I didn't realize until it was too late that a rabbit had gotten into the yard. That little twit ate every single onion right down to the ground!! I didn't notice because they were behind the big, happy carrots. It never touched a single carrot! I don't remember seeing Bugs Bunny eating an onion, ever! The little rapscallion!
And when some of them bloom they are pretty darned awesome and make interesting and unique additions to the garden like....
1 Pretty purple pole beans drying in the fall.
2 Magnificent artichokes bloom in July,
3 Exotic fennel just now setting seed.
4/5 And the blooming leeks that always make me smile.
Happy gardening everyone.
Debbie
